The Millie's Story
IT ALL STARTED WITH A CREDIT CARD. AND A PACOJET™.
In 2014, our co-founder & chef, Chad Townsend, was looking to make a career change, so he purchased a Pacojet™ on a whim – and put it on his wife Lauren’s credit card.
A Pacojet™ is a professional kitchen appliance that micro-purees deep-frozen foods to a fine texture to produce luxurious ice creams and sorbets…
…and this is probably no surprise, but Pacojets™ are like really, really, REALLY expensive.
SWEET, SWEET PAYBACK…
Lauren was cool with it (mostly cuz she looooves ice cream) but she made a deal with Chad — it must be paid off by the end of the summer. So Chad began to trial ice cream recipes in their home kitchen to sell at restaurant pop-ups around Pittsburgh (thanks Bar Marco!).
After some buzz, the two of them started a CSA delivery service and every weekend, they’d pack pints, load up their cars, and drive around Pittsburgh talking to ice cream lovers. The support was so incredible and they were often invited into people’s homes to talk ice cream – and drink beers, of course.
Lauren finally kicked out of their home kitchen (there were freezers everywhere!) and together they have now built Millie’s Ice Cream Works™ in Homestead, Penna. to make a little more ice cream with their growin’ squad – and, we may be biased, but it’s truly the best squad in town.
REAL IS DELICIOUS™
We believe the best things in life are real. No artificial relationships, no
artificial ingredients – just naturally perfect ice cream, proudly hand-crafted from start to finish at Millie’s Ice Cream Works™.
Every batch of ice cream starts with fresh milk from Twin Brook Dairy Co. and is churned with the best, in-season ingredients we can find.
Our dairy-free gelatos are made for ice cream lovers. Thick & creamy,
dense & indulgent, without a trace of science-y additives.
This is real food. And Real Is Delicious™.
OUR FAM IS GROWIN’!
As of 2020, Millie’s has grown to 3 brick & mortar retail locations, 4 kiosks, and a food truck — with more shops in the works!
We opened our Shadyside location in 2016, Market Square in 2017, and Lawrenceville in 2020.
Our Pitt kiosk, located in the bookstore on campus, opened in 2019, and our Robert Morris kiosk opened in 2020.
In addition, we have two kiosks managed by our partners — one at My Goodness Market in Regent Square and the other at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort.
Our Food Truck handles all of our off-site catering business --> follow her on IG: @millies_truckgirls.
