San Antonio Report
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When Boozy’s Creamery & Craft first opened its doors in Southtown in 2015, very few establishments in the country were serving alcohol-infused ice cream.
“A gal was doing ice cream pop-ups in New York City and there was a bourbon-based bar in Atlanta,” said Boozy’s owner Dani Nickle.
Fast forward to 2022 and the landscape has completely changed. Alcohol-infused ice cream shops, with names like Tipsy Cow and Buzzed Bull, are popping up all around San Antonio.
Nickle views these other ice cream shops not as competition but as opportunities to drive more business to Boozy’s. If people like what they get at those other shops, she reasons, they might be more likely to check out Boozy’s.
Sandwiched between the Sexology Institute and Oh Yeah Cakes at 711 S. St. Mary’s St., Boozy’s offers alcoholic ice cream and a handful of cocktails, served over ice or ice cream. For the underage and teetotaling crowd, Boozy’s always has a couple non-alcoholic flavors.
The menu is seasonal and constantly changing; new flavors and drinks are shared via Facebook and Instagram. Citing trade secrets, Nickle won’t reveal how much alcohol is in each scoop of her ice cream.
Nickle’s journey to opening Boozy’s started with a ten-year plan she made while working for yoga-wear retailer Lululemon — she was part of the team that opened the Lululemon location at the Quarry.
“If I can say anything about [Lululemon], it’s that they have a commitment to educating their employees on all aspects of business,” she said — an education so thorough Nickle said it prepared her to be a business owner.
“I have friends who have MBAs and they have told me I came out of Lulu with more business experience than they did,” she said.
Nickle echoes many entrepreneurs when describing why she wanted to own her own business: being her own boss, she said, would allow her to “manage my life and my work, and be happy in what I’m doing.”
She struggled at first, though, to land on the right business idea.
Initially, her plan was to open a bakery, selling unique cupcakes she created herself. Then for a while Nickle was set on opening a New Orleans style daiquiri bar. She got far enough along with that idea to actually purchase several daiquiri machines, before learning that the City of San Antonio did not allow establishments to sell daiquiris to-go unless they were agave-based (this was before the pandemic prompted a new state law in 2021 that allows alcohol to be sold to go).
She tried creating an ice cream/daiquiri mix that would skirt the to-go law at the time, sharing her efforts with friends and members of the Crossfit gym where she coaches. The feedback? Drop the daiquiri and focus on the delicious boozy ice cream creations.
Nickle sold her daiquiri machines, and Boozy’s was born. The shop opened its doors almost ten years to the day of Nickle’s original ten-year plan.
Like many business owners, Nickle had to be nimble to survive during the pandemic. She would order just enough ingredients for pre-orders, selling them out the front door of her shop. Having a frozen product that wouldn’t spoil was also helpful, she said.
In the beginning, Nickle’s parents made the ice cream, a huge help as the new entrepreneur juggled all her responsibilities, which included the birth of her first son.
“We had a basic recipe and would alter it accordingly,” said Nickle. “When I took over, I shadowed my mom for about six months to write recipes and directions down. I had to pull recipe cards out for [another] six months before I felt confident in just making ice cream. Now I just go with it, the way my mom did.”
She credits her parents and her friends with giving her the support she needs to run a business, home school her two boys and coach Crossfit classes.
“I literally have a village around me,” she said. “But also, one of my strengths is, I’m an arranger. I love having a lot of things going on.”
As an arranger, Nickle adds her personal touch to every aspect of the business. From the unique ice cream flavors she dreams up herself, like Coffee Chaos, Limoncello and Not Your Mama’s Peanut Butter and Jelly, to the “No, we don’t serve vanilla” sign outside the store.
She can be found working behind the counter most nights — the shop is currently open Wednesdays through Sundays, afternoon and evenings — along with her rotating crew of seven employees.
Boozy’s customer Jessica Maldonado Dushock loves Nickle’s ‘just go with it’ approach so much she and her family have become regulars.
Dushock, a self-described foodie, stumbled upon Boozy’s one pre-pandemic night when she and her family were looking for somewhere to have dessert. The positive Yelp reviews and central location initially drew them to Boozy’s, but she said the tipsy ice cream and drinks are what keeps them coming back.
“We went there and we loved it,” said Dushock. Boozy’s had a little something for everyone in the family. Jessica’s mom, who is a big root beer float fan, was able to get her root beer float fix with a float made with real beer, while Jessica’s sister-in-law indulges in the rotating ice cream flavors with different shots.
“The King William” — cream, cinnamon cream rum, coffee vodka, paired with ice cream — is Jessica’s favorite drink. She said it reminds her of drinking horchata as a child, and she orders it every time.
While it’s normally a seasonal menu item, Nickle keeps the ingredients available for whenever Dushock comes in. That customer-centric service, Dushock said, is what keeps her loyal to Boozy’s. She said she and her husband still go there almost every weekend.
Rebeca Gomez is a San Antonio-based writer with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting from Boston University. She is a lecturer and full-time staff member at UTSA. More by Rebeca Gomez
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