The owners of the Paradis franchise ice cream shop on Seal Beach’s Main Street have set Saturday, Sept. 26, as the target date for opening their new business.
“Cross our fingers for that,” said Marie Kristensen.
Her partner, Jes Hartmann, said it would depend on the inspection by the Environmental Health Division of the Orange County Health Care Agency.
“I kept hoping to open up this summer,” Kristensen said.
Indeed, the “coming soon” sign on the outside of the former jewelry shop has been up since June. Hartmann said they are from Denmark. According to Hartmann, there a are lot of health and construction codes here that they don’t have in Denmark. Hartmann said there were special requirements when you change a location from a non-food shop to a food shop.
The Main Street site of the coming Paradis shop used to be a jewelry store.
The Main Street shop is the first one that Hartmann and Kristensen have owned.
“So it’s really special to us,” Kristensen said. “And hopefully there is more to come.”
The main issue responsible for the delayed opening appears to be the construction of the disabled access ramp at the rear of the shop.
Kristensen said there was a conflict between the required measurements for the disabled ramp and the size of the ice cream shop.
Hartmann said they couldn’t make the kitchen smaller or the restroom smaller, so they would “take some of the space from the seating.”
Kristensen said they would figure out how to make a cozy space inside the ice cream shop when the construction was done.
Meanwhile, the Seal Beach Paradis owners just got their display case last week, which will hold 16 flavors of the ice cream and sorbet that will be made fresh each day at a central location in San Fernando Valley and delivered to Paradis shops. According to Hartmann, this is different from the Demark process for making the ice cream. There, the ice cream is made fresh in each individual Paradis shop.
Kristensen said the display case weighed 500 kilograms. “That’s like how much a horse weighs,” she said.
The business partners apparently don’t regret their decision to move into the former jewelry shop on Main Street.
Hartmann said it was hard to get a spot on Main Street and he couldn’t ask for a better location on Main Street than the one they have selected.
So they decided to accept the extra expenses required to remodel the jewelry shop into an ice cream store.
Hartmann said they had been looking for a spot since December of last year.
Kristensen preferred an Orange County location. She said they fell in love with Seal Beach. “Such a cozy place,” she said.
She believed it wold be a good place to sell ice cream.
They aren’t concerned about compeititon from the Coldstone ice cream shop.
“Our ice cream is just another type of ice cream,” Hartmann said.
Hartmann said it was like gelato (the European version of ice cream), but lighter and made from milk rather than cream.
The shop will also sell sorbet.
According to Kristensen, all the flavors will be non-alcoholic and the sorbet will be vegan.
Hartmann’s favorite flavor is licorice. Kristensen said her favorite is lime mint.
Even though they missed the summer season, the partners expect to be successful.
“The product sells itself, so we’re not worried,” Hartmann said.
He and Kristensen have been together for five years. She is a former nurse. Hartmann has 15 years of business experience in Denmark.
“This was another business opportunity,” Hartmann said. “And we could do it here together.”
