Fat Cat Creamery Closer to Opening; Owner Talks Shop

It's likely you may have already tasted Fat Cat Creamery ice cream around town. Black Hole, Revival Market, Catalina and others have sold "minis" or pints from this local, small-batch ice cream company for some time now. Earlier this year owner Sarah Johnston announced that they would be opening a brick-and-mortar shop in the Heights. Johnston says that they'd be ready to open in early November, but—like many upcoming shops—they've faced permit delays and have to wait on the city for final approval to open sometime before the end of this year. The signage is now up at the small shop, and it already looks like a quaint little ice cream parlor.

"Instead of pints and minis we'll be able to do all types of stuff, like the old-fashioned sodas," Johnston tells Eater. "Anvil will be partnering to help make the syrups." Although they're partnering with Anvil, the syrups will be non-alcoholic, since Fat Cat is in a dry part of the Heights. Once open, Fat Cat will offer 10 flavors all the time, five standards and five that rotate. The space will allow them to have a permanent list of novelty items, like bon-bons, self-serve offerings and milkshakes. "We're going to have some amazing fall flavors once open," Johnston says. "We hope everyone comes out."

As far as the name goes, its very personal to the owner. "I'm a crazy cat lady and had a kitty cat who went to Kitty Heaven, and his name was Fat Cat," Johnston tells Eater. In a flurry of recent dessert shop openings, one thing that still seems to differentiate this shop from other large-investor-funded stores is that everything has been family assembled. Johnston's brother drew the cat before they sent it to Spindletop Design, a local company that turned the illustration into a logo for the creamery. When chatting with the owner, Eater remarked that there is a lot of heart in this small startup; Johnston responded, "that's all there is."
· Fat Cat Creamery [Tumblr]
· Fact Cat Creamery [Official Site]
· All Other Fall Tracking [-EHOU-]

Storefront [Tumblr]