Nowita

A chat with James, owner with his wife Jill, of Nowita, a recently opened artisan ice cream shop in the heart of Partick, Glasgow.

Nowita, 51 Hyndland Street, Partick- Glasfow @nowita_gla

In another life, I would not be ashamed to work as a paparazzi or as a private detective.

I think that when I listened to the registrations I take of my conversations with business owners I feel the joy of asking questions, listening to them, engaging in the conversation and always asking for more. Never anything too private but I am interested in their stories, what brought them where they are now, their vision and hopes for the future.

So my first question will always be: why you decided to open your shop? And from this point, the scenarios I am seeing are the most different ones. Anna was in logistics, Chris and Laurie have always been in the kitchens, I was ready to start a master in law and I opened Accento Cafe. Life brings you on roads that you would have not imagined before. The same has been for Jamie.

"I worked for an oil company as an instrumentation designer. I was never too happy with it even if I did it for 10 years. Inside I knew it was something I did because it was seen as a good job, well paid too.

So when we went into lockdown something started to change in my head. How can I get out of the job? was one of the recurring questions.

The only way I was seeing it was by doing something for myself. I have always been interested in food, I love food but I never saw myself working as a chef in a restaurant, I did not feel it suited me.

I was looking for an idea. We used to make ice cream for people coming home for dinner, it was something different to do for dessert and everybody loved it. After I started making ice cream for myself, I realized I could not find any ice cream that tasted as good as the one I was making, which motivated me.

And also people start telling me: why don't you sell it? So we said why not?"

There is always a why not before every business adventure starts, there is also a lot of unexpected support from others we can make something. So in this way, Nowita started. I love to hear the beginnings.

"We started then during the lockdown and it grew from there. We started with a little machine in our kitchen that took an hour to churn one liter of milk and then we bought 2 of those machines and still this was not enough. So we upgraded after to a proper machine but it was still too small.

Finally, now we have a professional machine and we can work on much bigger amount of ice cream.

It all grew organically. We indeed started small."

I come from Sardinia, a place in Italy where we have sun maybe 340 per year. But I remember that when I was a child ice cream places used to open only from spring to autumn and sadly closing in winter.

I always enjoyed ice cream in winter time but I guess you hear ice cream is for summertime tons of times right? (Summer in Glasgow tho?)

"You're right. I am always questioning myself if I have done the right thing opening an ice cream shop in the wettest city in the UK but I am positive and we can say winter should be now over. I was pleasantly surprised by the way we stay steady during the winter. Let's hope for the sun."

Glasgow has a long relationship with ice cream. Over a century ago, thanks to Italian immigrants (feeling proud here) only in the Glasgow area there were 336 ice cream shops. So definitely is a product Glaswegians know and enjoy every season of the year.

But I think every ice cream is not the same too. What makes your product unique and different from other places in the city?

"I think the fact we put a lot of time and effort into sourcing all the ingredients is one of the things that contribute to its unique taste.

We try our best to source as many local fresh products as we can.

Our milk is coming from Mossgiel farm for example.

I go to the fruit market and find what is in season, even the most difficult fruit to juice.

In the beginning, I used a passion fruit puree to make this vanilla and passion fruit flavour that was nice and after I bought 2 boxes of passion fruit- juiced all my self- labor of love- he laughs- and it made a much more superior sauce. Using fresh ingredients pays off.

Our vanilla is sourced from a Glaswegian company that produces it ethically in Bali. There are us and other few companies, including some Michelin star restaurants, buying from them. It is a product of excellent quality and produced in the right way, I have never experienced vanilla as good as this.

I think the quality of the ingredients is then reflected in the final product.

I am quite passionate and conscious about the environment and for us, every little step in this direction counts.

Also, we are really critical of the product, we want to be sure this is the best we can do. There is always room for improvement.

I think a combination of all those things makes Nowita ice cream so good."

You opened last year in November but you were already doing markets and your name was out there. People were appreciating your product and kind of expecting you to open a shop. How did you land in Partick?

"It has not been easy! When we saw this unit we were in good company. Over 60 people wanted this shop. But I think we have been lucky to have some elements to bring to the table: we had already started our business and also there were no ice cream shops close by.

So we got keys in May thinking optimistically to open in July but this was impossible, we definitely undervalued the amount of work that the unit needed and also how difficult was to find someone to do the job. So I decided to challenge myself and do it all on my own. No bad result after all he smiles.

Then we bought all the machinery second hand but this did not work as expected. Every single piece of equipment had to be replaced, one after the other. All things you learn on the way!

Also to put a cherry on top of funny things that happened before opening: we were supposed to open on a Friday and of course, we had announced it on social media, everywhere. Tuesday afternoon I went home from here and I came back around 7, by chance. I remember it was raining outside and when I opened the door I had a strange feeling something wrong was going on. There was water running into the shop. The pipework had burst, the shop was flooded. 3 days before opening. Turned off the water, a lot of towels, luckily no damage was made. The plumber fixed the problem the day after.

This was a bit of a challenge and something to laugh about now!"

The response from people has been great. And I think this is encouraging despite the difficult times the industry is going through.

"I am very humbled by the people that come into the shop and by those that we can call regulars now.

It is also really nice to feel part of the community, even in a big city like Glasgow. The neighborhood made us feel so welcome. You know each other and get lovely relationships with other business owners. Cannot ask for more, honestly.

Or maybe yes- a bit more sun!"