SALT LAKE CITY — Brain Brooker grew up in Virgina and it’s safe to say that from a young age, he was not only surrounded by American History, but he developed a love for it.
“I used to drive through the Manassas battlefield on the way to high school every morning,” says Brooker. “Every field trip was to Thomas Jefferson's home or to George Washington's home. Family weekends were hitting Colonial Williamsburg.”
It was also while he was coming of age that Brooker...like most children... found a love for ice cream, so much so that he went on to study it years. So, it’s no wonder that some twenty years hence, Brooker established one of the most uniquely historical ice-cream shops anywhere in the country, Brooker’s Founding Flavors.
“I kind of combined those two loves to create this ice cream business,” he says. “It's the founding American history, mixed with super premium ice cream and this super premium ice cream product has low air content, high density of cream, and really good quality ingredients. Then we present all of that in a substantive theme of colonial America.”
Each Brookers location is meant to look like a colonial Taveren, with employees in period dress and authentic looking chairs, tables and fixtures. There is even a pillory, if someone gets out of hand.
The theming for Brooker's ties in perfectly with Colonial America because it was in the late 1700’s when ice cream started becoming popular. It was enjoyed by everyone from Washington to Jefferson to Hamilton. But Brooker says it was a First Lady that really brought it to the masses.
“What really did it was Dolly Madison,” he says. “When she was first lady, she kind of opened the White House, where almost every night it was open to the public for dinner, and she would regularly serve ice cream. And so that really kind of brought it to the common man.”
The rest, as they say, is history. So, weather you are looking for Patrick Henery’s Give Me Chocolate or Give Me Death or George Washington’s Indispensable Flavor, or some scrumptious historical flavor in between, Brooker’s has got you covered. And soon, they hope to be covering more of Utah and the United States.
“We're going to take on Ben and Jerry's. Throughout the hippies and put in the Founding Fathers, go national. That's what we're doing. Our mission is to bring an appreciation of America's founding, the universal principles of freedom, liberty, nationwide through the vehicle of ice cream.”
Brooker’s currently has three locations here in Utah, with more on the way. For more information on Brooker’s Founding Flavors, check out their website at brookersicecream.com.
