Tim Harty, The Business Times 

As of its June 9 soft opening, Third Bowl Homemade Ice Cream is serving super premium ice cream – 16 flavors, including four dairy-free – in Grand Junction at 1059 North Ave.

That likely begs the question: What is super premium? Third Bowl owner and self-professed food-science nerd Kendall Phillips can explain.

“The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) regulates ice cream, because it’s a dairy product, and there are different categories,” she said. “There’s what’s called ice cream, and then there’s premium ice cream, and then what we make is super premium ice cream.”

When ice cream is whipped and churned, air is introduced into it, and while premium ice cream is allowed to be up to two-thirds air, super premium tends to fall between 20 and 50 percent air. Phillips said Third Bowl’s percentage of air ranges from 30 to 40 percent.

So, super premium ice cream is more dense and more creamy, because it has more of the things other than air in it.

In Third Bowl’s case, that starts with making its ice cream from scratch. And Phillips said she means everything.

“A lot of places that call themselves homemade ice cream buy a pre-made ice cream base and add their own stuff to it,” she said, then emphatically added, “We make our base.

“So, we start with milk, cream, sugar, all the ingredients. We’re a fully licensed dairy plant because we make our own ice cream. … And so we pasteurize all of our own bases. We have multiple base recipes, depending on what we’re adding to it, so that we get the texture and everything to be right on everything. 

“And basically, we make everything that goes into the ice cream from scratch as well. If it has cookies, we make those. If it has caramel swirl, we make those.”

Phillips makes a small exception for a few mix-ins, such as Fruity Pebbles cereal or rainbow sprinkles. Otherwise, 

Third Bowl makes its mix-ins.

“In our birthday cake (ice cream), there are rainbow sprinkles, but we bake the cake,” Phillips said. “We make our own frosting, buttercream frosting. We frost the cakes, chop them into little pieces.” 

When it comes to fruit that’s mixed in, it’s from whole fruit.

“We don’t buy any pre-made fruit purees,” she said.

Third Bowl also tries to buy as much as it can from North Fork Valley producers, because its ice-cream factory is in Hotchkiss, and Phillips and her husband, Jason, live in Cedaredge.

All of that probably adds up to an expensive bowl or cone of ice cream, but Phillips isn’t driven by the almighty dollar when setting prices.

“I should be charging more,” she said. “Our product costs a lot more to produce, but I want it to be competitive, and I want – I’ve always wanted a little kid to be able to, like, do some chores and afford an ice cream. And so a kid scoop is $4. It probably should be more, but that’s the fine line.

“And to be honest … it sounds corny, but for real, part of the reason to run a company for me is to try to run it a little different and try to have the people matter more than the profits. Of course, I make money, but I probably make less than I could.

“And so I guess with this pricing, it’s like, I hope to sell more scoops with a lower margin per scoop, than fewer scoops with a higher margin, because fewer scoops with the higher margin means that it’s like elite – it’s only accessible to some people – and I’d rather sell it to most people and make less per scoop.

“I don’t know. I’m not a very good capitalist, if I’m being honest. I’m a great chef, but I’m not a very good capitalist.”

Grand Valley residents can determine for themselves what they think of Third Bowl’s ice cream and pricing by frequenting the retail store, and besides thanking Phillips for the opportunity, they can thank Covid-19.

Yes, a worldwide pandemic played a part in bringing Third Bowl’s store to Grand Junction. That’s because the awful beginning of Covid-19 in Colorado in the spring of 2020 forced Phillips to close the Third Bowl Homemade Ice Cream store she operated in Crested Butte for eight years.

She did a savvy redirect, though, and kept the wholesale operation alive by moving it to Hotchkiss, where the ice-cream factory has been for five years. Business is doing well enough there that Phillips decided to try a retail store again, and Grand Junction was deemed a safer bet than some of the smaller, tourist-economy towns in Western Colorado.

She also knew where she wanted to put the store in Grand Junction, and its proximity to Colorado Mesa University is no accident. Phillips said being near the university was a requirement for Third Bowl’s retail location.

“This just makes so much sense, because it’s a year-round population, and I’ve got the students and the brand name,” Phillips said. “I think this is a great location for what we’re doing. … This is more space than we need, but the location is too great to have passed it up.”

For anyone unfamiliar with Third Bowl Homemade Ice Cream, Phillips thinks they’re in for a pleasant surprise.

“I think when people try it, they can tell almost immediately how different a product it is from something that’s full of all sorts of chemicals to make the mixture hold more air,” she said. “We don’t use any artificial dyes or flavorings. Any flavoring we add, like our mint and our lavender, is all natural. So, I think people can tell right away it’s better. 

“So my hope is that they’ll come back more, and we’ll still be profitable without having to gouge people on the price.”