When asked to think of a dessert to serve at a charity dinner in 2019, Chris Levesque had the perfect idea, but no way to get it done.
And so, wanting to create his vision of a watermelon sorbet to accompany the BBQ dinner being prepared by Fatboys Southern Smokehouse, he decided to make an investment — one that would return unexpected dividends.
“I bought one of those homemade ice-cream makers, a Cuisinart one, where you freeze the bowl. After the dinner, it was just sitting in my cupboard at home, so I decided to try making ice cream with it. Every week I would bring in a new flavour for people at work and they would try it out. They told people, who told people, who told people,” Levesque told OBJ, adding that he taught himself how to make ice cream by watching online videos.
While his side hustle was doing well, the pandemic forced restaurants, including Fatboys where he worked, to close. Nonetheless, Levesque said Fatboys’s owner Shawn Dawson let him use his kitchen on Murray Street to continue making ice cream and deliver it across town to people stuck at home.
“It was a great opportunity to grow and reach new customers all over,” he said.
As the business started getting its footing through word of mouth, Levesque said it was thanks to social media that his business really took off.
“I would start posting flavours and different things that I was doing on Instagram and people would share it. The Instagram following just exploded in 2020, like a lot of other food businesses around. A lot of people started (food businesses) in 2020 and people were looking for higher-end fun food experiences. Instagram is definitely what brought it to the next level.”
In fact, social media became instrumental to growing his business, Levesque said.
“It’s probably the best way for me to get information out. I have a website and an email list, but the engagement and feedback that I get from social media is way stronger than any other form of contact with customers. It doesn’t compare to being able to just post things to 4,300 people on Instagram … Running a small business, it’s kind of mandatory to be on social media now because that’s how it seems everyone gets their information.”
By 2023, Levesque had left his job to pursue Chris’s Ice Cream full-time, using a shared kitchen on Canotek Road and participating in farmers’ markets to sell his frozen goods.
Continuing to see success, Levesque said he started looking for his own retail space.
“It’s been so hard to find something in the east end of Ottawa. I saw this trailer for sale from a girl that used to make Filipino crepes. It was perfect for what I needed because it was all electric, without the deep fryers and grills you typically find.”
Since 2025, Levesque has been stationed at 3003 St. Joseph Blvd. in Orleans.
“One of the big pluses about getting the trailer was that I was able to do scoops again. That’s what everyone was looking for. At the old retail spot on Canotek, it was just pre-packaged half-pints and full pints and selling those out of a retail freezer,” Levesque said.
Levesque said everything is made fresh, where a batch made today will be available for customers tomorrow. And, he added, customers are usually his inspiration for new flavours.
“One of my most popular flavours now came from (a customer suggestion) in 2020. The Moon Mist wasn’t from this area, it’s an East Coast flavour, specifically from Nova Scotia. I had a customer that had a pregnancy craving for Moon Mist, so her husband sent me a message asking if I could make it. I gave it a shot and when people in Ottawa saw that I was making it, they all started coming, so I’ve kept it on the menu,” he said of the bubble gum, banana and grape-flavoured ice cream.
He also gets ideas for flavours by partnering with local restaurants that want to reduce food waste.
“If there are companies around that have a product that they’re throwing out that could be put in ice cream, I love speaking with them,” he said. “I used to work with a company called Jel & Laura. They made stroopwafels. They’ve since shut down but all the bits that they were cutting off when they were making stroopwafels at markets, I was buying to put into stroopwafel ice cream.”
He’s also partnered with La Confiserie Wakefield for its sponge toffee and Croffalo for its “croffles,” or croissant-waffles.
“It’s a good way to collaborate with companies and make a new product from things they may be wasting to add extra revenue in their slower months,” he said.
While Chris’s Ice Cream is a bootstrapped venture, Levesque said he has five part-time employees and a small army of friends and family to help him out.
“My dad will come in – he’s retired now – so he’ll come in and chop cookies and get labels on containers. My sister will help me at markets and cover if I can’t make it to the trailer. I have a few employees, but I get a lot of help from friends and family along the way,” he said.
With summer typically the busy season for an ice-cream maker, Levesque said he anticipated taking the winter off, but demand has been so high that he is looking at getting a production space to continue pumping out ice cream during Ottawa’s chillier months.
And, within the next five years, he sees himself opening a permanent retail location in addition to the truck.
Regardless of what the future has in store, Levesque said he’s in a business that keeps him going.
“What made me stick with it is just the happiness on people’s faces when they get ice cream, especially in 2020. They’ve been stuck inside all day and here’s the ice cream man dropping off ice cream. People tend to come when they’re having a bad day and want to have a better day or they’re having a good day and want to celebrate. Being in the ice cream business is kind of all about happiness.”
