Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Dolan Dix.
Katie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We started Capannari’s after realizing there was a need in the town – not only for a great ice cream spot, but more importantly a place where families could come and enjoy time together. My husband and I convinced my sister and her husband Jim Capannari, where the name comes from, to move back to the Chicagoland area from Cincinnati and open up shop. We started with our single retail store (the oldest building in our town renovated and preserved by the donation of time and supplies from a multitude of local companies and tradesmen) and over the last eighteen years have expanded into catering and, recently, wholesale. Through it all, we have had the pleasure of working with some of the most dedicated and enthusiastic young adults who really step up and make the company their own. They are the face of everything we do and we are so grateful for how unbelievably hard-working and creative they are every season.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I think in all business you’re going to face both small bumps in the road and massive mountains you have to learn to overcome. For us at the beginning, there was the natural progression of trying to figure out how to best structure the company; which owners were best suited for which roles and how to execute those roles to maximize our staff, our mission, and our product. When our catering division took off we not only had to face how to staff the retail shop and multiple jobs at multiple locations but also how to best transport an insane amount of frozen product all over. Who knew ice cream could be so stressful! For the most part, we’ve been very lucky in how adaptive everyone is at recognizing a problem, developing multiple solutions, and executing them through until everything is running smoothly.
Then there’s also the struggle to not enjoy multiple scoops of ice cream every day. That one we still haven’t quite figured out.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Capannari Ice Cream and Catering story. Tell us more about the business.
Capannari Ice Cream is a small, local ice cream shop with a national reach. We produce only the best gourmet, super-premium ice cream in both classic and niche flavors. Our most popular flavor, hands down, is our Black Raspberry Chip which for the first few years outsold our vanilla. Not to sound too much like a complete ice cream nerd, but that’s pretty amazing in the industry. We’ve been honored as “Best Ice Cream in Chicago” by Chicago Magazine, “Top Ten Scoops in America” by Good Morning America, and “Top Pick, Awesome Ice Cream” by Bon Appetit Magazine. The awards are wonderful, but I’m most proud of what our company has meant in the lives of our staff, especially the young women. We are a certified women-owned business (WBENC) and over 75% of our workforce are women. Being told from past employees that being a part of this company – witnessing our full-timers run operations from the backend, being given full responsibility to open the shop, run promotions, execute catering jobs including driving the trucks, unloading and loading equipment, etc. and everything else we ask of our staff to – has inspired some of them to start their own companies, go after the big seats at larger companies, or walk into a challenge knowing they are fully capable of finding and executing solutions, well, it’s hard to be prouder than that.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
We’re a big believer in providence here which is defined as “timely preparation for future eventualities.” We work our tails off to deliver the best experience and product to our customers and to set ourselves up best go after our future goals, but at some point, a little bit of luck has to fall your way in order to push things along.
Pricing:
- We ship nationally through our shipping partners FoodyDirect starting at $59.99.
- In shop, our products start at $2.50 for a kiddie cone.
- Catering for everything from small family functions to 10,000 employees starting at $4.25 pp.
Contact Info:
- Address: 10 S. Pine St.
Mount Prospect, IL 60056 - Website: www.Capannaris.com
- Phone: (847) 392-2277
- Email: info@Capannaris.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/CapannariIceCream
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Capannaris
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/Capannaris
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/capannari-ice-cream-mount-prospect
Image Credit:
Dark Sea Productions, Capannari_Shop photo – Mike Zarnek
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
