Popular Stratford ice cream kitchen celebrates ten years in business
IT’S ten years since Hooray’s British Gelato Kitchen in Stratford opened its doors and our eyes to a whole new world of delicious ice cream delights and the business is about to expand even further with the innovative launch of a home delivery service.
Sasha Barke and her mother Sara Young founded Hooray’s in High Street with the intention of creating artisan - individually handmade – flavours of gelato ice cream, sorbets Belgium waffles, sweet crepes, cakes and cookie dough all of which have proved hugely popular with the public, visitors, families and anyone wanting to celebrate a special occasion.
Imagine having the choice of these delicious ice creams to enjoy at home? Sasha and Sara plan to launch their online ordering service soon which means the joys of gelato will be delivered by courier the next day in special packaging which keeps the contents frozen for over 30 hours.
“During Covid we had to reach out to people and to other places as much as we could,” Sasha said. “We created our Celebration range during this time to add to the 300 different flavours we’ve made since we opened the business. The fun part is creating the ice cream and we make all of ours on site in our kitchen. This summer lemon is in fashion so it could be lemon crumble or drizzle flavoured ice cream. The changes are seasonal which means lemon has replaced salted caramel in popularity.”
Hooray’s is an award-winning independent business which has chosen to celebrate its tenth anniversary by sponsoring a category at this year’s Stratford Herald Business and Tourism Awards in October at the Crowne Plaza.
Sasha and Sara’s success story put them among the finalists at last year’s awards so now they want to use their experience to help other businesses in the Stratford community and are sponsoring the pub and restaurant category at the awards evening.
“This year we are turning ten and want to celebrate that by giving help to other businesses especially if it feels like they’re banging their head against a brick wall at times. We’ll be looking for examples of great customer service in this category. We ask our customers to be part of the Hooray’s experience and have a good time with us. Everything is about service. The product they eat, the welcome and service by staff and their knowledge of ice creams, allergies and preferences. Staff can have a five minute frown in the kitchen but not in front of customers we have to give over and above because people are spending their hard-earned money with us,” Sasha said.
To ensure Hooray’s continues to scoop awards and remain a key part of the Stratford community – to which Sasha and Sara have pledged to always give something back – they look after their customers who have been so loyal to them and other businesses in the town.
Hooray’s also understands the meaning of teamwork.
“We get together and look at new creations, like apple crumble flavoured ice cream, Black Forest gateaux, birthday cake, blueberry cheesecake and chocolate sundae. When staff go on holiday we ask them to look out for ice cream ideas and recipes. In the summer it’s all hands-on deck but we still have our weekly meetings and choose our flavour of the week. Christmas is always busy and we even have a champagne flavoured special for New Year,” said Sasha.
Sara added: “The wooden tables and chairs here are part of our philosophy. We call it the kitchen table experience. When I was little my family always sat round the kitchen table to eat so we want people to come here and enjoy their time together.”
For those who like quirky stats, Hooray’s made 20,000 kilograms of gelato in 2022. Sasha says that’s the equivalent volume as 12 cars, nine and half rhinos, 100 reindeer or 20 million jellybeans.
Bestselling flavours at the moment include birthday cake, rum and raisin, coffee, Eton Mess and caramel but the list is endless and ever changing. There are 12 dairy free options as well such as mango, kiwi, peach, salted caramel and raspberry sorbet.
Sasha and Sara are ideally placed to give their take on what’s going on with Stratford’s current economic outlook.
“We’re chuffed we made it to ten years. The economy is improving and the tourists are coming back,” Sasha said.
