Downtown Business Feature: Morton’s Moo Homemade Ice Cream

Morton’s Moo Homemade Ice Cream

May brings with it a burst of spring and a hint to the summer to come: flowers start to bloom, leaves slowly unfurl from tree branches, and the weather fluctuates between rain and sunshine (but luckily no snow). For us in Ellsworth, May also marks the return of something especially sweet – the reopening of Morton’s Moo Homemade Ice Cream.

Heart of Ellsworth sat down with Molly Harding, owner of Morton’s Moo, to learn more about her journey owning this beloved ice cream shop – and to hear what wisdom she's gained along the way.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

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Heart of Ellsworth: So tell me how you started this shop.

Molly: It was started by Sarah Morton back in 2003. . . She started in the small building next door. Then the business grew, so she bought this building and moved it over here. And then at one point, her daughter and husband came back with their really little kids, lived upstairs, and they ran it until 2017. Greg and I bought it in 2017.

Heart: What made you decide to buy it?

Molly: I don’t remember when we discovered it, but I do have photos of my daughter as a young child right outside with chocolate ice cream. My career was as a pastry chef. I grew up in Trenton and went to MDI, but then I lived in many different cities, doing pastry and then I came back here. . . I had a series of jobs, but the hours are really tough when you have an infant. So we started thinking about buying some real estate, and we were looking at a place in downtown Bangor. We were looking at a building to start our own ice cream place. . . I reached out [to Kirsten Henry] by email . . . she wrote back, and was like, “Actually, we just put Morton’s Moo on the market.” She liked the questions that I was asking, so we got together and we had a discussion about it, and that’s kind of how it happened. We ended up buying this in May of 2017. . .

Heart: Wow.

Molly: I’ve done a lot in food and restaurants in my life. I’ve run departments, I know a lot about back of house, but the whole rest of it . . . running a business is a whole other level.

Heart: Did your husband, Greg, have any experience with ice cream shops?

Molly: No, he’s a college professor. A writer and a professor and zero business. I think a lot of couples when they start getting into business, they think, “Oh, this will be my spouse’s job.” And that’s not how it goes. Everybody gets sucked in and it becomes like a family affair. I’m excited because my daughter will be 13 soon. She could actually, like – this could be hers someday.

Molly Harding, Owner of Morton’s Moo Homemade Ice Cream

Heart: So your ice cream is really good. Did you keep the original recipes?

Molly: . .When I bought it, I tried to keep everything exactly the same. That has been my goal – to not mess with the recipes. There have been some tweaks that we've had to do along the way. We did have to change dairies a couple of years ago because the price skyrocketed, but it wasn't even about that. It was more about that we just couldn't get the product. We couldn’t get it, and literally, it was going to shut us down. . . I don’t really know what was going on, if it was the distributor or the dairy. But I was like, we’ve got to switch – which is no small thing. So there was some tweaking at that point of the recipe. We were lucky. [The dairy we switched to] was a very similar product, and we were able to adjust it.

Heart: Would you say that was one of the major challenges you have faced as a business owner – switching dairies?

Molly: It was definitely one of them, yeah. Because when we bought it, I was like – we’re not going to change anything. It’s perfect the way it is. That was my goal. . . I think the shop wouldn’t have survived this long if people didn’t know what to expect. I’ve noticed it this year – there’s a bit of tension in the air generally. So I think opening up this year, people are just — they seem so grateful that we are here.

Heart: Yeah.

Molly: I think it just has to do with people who are sort of craving consistency… like, they know what to expect when they come in here. It’s going to be the same thing that they've loved.  I don’t know if consistency gets the due it should, because we're all into innovation and change. I like to try new things. We’re all creative, we’re all creative here. . . But the essence of it is the same. I’ve tried to maintain that and hope that it’s come through. I mean, COVID — we changed a lot. We were very lucky that we were able to shut this (the indoor shop) down and sell out the windows. People were eating ice cream like you wouldn’t believe.

Heart: Ice cream is a comfort food.

Molly: Yeah, we sold more ice cream during COVID I think that we have since – you know, before and since. But it was a very challenging time. We were pretty new, we had just been doing this a couple of years. We bought the business first, and then bought the building in November 2019.

Heart; Oh, wow.

Molly: Yeah, our entire business plan just went poof. We were just like everybody, just day by day, trying to figure out what was going on. I was trying to keep everybody safe, trying to save our business, trying to keep my kids, my family safe, my staff, muy customers. It was, really, really hard. . . in subsequent years, inflation caused all prices to rise, including energy and running this building. So we decided that we’re not going to try to stay open in the winter, because the winters were never a money maker. 90% of our profit was between May and October, so it was really 10% for the other six months. You’re not making money, just maintaining. The losses became too much, because everything got so expensive. So we shut down for six months, and that was honestly one of the best things that we've done for our bottom line and for our family, for health. And people are – I think, thankfully, people are tolerant.

Heart: So open through May through October?

Molly: Mid October, yeah. So we kept the changes, the changes that we were forced to make, and it actually ended up being very good for us in the end. And if there's a silver lining . . .I would say that I don't know that I would have had the guts to do that, you know, because I was so afraid of making any changes. I was like, no, no, I'm gonna keep it the same. But the world was changing, and we were forced to change with it, and it's actually kept us alive.

Heart: That makes sense.

Molly: There’s not a lot of glamor in the food business. It's very interesting, because I’ve been in it for 30 plus years now, and I’ve been in many different sorts of venues. And early on, there became this era – like the Food Network era – where there was all this glamour. I watched people that went through that, and as soon as they were told to pick up a mop, they were so horrified. I’m like, this is what the job is. It’s glamorous out here, but you go in the back of the restaurant and –

Heart: The dish pit is overflowing –

Molly: It’s not pretty, yeah.

Heart: With that in mind, why do you keep coming back? Or – what makes you excited about this job?

Molly: . . .What keeps me coming back is always… Well, it’s the challenge, the ambition, the perfectionism that workaholics tend to have, but also the creativity of it, the ability to sort of put an idea out there and see the reactions to it immediately. It’s funny, it’s always a mystery. . .

Heart: You hire a lot of students. Noah DiDonato is our current student representative on our board. It was really fun talking to him about working here.

Molly: Yeah, and his brother, Owen. They’re good kids. It’s funny, because this is the first year I have like my almost entire crew coming back from last year. Everybody that's here this year was here last year. . . It’s a good way to get kids in early, and it’s a really interesting thing being like their first job. It’s definitely a responsibility because you have to approach things differently, you know, but they’re wonderful. I mean, I’m lucky to have them. I’ve had some people for seven seasons. It’s wild to see them when they walk in and they're tiny, and then they leave, and they’re so big.

Heart: It’s probably a good way to get community here – their parents, family.

Molly: Yeah . . . I try to make it a pleasant experience, because you don’t want grumpy faces, right? I’m very customer service oriented. You know it’s food, it’s a moment of happiness. . . I like exceeding expectations or at least meeting expectations. . . . a couple years ago when prices were spiking, I was faced with raising my prices by 30 plus percent, all at once. The word that I'm gonna repeat over and over over again is value. So, I was like, I'm not changing the size of my shakes and charging the same. I'm not changing the size of my portions. Don't over scoop, but don't charge more and give them less. I think that that's really important. People will come back and they don't mind paying more if they feel like the value is there, like it tasted good. It was a pleasant experience. The value is really important, so at the end of the day, they're willing to pay more to maintain that value. Don't make it into some other product that you know, feels cheaper.

Heart: That’s an admirable quality – you’re both valuing your produce and what you're providing, but also the customer and you’re treating them with respect.

Molly: I do think, especially with something like food in general, but something like ice cream, it is a comfort. In the truest sense of the word, it's a comfort food.  . . .

Heart: So is there any advice that you would give? Or, the other way to think about this question is, is there any advice that you wish that you had starting a business?

Molly: The advice is that it's more than just a job. . . This is who you are and this will define how your family interacts. Just be prepared for that, the impact that it has on your life, and don’t underestimate that. . . .You know, one thing that I would have liked a little bit more and could still use, is mentorship. Find good people to ask questions. . . . If you can find somebody that you really trust, who has your best interest in mind, definitely reach out. Because especially if you're somebody who goes into this, you're probably somebody who's a workaholic. That's my problem. I've had to learn over the years, I can't do it all. I've got to delegate, you know, find people that I trust and all that stuff. So, don't take it all on yourself, because something's gonna give – you're not gonna be able to do it. Ask for help, and don't burn yourself if you can help it. . . . That would be my advice. Make sure that you've got people you trust that you can talk to.

Heart: My last question is – do you have a favorite flavor of ice cream?

Molly: You know, people ask me this a lot. It’s a tough one, right? I always answer the sorbet, but we are also doing a maple creamy soft serve. . . Maple creamy is sort of a Vermont thing, but I came across it and I was like, I’m going to try that. And now I have it’s really good. We also do a soft serve affogato. We've been making it for years, and now all of a sudden, everyone's asking for it.

Heart: It sounds really good.

Molly: But my personal favorites are the sorbets. I like to mix and match, and just at the end of a shift when it’s super hot in July, August – there’s just nothing better than good sorbet.

Morton’s Moo is located at 9 School St. in downtown Ellsworth.

To find more information, visit https://mortonsmoo.com/