We were lucky to catch up with Morgan Calhoun recently and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

We are a family owned and operated business. My sister, Walker Hudzik, and I started Houni’s Italian Ice on March 9, 2020. Our mom helps make all of our homemade Italian ices. Since it is a family business we figured it made sense to name it after our last name Calhoun – so that’s where Houni’s comes from! Mixing business and family of course comes with its challenges, but we’ve learned how to balance it all in a way where each person has their area of strength, and then we get to learn from one another. I think it’s important to remember when working with family that at the end of the day the relationships outweigh everything else. We feel so thankful to have the opportunity to work together on a business that we truly love. Hopefully our staff and customers feel they are part of the Houni’s family as well!

Morgan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In 2019 I was ready to do something different with my career, so my sister Walker Hudzik, and I teamed up together to bring homemade Italian Ice to Greenville, SC! Italian ice was always a family favorite treat growing up and we noticed Greenville had few options for it, so we decided to bring it to Greenville ourselves! What started as a fun idea quickly turned into an operating business as we opened Houni’s Italian Ice 2020 and have been working to continue growing the business ever since.

We have over 40 different rotating homemade Italian ice recipes and flavors from your classics such as mango, strawberry, and lemon to our creamy cookies n’ cream, birthday cake, and peanut butter Italian ices! Our Gelati is the combination of our Italian ice layered with our softserve ice cream. Our softserve ice cream is available in chocolate, vanilla, or swirl. Our “secret” menu item is our Houni’s Freeze which is a delicious blended version of our Italian ice and softserve. We aim to always provide excellent customer service, so that when you come to Houni’s you know you will be greeted with a smile by someone that loves Houni’s as much as we do, and you’re going to walk away with a delicious treat in hand!

We also started an event and catering side to our business that has taken off. We did over 120 events in 2022! We love being able to bring a little joy, happiness, and Houni’s to someones event. We have a mobile cart, a table set-up, and prepackaged event options available. We have done everything from weddings, birthday parties, school events, and employee appreciations, to being the official Italian Ice of the Greenville Triumph Soccer Team!

We are most proud of our customer service and our team at Houni’s! We prioritize friendly service, strong work ethic, and maintaining a positive and vibrant atmosphere for both our customers and our staff. It takes a lot of hard work to keep the business running at the high standard we’ve set in place, and it would not be possible without our team. More than anything, my sister and I want to make a positive impact in the lives of customers, employees and anyone who comes in touch with Houni’s!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

We opened our business March 9, 2020, a week before Covid hit and the world shutdown. We opened in a time when no one should have been opening a business, but who knew that would happen only a short week later? Our entire business existence has been marked by hardship after hardship: covid, supply issues, rising costs, staff shortages, etc… things that significantly impact small businesses and make it difficult to survive. Despite the challenges, we have been able to find ways to sustain, grow, and not give up! It has taken a great deal of creativity, support from our community, and ultimately faith to keep it going. We continue to put our best foot forward by providing a high quality product, excellent service, and hopefully the best all around experience for every customer every time.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

The number of stories I could tell of things that have gone wrong at Houni’s is endless. In the moment it feels as though the world is ending, but looking back we always get a good laugh. Some of my personal favorites always seem to include our softserve machine which is typically the source of our problems. During our first year especially, I was still very much learning the inner workings of the machine.
Let me paint a picture for you… Saturday night in the heat of summer, our walkup line is 30 people deep, our drive-through line is even longer, things were going great, until well they weren’t. I turn around to see softserve pouring out of the machine and making a huge mess! It’s going everywhere, all over the floor. We all panic as customers are waiting for their orders. Then I realize one of the parts has come loose and there is literally no way to fix it immediately. Thankfully we still had all of our Italian ice to serve, but most people come for the combo of ice and softserve so it wasn’t ideal. Let’s just say I took a little walk to the back, shed a few tears, composed myself, and continued on! At Houni’s we always figure out a way and make it work!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hounisitalianice.com
• Instagram: @hounisitalianice
• Facebook: @hounisitalianice
• Other: On our website you can sign up for our newsletter to get the latest information about our new flavors and specials!

Image Credits
Chandler Jarrell, Hannah Lewis