JULY 202 C urry, ketchup, hot dogs, Guinness beer… no ingredient is too far out for the owner of Scooptacular, a family-owned and run ice cream shop that has opened its second location in Arcadia. Nindi Wadhwa took his love of food, mixed in his love of family, and turned it into a shop that offers homemade ice cream, shaved ice, boba and more. I’m from Ontario, Canada, but ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to live in Phoenix. I’ve always had a fascination with the saguaro cactus and wanted one in my yard. My wife got me one seven years ago for Father’s Day! I love the heat; I love being warm. Even though our summers are miserable, I’ll take that over a Canada winter in a heartbeat. We’ve been here for 16 years. As a kid, I wanted to be an airline pilot. So that’s my full-time job. Back in 2008 I was laid off and I was like, ‘Well, what do I do now?’ Before the ice cream, my wife and I played around with a couple of businesses – we had candy vending machines and a pooper scooper company that we started. After I got laid off, I went back to school and got my Master’s Degree. Near graduation, I was thinking about what to do next. My wife worked at a Starbucks and right next to it was a Cold Stone that went out of business. I’m not sure what we were thinking, but we’re like, ‘it says for lease…let’s give them a call.’ We called the landlord and went to look around, noticing that all the bones were there for an ice cream shop. There was nothing family-friendly in Laveen [where the original location is] at the time, and I had a 2.5-year-old daughter then. I was thinking it would be cool to have a place for daddy-daughter dates. I didn’t realize at the time that owning a business for those dates would conflict because as soon as you walk in the door, you’re in work mode, but I was still thinking somewhere family-friendly. We did some research and found a Yahoo group – I know; I’m dating myself there – of independent ice cream owners. We reached out to a couple companies and got samples, then started talking to a guy out of Kansas City who told us ‘you can make your own ice cream!’ There was a crash course in St. Louis that you can take, so we did that, then went to the guy’s shop in Kansas City – he was awesome. He really helped. A few of our flavors are his recipes that he gave us to use as a foundation. We opened our doors in May 2009. The first time I made ice cream was about a month before we opened. Funny story – I was trying to make the cookie monster flavor. You take five gallons of milk and pour it into the machine to extract it. I pour the milk in, my wife is sitting there nursing our daughter. Well, there’s an extract valve, and I forgot to seal the valve, so I poured it in and five gallons of milk went all over the floor of the shop. The first week was obviously a massive learning experience. You can do it at home! You just need milk, cream and sugar. Add your flavor and freeze it. It’s super easy – it’s more about the ratios. We work with a dairy that makes the ice cream blend for us – milk, cream, sugar, stabilizer, emulsifier – and they’ve been with us for 14 years. Ice cream, of course, which we make ourselves. We also do shaved ice – it’s like kissing a snow angel! We shave the ice blocks and add flavoring on top. We do ice cream cakes, but they’re all ice cream, no cake – two layers with crunchies in the middle. We offer shakes, sundaes, floats, puppy ice cream and cake pops. Some of it is just things that inspire us. The other day, I was watching Food Network and they made a green curry ice cream. I’m thinking ‘oh, I have curry paste in the fridge!’ It’s really a team collaboration. We have a production manager that loves playing with food, so she comes up with a lot of creations, but we play around. We also have customers that suggest flavors – chocolate covered strawberry was one made by a customer. All over the globe. Our vanilla is a Madagascar bourbon blend. It’s about finding the best possible ingredient to really make the flavor pop. Because we work with 14 percent butterfat-cream, you need a strong enough flavor to get it to shine and we’ve got people calling wanting to send us samples all the time. Whatever we can try, we try! Oh yeah – we did a hot dog ice cream. It was disgusting. But it brought in a lot of traffic in. We had kids coming in as a dare to try it. It had chunks of hot dog with a ketchup and mustard trail through it – definitely a no [ laughs ]. That first year, we also did a Thanksgiving one that had turkey ice cream with sweet potato and cranberry. In the beginning it was not the greatest, but now we feature it every year, and in 2012 we had a national story on Thanksgiving morning because of that. We cook an actual turkey, take out the bones and soak them in the milk for a couple days and then strain it. You’d never know there’s turkey in there if we didn’t tell you! with Nindi Wadhwa, owner of Scooptacular Ice Cream 4730 E. Indian School Road • scooptacular.net In the Kitchen Christ Lutheran School Preschool - Grade 8 • www.clsphx.org LC-MS 3901 E. Indian School Rd., Phoenix | www.cclphoenix.org | (602) 955-4830 LOVE GROW SERVE IN-PERSON WORSHIP Traditional Worship 8:00am/10:45am Contemporary Worship 8:30am/10:30am Teaching Service 9:30am ONLINE WORSHIP Sunday @ 8:am/10:30am FB Live or CHRISTCHURCHPHX.ONLINE.CHURCH Nindi, Ava, Alia, Anders and Carissa Wadhwa
LY 2024 Mackenzie Lopez, Sonya Colattur, Cara Schillinger and Abby Pearson with the winning innovation: the EcoPod. PHOTO BY LISA ZUBA By Mark Hays Solving global issues through student- lead projects – that’s the aim of ASU’s llluminate Challenge, a scientific competition that saw a group of Xavier change makers winning first and third place. The Illuminate Challenge is part of Arizona State University’s Luminosity Lab, a project founded in 2017 and spearheaded by the school’s president, Dr. Michael Crow, and the Director of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan. The program aims to integrate a range of scientific disciplines through student-led innovation. Small, loosely structured groups of students and academics develop new ideas focusing on innovation. According to its website, the lab’s fundamental mission is to “be a leading global force in interdisciplinary innovation, powered by an exceptional community of thinkers and doers who blend youthful creativity with advanced expertise.” From this backdrop of science and collaboration comes the Illuminate Challenge, a yearlong scientific competition for Arizona students where teams attempt to tackle an issue assigned by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. Students drafted a 10-page written proposal and a video presentation for the first round. Two of the four Xavier teams participating in the semifinals were chosen for the final. In the semifinal round, the students showcased their projects in a pitch to the judges and audience. During the process, participants gain experience, develop teamwork skills, are mentored by ASU professionals and earn $1,000 toward development. This year’s final round consisted of a series of slideshow presentations, speeches and demonstrations to a panel of judges. Abby Pearson, Mackenzie Lopez, Sonya Colattur and Cara Schillinger won first place for the EcoPod, a small movable garden with solar-powered irrigation systems, programmable sensors, and a built-in composting machine that turns organic food scraps into soil. The foursome plans to place the EcoPod in an elementary school to help introduce composting to younger generations. The winners were each given an iPad and Apple Pencil. “The process of designing, prototyping, and constructing provided us with a supportive and competitive environment, which allowed us to grow in our technical skills and bond as friends,” Pearson said. The school’s third-place team consisted of juniors Aku Baral, Sophia Herget, Anna Johndrow, and Alexis Muirhead, who created a project called EcoDen. This sustainable solar-powered tent features a closed-loop cooling system and aims to offer shelter for homeless individuals. “Watching my students excel and take first place in the ASU Illuminate Challenge is a testament to the power of diversity and the limitless potential within our field,” Computer Science Teacher Leon Tynes said. “Their success showcases their talent and serves as an inspiration for future generations of young women pursuing careers in computer science and related fields.” Xavier takes first and third in annual Illuminate Challenge First off is the team we have. Our manager, Josh, has been with us for six years. It’s really cool just watching them grow and being part of their lives. The other aspect is just being part of the community. When we opened our first store, the economy had tanked, crime was spiking… people thought we were crazy to open a shop. We wanted to be a beacon of hope, a place where you can walk in and take a break from reality. We got involved in the schools, figured out what we could do to help. The ability to make a difference is definitely a perk. The pandemic was a challenge for us – we were able to stay open, but it was the pricing that got us. Labor costs went up; food costs went up; packaging costs went up. I remember one day we were down to our last sleeve of cups and I went online and found a manufacturer, but he was selling them for three times the cost. I think the hardest part of the business is how to balance the costs. The amount of work, effort and return that go into owning a business is not what it’s perceived to be. We’d been wanting to expand for a while now and were searching the Valley. When this spot became available, we checked it out and noticed that Arcadia reminded us of Laveen in that it’s got that small town feel. It feels like its own little community. Our whole MO is family-friendly and community-based, and this area is a great fit. Hanging with my family. My kids are 16, 14 and 9 and they’re awesome. There’s challenges but they’re so fun to be around. My oldest will be in college in two years so that relationship will change. I want to maximize my time with them right now. Both of my girls want to go into the medical industry. What’s tough is that the girls see behind the scenes – there’s always challenges of having your own business and they see a lot of that now, and see it being more of a turn off. They see both the positives and the negatives. Our son wants to be the next Amazon [ laughs ]. He’s got an engineering mind. We’re so much more than just ice cream. We’re excited to serve the community and provide a great experience. Our core values are to be authentic and genuine. We’d like to see store number three in the next few years. We’d love to open more locations, but also we’re hoping to grow our wholesale side. There’s so many spots in the Valley, but we want it to be a family-friendly area.