“Salt & Straw” is the Voodo Donuts of Ice Cream in Portland

Salt & Straw Ice Cream on NW 21st

Portland, August 18th. A Lifestyle Story….You may have heard about this little designer ice cream business with a lines wrapped around the building. At Salt & Straw you can try flavors like: Bone Marrow and Cherry, Chevre with Marionberry Habenero Jam, Sweet Summer Corn Buttermilk Sherbet, and Honey Lavender. Salt and Straw was started by two cousins, Kim and Tyler Malek, who wanted to whip up a farm-to-cone ice cream and in the process have gained national attention from media organizations as far-flung as CBS Sunday Morning Show and Oprah Magazine.

Customers are invited to taste the unique flavors on tiny stainless steel spoons.

Owners Kim and Tyler Malek explain, “Ice cream is handmade in small-batches using only all-natural dairy with the best local, sustainable and organic ingredients Oregon has to offer, as well as imported flavors from small, handpicked farms and producers around the world.”

Salt and Straw owners, and cousins, Kim and Tyler Malek

One Chef inspired flavor from Boke Bowl includes, Kaffir lim leaf and lemongrass ice cream with ribbons of fish sauce caramel

Margaret Devlin, Chad Bledsoe, Noah Lawson, and Liz Van Rossen

This is the Salt and Straw at 838 Northwest 23rd Avenue in Portland. It’s one of three locations for the business.

Here’s a video about Salt & Straw from “Unique Sweets”!

Locations in addition to the shop on NW 23rd include:

Scoop shop at 2035 NE Alberta St Portland, OR | Open 11am-11pm daily | {503}208-3867

Scoop shop & bakery at 838 NW 23rd Ave Portland, OR | Open 7am-11pm daily | {971}271-8168

Ice Cream Pushcart at 3330 SE Division St. Portland, OR | Open 12pm-10pm daily

About Salt & Straw: Our story is part luck, part strategy and part love (for ice cream, family, local foods, and other stuff we can’t mention here). I (Kim) have been wanting to open an ice cream scoop shop since 1996. I thought it would be nice to have a local spot where you could run into your neighbors, celebrate with your family, reward yourself…whatever! And I love exploring fun, interesting new flavors. After toiling away in safe mode working for several amazing Fortune 500 businesses, I moved back to Portland for love and found the window of opportunity and support that I’d been lacking to jump start my idea.

In the mean time, my cousin Tyler had been studying in China and traveling in Asia. He completed his business degree and had just announced to the family that he was going to enroll in Culinary School. I actually saw a posting on Facebook that he was considering moving to Portland and phoned him up…not even knowing about his plans! We traded stories and updated each other – coming to realize we are on similar paths by coincidence. Next thing I knew, I was getting reports from Tyler regarding ice cream tests he was running with his friends and family as tasters. He had a million ideas and wanted to join me in this crazy idea. How could I resist? He litterally dropped what he was doing, loaded up his car and drove to Portland from Seattle to start work as our head ice cream maker the very next day. I would probably be somewhere rocking back and forth in a corner without him. He’s amazingly talented, super smart, hard working, and quite possibly the nicest person ever.

So…I cashed in my 401K, signed a lease, created a custom push cart, and spent days and days in Sarah Masoni’s kitchen (head of R &D at the Oregon Food Innovation Center) creating ice cream recipes. And now, here we are.

We’re hoping to create the kind of company that’s fun to support, work for, and partner with. We’re about building strong local community – both in the neighborhoods where we do business and by purchasing as many local products as possible (to keep our money in Oregon and help create stronger local economies).

But at the end of the day, we just really hope you enjoy the ice cream.

http://saltandstraw.com/

Elisa Klein

I’ve been a professional journalist and writer since 1987, (and long-time reporter for KOIN-TV.) As a nationally published reporter, with a Master’s Degree in Journalism, I love to report positive news and information. Journalism has also connected me with another non-profit where I served as a leader; the Northwest’s biggest writer’s organization: The Willamette Writers.