Takeaways

• David and Donella both wrestle with finding the right event size. Too big and you lose the craft and the community, too small and it is not sustainable, so the sweet spot sits somewhere in between.
• Jupiter Moon skipped cookie dough ice cream and Jules' Bistro skips fully organic produce for the same reason: sometimes doing it "right" is not financially viable, and both owners have made peace with that trade-off.
• David recently reversed a longstanding no-samples policy at Jupiter Moon after realizing it was creating friction with a ritual customers expect, and one of his two shop locations still hides the ice cream from view entirely, a deliberate design choice from his user experience background.

Summary of the Episode

In the final part of this conversation on Ice Cream Social, host David Boyer and Donella Westphal, owner of Jules' Bistro, get into the decisions that shape a small business behind the scenes. David talks about the event side of Jupiter Moon, which now ranges from small weddings to massive festivals, including one where Jupiter Moon shares vendor space with Ben & Jerry's and ends up as the cheapest option almost by accident. Donella relates immediately. Jules' Bistro has catered for as few as eight people around a dining room table and as many as 700 vegans at once, and she has spent years figuring out where her own sweet spot sits between those extremes, since going too big means losing the craft that makes the food special in the first place.

That leads into a conversation about trade-offs. David explains why Jupiter Moon does not sell cookie dough ice cream: made properly, it is prohibitively expensive, and the one time he tried it, he lost money on every scoop. Donella shares a similar trade-off at Jules', where she would love to serve fully organic produce but cannot make it financially viable, so she focuses instead on sourcing and handling fruit with enough care that more people can afford to enjoy it.

David then turns the tables with a hot take question: how does Donella feel about sampling ice cream before you order? Her answer is refreshingly direct. She believes in committing to your order, and if you truly do not like it, she will make it right with a full double of something else, no questions asked. That launches David into his own sample story. Jupiter Moon was designed during COVID to keep six feet of distance between the counter and the customer, which made offering samples nearly impossible, so for years the shop simply did not offer them. He recently changed that policy after realizing that sampling had become its own kind of core memory ritual for customers, and refusing to offer it was adding friction to an experience he wants people to remember fondly.

The episode closes on an even bigger reveal about how David designs his shops. Drawing on his day job background in user experience, he explains why Jupiter Moon's St. Joseph location deliberately hides the ice cream from view, forcing customers to make an entrance, read a carefully designed menu board of 20 flavors, and talk to the "ice cream tour guide" behind the counter, while the Munsinger Gardens shop in St. Cloud keeps the ice cream visible for practical reasons, including built-in sneeze guard protection and eco-friendly packaging. It is a fitting close to a three-part conversation about how much intention goes into running a small business that people love.

https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/