Voices of Lawrenceville: The Purple Cow

Tom and Cindy Pierce sit adjacent to each other at one of the many tables spread throughout the main eating area, the low hum of the freezer creating a soothing rhythm adding to the laid-back vibe of the Purple Cow.   

Tom says, “We opened August 21st of 2010. We found the space first and by the time you get through all the building codes and regulations, finding a contractor, designer and buying equipment it literally took us a year. We thought we would be open in December before Christmas in 2009, but it took us another 8 months before we could finally open. 

“Mornings are the slowest. Over 80 percent of our business happens after five o clock. And when it happens it happens all at once. The weather has a lot to do with it. If it’s a beautiful day people will come out. People usually start coming out after dinner time and will continue to come throughout the evening. Usually we get a lot of kids from the Lawrenceville School which is a reason for our location. Usually after sports end and after classes are over that’s when we see most of the kids. We sell ice cream, smoothies, milkshakes, soft serve ice cream and banana splits." 

Cindy adds, “As the seasons change we try to add new items to keep things interesting.  In the winter time we also tried selling soups. That was well received by people, they really enjoyed them. We get soup from a fresh soup company up in New York. They don’t freeze their soups. Once you get it there is an expiration date and after that date you have to throw it out. This new addition goes in line with our main point of the shop – to sell fresh products. We want to get the highest quality products we can find. Now that summer is coming we will probably add in hot dogs to our menu, just something on the side to bring in. This lets people come in and have a simple meal, with a little dessert. Something quick and easy. 

"The idea of opening an ice cream shop started about ten years ago. We had kicked around the idea a few times. Tom had lost his job at Merrill Lynch; he had been with them for fifteen years. He had gone into real estate in Princeton and still had his real estate license. We had talked about it and we started to think it wasn’t such a bad idea, but just as were starting to seriously think about it another ice cream store opened up in Lawrenceville just on the other side of the Village Barber Shop, Peggy Sues. As it turns out the timing just wasn’t right for us.

Tom: “What we really wanted was to be a part of Lawrenceville, be a part of the community. We love it so much here and we have  been here for a while. We wanted to do something to get out of the corporate world. Flash forward a couple years later and Cindy lost her job; her division of ETS was sold to another company in Minnesota. Her company moved and she didn’t want to make the move with them. We were also thinking that now Katie is older we can devote more time to this place. She’s not in first-grade anymore; she is a senior in high school. That made it much easier to follow through with our plans." 

Tom leans back in his chair: “The really interesting thing is it wasn’t something we were actually really considering doing. We had mulled it over and talked about it but we were driving up the road one day and we saw the For Rent sign on this property, and we thought, ‘Hey maybe this is the time to start doing it.’ Once we saw that sign we were really able to seriously think about it because we were both free and unemployed at the time so we both needed to either start new jobs or start a business. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. Seeing this spot for rent, and looking at the space it just seemed like an ideal location. With seating inside and outside, right across the prep school. Also to be on a busy street there is always traffic going by, and people can see our signs. 

“I always say things happen for a reason, I always say that. And ten years ago it wasn’t the right time. This time thing just kind of fell into place. 

“We wanted to make it a destination, a place for families to come, and where the kids in Lawrenceville can come as well, a place where people want to come and relax, and have good ice cream. We’ve got the front porch and the front lawn. We’re thinking about doing something in the alley way, maybe putting some tables and chairs out there.

"The main thing is ice cream. It is very important to have the best ice cream. We get ours from a small batch manufacturer in Long Island, they manufacture the ice cream for us. They make it 5 gallons at a time, so they are not making tons all at once. We send in an email to the guy we order it from on Tuesday and it’s delivered on Thursday. We have what we like to call  our signature flavor here called Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip. Its purple ice cream with black dots in it. We literally order it on Tuesday, they make it on Wednesday and we get it by Thursday. That’s how fresh it is. I would put our product up against anybody else’s  ice cream. We also try to keep it competitively priced. I’ve seen what other ice cream places pay for their ice cream and we literally pay twice as much for ours but we try to sell it at the same cost as theirs. So we’re not making as much money but we’re hoping to make up for that in quality and volume. 

Cindy stares out the window: “It has changed our lives tremendously, but for the better. Even though we’re here for eleven hours it’s not like were digging a ditch or stuck behind at a desk job we hate. But it’s still a  business and you have to work at it. It’s very pleasant. We have a TV in the back and if there is  nothing going on we can sit down and watch TV for a while. 

 “It’s funny – we both started working at an ice cream shop and we both lost ten pounds. We were so busy we didn’t have time to eat!   Even if it’s a Friday night and the hours say closed at ten if there are still people coming we’re not going to close the doors. So we might be here till 10:30 quarter to eleven, and then there’s clean up. That usually takes about 45 minutes or so. So its 11:00 to 11:30 by the time we get home. That’s a long day. So that means no dinners at home anymore.  There is not a lot of social life, we miss a lot of things. One of the big concerns now is Katie is going off to college and we have to have someone watch the shop while we’re gone. We do have high school employees who help us out during the summer, and we will be looking for more. But we need someone who can manage the kids and be responsible if there is a problem. That’s the person we haven’t found yet." 

Tom agrees: “This really is a great job.  But there are new things we have to tackle. We have to take up life insurance. If there is a problem we’re the only two owners  so we have to fix it. Financially, we  have to be able to make sure we can maintain the business. So there are some stresses we have that we might not have had before. But on the other hand there is a lot of gratification at the end of the day knowing we had a great day because of the effort that we put into it and I think that’s rewarding. 

“People really enjoy us, people tell us how happy they are here. They say  the town really needed a place like this. A lot of our families that come here literally just walk down the hill, there are a lot of neighborhoods behind us. There is an elementary school within a stones throw from here and sometimes on Fridays parents with their kids walk over here for ice cream. So a lot of people enjoy that we’re here. We have pleasant conversations with a lot of people and we have gotten to know a lot of people. People come in all the time - 'How’s it going, how’s your daughter?' People that we never knew before, now we have a connection to.”