We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Audrey Simons a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Audrey, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

A favorite childhood treat has always been chocolate dipped cones. Growing up, the only place to get them was Dairy Queen and if you got lucky, you’d find a location that also offered Cherry or Butterscotch dips. After Nathan graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in 2010, he and I brainstormed various directions his career could lead. One of those ideas was of an ice cream shop with lots of different dip flavors and toppings to really create a unique ice cream experience. Though a fun concept, we didn’t take it seriously and Nathan’s career path led him into fine dining. In 2017, we started Simons Says Spread This, an artisanal nut butter company after a trip to Germany reminded us of the incredible selection of nut spreads we’d each experienced while living in Europe. Friends and family encouraged us to turn our hobby into a business and we started selling our spreads in shops and markets around the Triangle. We discovered during the process of trying the butters with different foods, that when melted and poured over ice cream, they set, similar to Magic Shell. We started thinking maybe our dipped cone shop idea from years ago could become a reality. In 2018, we started writing a business plan, searching the Triangle for the right location, and seeking out a business loan and an architect. That process took about a year. In 2019, the location was chosen and the architect began designing the shop that was originally an empty shell in One City Center. There were a multitude of setbacks, especially once 2020 got underway and the bank was less inclined to work with us. Right at the point when the lease had been signed, the architect and GC had all the permits and we were completely ready to start building, the bank pulled out on us. It took a few months to find another bank willing to grant us a business loan, but once we signed with them in January 2021, construction was able to start the following month.
Our concept offers a new and exciting approach to the universally loved dessert, ice cream! No one else is doing this and we spotted a gap in the market. We knew it was something we could have fun with, something with which we could keep challenging ourselves and avoid stagnation as our careers grow.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We have Vanilla Custard and Vanilla Non-Dairy soft serve ice cream that can be dipped in any of our 24 Belgian chocolate dips and then topped with 21 different toppings that include both house-made items and popular candies and snacks. The dips are all made in house and range from flavored chocolate to dips made from just nuts or just freeze-dried fruit. And the menu is structured in a way that allows our guests to come up with their own combination. A truly customizable dessert! We also offer half-pound stuffed cookies. Six varieties at a time grace our shelves. Each cookie has a different filling, for example, we make a Brookie, which is a sea salt chocolate chip cookie with a fudge brownie center. We can barely keep them on the shelf! And since we have a freeze dryer in the kitchen, we make freeze-dried candies. This process removes moisture from the candy using a vacuum pressure, the candies puff up and have a delicate, crunchy texture; think Jolly Ranchers but with the texture of a cheese puff. I am very much a jack of all trades, and Nathan is a master of one. I run the front of house, do the hiring, training, accounting, maintain the website and social media accounts, handle the marketing, designing, and media correspondence, and play sous chef to Nathan when he needs help in the kitchen. Nathan runs the kitchen, develops recipes, and makes all the products we serve. We celebrated our 15th anniversary the second week Simons Says Dip This was open, and I believe knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and supporting each other in our various roles provides a strong foundation for running the business together. It also helps that we like each other and want to be together each day!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

After writing our business plan and calculating the amount we’d need to get started, we began approaching banks with our proposal. We knew we’d need to put 20% down for the loan, so we compiled our savings, cashed in an old 401K, borrowed some from our parents, and used the revenue from our nut spread business to accumulate what was required. Most banks were reluctant to work with a startup even though we were pledging a 30% down payment, and this was in 2019. After months of searching, we found a bank in Raleigh that offered SBA loans and was interested in our concept. We got approval in late 2019, the location was chosen and the architect began designing the shop, which was originally an empty shell in One City Center in Downtown Durham. There were a multitude of setbacks, especially once 2020 got underway and the bank was less inclined to work with us. Right at the point when the lease had been signed, the architect and GC had all the permits and we were completely ready to start building, the bank pulled out on us. It took a few months to find another bank willing to grant us a business loan, but once we signed with them in January 2021, construction was able to start the following month.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Nathan and I met in Monterey, CA. I’d travelled there in January 2005 to shoot a friend’s wedding and liked the area so much that I sought out a job and stayed. Nathan moved there in July 2005 with his family; his father was in the Navy. We met through mutual friends. We were engaged a week after the first date and married three months later. We remained in Monterey until February 2008, when we moved to Memphis for Nathan to begin training under my uncle, Andreas Kisler, the Executive Chef of The Peabody Hotel. By November that year, we were moving to Hyde Park, NY for Nathan to begin studying at The Culinary Institute of America. I had been working in financial planning in Monterey and Memphis, and continued to do so while we lived in NY. We moved to the Triangle after Nathan’s graduation in 2010, with the intention of helping my uncle open a restaurant in Raleigh, NC. Although that restaurant never came to fruition, Nathan began working at the fine dining Fearrington House Restaurant. We quickly realized that my 9 to 5 and his noon to midnight schedules were not compatible and I made the transition to Restaurant/Hospitality industry, as the financial planning field was no longer fulfilling to me. Our combined quarter century experience in this industry has been quite the education in running a restaurant. I am very much a jack of all trades, and Nathan is a master of one. I run the front of house, do the hiring, training, accounting, maintain the website and social media accounts, handle the marketing, designing, and media correspondence, and play sous chef to Nathan when he needs help in the kitchen. Nathan runs the kitchen, develops recipes, and makes all the products we serve. We celebrated our 15th anniversary the second week Simons Says Dip This was open, and I believe knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses and supporting each other in our various roles provides a strong foundation for running the business together. It also helps that we like each other and want to be together each day!

Contact Info:

• Website: simonssaysdipthis.com
• Instagram: @simonssaysdipthis
• Facebook: facebook.com/simonssaysdipthis
• Linkedin: Audrey Simons
• Twitter: @simonssaysdip
• Yelp: Simons Says Dip This

Image Credits
Audrey Simons is the photographer