The owner of the business called Sugarbeast said he didn’t initially think to open an ice cream parlor in Rexburg.
“My friends own the building, and it used to be Alder, and they were getting ready to close down their operations and they called me, and I was living in Salt Lake,” said Jared Gold, owner of Sugarbeast. “They were like, ‘Hey, do you want to come up to Rexburg and open an ice cream parlor?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know about that.”
Gold said after his friend showed him pictures of the building and its location he reconsidered.
Sugarbeast’s ice cream is made in house with Victorian churns made by the Amish in Pennsylvania. Earlier this year Sugarbeast was voted “Best Ice Cream” in Idaho by Idaho’s Best.
“Winning ‘Best Ice Cream’ and not being open a year was pretty heavy for us,” Gold said. “We were all very delighted about that.”
In addition to ice cream, Sugarbeast has a variety of sweets and savory food items available for purchase.
“Obviously we’ve got the craziest ice cream there is, and we’ve got all these beautiful pastries and candy,” Gold said. “But we also serve an amazing lunch. We make our homemade chicken salad with fresh baked croissants ... and our homemade baked mac and cheese with three cheeses in it, and probably everyone’s favorite are the thick chips, which are these big Yukon gold potato wedges.”
Gold said a lot of his love for homemade sweets and inspiration for the shop’s aesthetic comes from his love of making sweets as a child with his grandparents and his history working in the fashion industry.
To listen to the full interview with Jared Gold, go to BYU-Idaho Radio’s podcast on Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.