VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Sundae Scoop opened its doors in 2022, and Philip Harrell hasn't looked back.
Harrell said he and his wife were done with their nine-to-five work lives when they decided they needed a change. He said they wanted to open a business, and his wife suggested ice cream, and in his words, "the bug was planted."
"You can't even talk about ice cream without smiling," he grinned wide. "It's just one of those things where it brings families together. People are rarely on their phones," he was talking with passion.
Passion is something they instill in their ice cream too. They make each flavor in-house. "You got to have the chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, but then you also want to have something that's going to be super unique."
They have unique flavors like Maple Bacon Cornbread, Pumpkin Spice and Tumeric, Purple Sweet Potato, or Ube, Apple Pie, Peach Cobbler, and Banana Pudding, just to name a few. "We've made over one hundred flavors just last year alone and still counting," Harrell added.
He says keeping a business open is no easy task, but he wants to show his children and people who look like him that it's possible.
He also wants to show veterans that they can open a business too. Harrell retired from the Army before opening this spot. "Being in the Army definitely gave me the belief that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to," he said.
Right now, he's putting his mind to ice cream. "Selfishly, I do this for myself, so I can see people smile and spread that joy and enjoy it with them," he said.
When asked if there was anything else he wanted to add, Harrell gushed over how amazing the Kempsville community is.
"This doesn't have to work. People don't have to walk in that door. But every day that I open that door, somebody will walk in, and they will come and support us."
And it doesn't look like there's an end in sight for Sundae Scoop, "I will keep going with Sundae Scoop as long as we make people happy," Harrell added.