Eighteen years ago, budding entrepreneurs Jerry and Naomi Hancock had a problem. The burrito business they’d opened in Orem was not covering the rent. They needed another product, something more to sell, a side hustle, if they wanted to stay open.
They had an empty space next to the burrito shop and decided to ask their customers what they should offer next door. The overwhelming response was ice cream.
Jerry went to a local ice cream maker to see about getting product for an ice cream shop but was discouraged from doing so. He was advised there were already too many traditional ice cream stores in Utah County (where ice cream practically qualifies as a vice).
If you do anything, it’s got to be unique, it’s got to be different, Jerry was told.
About this time, Naomi, Jerry’s wife, was reading a copy of Popular Science Magazine — a not unusual publication to have lying around the house because Jerry was a chemistry major in college.
An article caught her eye about chemists making ice cream using liquid nitrogen.
She showed it to Jerry. Jerry’s wheels started to turn. He talked to his chemistry professors at BYU, who told him that it was relatively easy to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen, but it wasn’t tasty ice cream. It wasn’t anything you’d want to sell commercially.
But what if …? thought Jerry.
He started experimenting. Through trial and error, mixed with his chemistry know-how, he found the perfect ratio blending liquid nitrogen with liquid flavors and ingredients to produce perfectly textured ice cream that was tasty. Better yet, the process took about 30 seconds. A customer could witness their order come to life in less time than it would take to dig a scoop out of a conventional ice cream tub.
He and Naomi called their new product Sub Zero Ice Cream and started selling it next door. The burrito business soon died out, but not the ice cream. They’ve been in selling liquid nitrogen ice cream ever since.
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On their 18th observance of National Ice Cream Day earlier this month, the Hancocks sat down in their store on Center Street in downtown Provo to talk about the unexpected life they’ve carved out based on a natural gas — nitrogen — that liquifies at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit and freezes anything in its path.
“We knew nothing about ice cream,” says Jerry. “We just wanted to make something different.”
At BYU, Jerry majored in chemistry but his real goal was to be a salesman.
After graduation, he filed away his chemistry degree for safekeeping and started selling other things — from software to The Living Scriptures to an eyeglass retainer he developed and patented.
After that came New York Burrito.
“I knew from the start he wanted to own a business,” says Naomi, “I was fine with it. I knew that was who I married.”
Then, quite unexpectedly, his chemistry training resurfaced.
He became a mad scientist again, an ice cream alchemist.
It was in 2005 that Sub Zero assumed its unique niche in the ice cream world and started to slowly grow. Every year new franchises were added.
Then came Episode 414 of “Shark Tank” in January 2013.
Jerry and Naomi appeared on the prime-time TV show, making their pitch to the sharks, asking for a $300,000 investment in exchange for 12% of the business.
To sweeten the deal, they made liquid nitrogen ice cream in front of the sharks and gave them all a sample.
All five sharks proclaimed the ice cream very tasty, very creamy.
But all declined getting involved with the business. The main reason they cited was the same one Jerry heard when he’d contacted the Utah County ice cream maker: the ice cream business was too crowded.
Mark Cuban was the last shark to say “I’m out,” but he followed with, “I will eat some more of your ice cream.”
Even though they failed to gain an investor, the Shark Tank appearance proved to be a huge shot in the arm for Sub Zero. Millions watching the show across the country were introduced for the first time to liquid nitrogen ice cream and to the reactions of the sharks enjoying the samples. Sales soared. New franchises were sold.
Today there are 30 franchises in locations around the United States, including five in Utah.
“We’re still growing,” says Naomi.
“I think the draw is the experience,” says Jerry, “being able to watch your ice cream made right before your eyes. That’s exciting, it’s entertaining. That never gets old. They said we should do something different. Well, we did something different.”
