Marsha Gayot, co-owner and chief flavor creator at Bubs & Gracie’s Ice Cream and Cookies
Grape-Nuts, Guinness caramel, rum raisin, coconut ginger: These are the Jamaican ice creams Bubs & Gracie’s Ice Cream and Cookies co-owner and chief flavor creator Marsha Gayot grew up on. Her husband, Emmanuel, is of Haitian decent, so Marsha created cremas ice cream to remind him of the holidays — it’s similar to eggnog, but spiced with star anise, cloves and cinnamon. Coffee, kulfi (a dairy dessert from India) and ube (purple yam) ice creams nod to the backgrounds of neighboring businesses in Chesterfield’s 360 West Shopping Center.
“We’ve been in this building since 2007. We know the community. This used to be my barber school,” says Emmanuel, a smile rippling across his cheeks. “I’m complicated,” he adds, laughing, “just ask my wife.”
“Definitely,” Marsha replies. “Anytime people find you and you cut their hair, their next words are, ‘Where’ve you been all my life?’”
The wackiest flavor at Bubs & Gracie’s must be KOE, or Ketchup on Everything. This New Zealand-style soft serve consists of vanilla ice cream merged with ketchup, which is then aerated, squeezed into housemade waffle cones and served with potato chips on top for dipping. It’s the flavor the Gayots created almost three years ago at Penn State, where they took the university’s ice cream course.
“We learned by doing,” Emmanuel explains. “We made ice cream at home, watched a lot of YouTube videos, read and took an introductory course at Penn State, like the one that Ben and Jerry took [by mail] when they started.”
The Gayots are the shop’s sole employees, but their community impact is vast. They don’t have customers, they like to say — they’ve been serving family since 2022. The couple makes it their business to get to know everyone who walks in. They start by asking about a visitor’s day, then find out food preferences while offering samples of their best-selling bites. Guests hug the Gayots and inquire about their kids; they even cooked dinner for them when their youngest daughter was hospitalized.
“We have two special-needs children, Bubs and Gracie. Ketchup on Everything, that was inspired by Bubs,” Marsha says while wiping down the ice cream case. The Gayots parent four children; Gracie has a lesion on her 13th chromosome, and Bubs has autism and Down syndrome.
Emmanuel Gayot at Edify Cuts & Shave Parlor in Short Pump
Emmanuel’s resume is as long as the list of flavors offered at the ice cream shop (25). Mr. E, as he is known, owns Edify Cuts & Shave Parlor in Short Pump, which he’s converting into a barber school. A master barber and instructor, he has taught incarcerated men at the Richmond City Jail to cut and shave so they have job skills upon release. Recognizing the importance of Emmanuel’s contributions, in 2021 then-Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration appointed him to the State Board for Barbers and Cosmetology. Between the barbershop and the ice cream parlor, the Gayots work seven days a week, but Emmanuel also finds time to sit on the board of the Virginia Down Syndrome Association.
“I am a businessman who just happens to be a barber,” Emmanuel says. “My work is personal. Not everything works. I started a beauty supply store next door [to the barbershop]. It was successful, but one day my wife stopped coming to work. She didn’t want to do it anymore.”
Bubs & Gracie’s began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when both barbershops were closed. The family had no income, so the couple decided to diversify. Seeing a need in the community, they converted their South Side barbershop into an ice cream parlor with unique flavors made from whole milk, eggs and cream, with oat and almond milk bases for vegans.
“There’s lots of competition in Richmond … they’re all good,” Marsha says. “We had to be different. Rather than seasonal flavors, I wanted to do regional flavors. That’s what’s missing. What I was raised on in New York, raisins soaked in rum for rum raisin, crunchy Grape-Nuts softened by vanilla. That’s a New England thing as well as a Jamaican thing. I talked to other business owners and asked them what they missed. Our coffee ice cream is made from brewing Cafe & Sabor’s coffee into a concentrate. Ube ice cream was suggested by a Filipino restaurateur. It’s our most popular flavor.”
Some combinations come from necessity, she adds. Marsha invented blackberry mimosa sorbet when the shop’s electricity went out and everything in the refrigerator had to be used — quickly.
Not all the flavors are exotic: Bubs & Gracie’s freezes vanilla, strawberry and chocolate, too. The Gayots’ eldest children like cookies and cream and “burthday” cake. Pancake-sized, chewy peanut butter cookies are stacked for ice cream sandwiches. Some scoops are simply creative, such as Sweet Peeps ice cream at Easter or jelly doughnut ice cream for National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.
“Everybody likes ice cream. That’s our plan. One day we hope to take Bubs & Gracie’s national, just like Ben & Jerry’s and Häagen-Dazs,” Emmanuel says with a chuckle.
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