Freeze Frame

Running the Wandering Cone Creamery, an ice cream shop that opened recently in Wilmington’s Soda Pop District, is a balancing act for owner and founder AMANDA CASSELLA. Cassella, who is the shop’s primary ice cream maker, still works a full-time marketing job, sometimes taking conference calls in the back of the shop between batches of ice cream. Her goal is to eventually run the shop full time.

Two months before the shop opened at the end of May, Cassella was diagnosed with leukemia – she is currently undergoing treatment for the blood cancer.

“I get so emotional about it because I didn’t step back,” she said recently about opening the shop. “I literally didn’t know if I was going to be here a couple months ago, and to see this dream become a reality and just be able to enjoy it every day has just been so amazing. I’m thrilled to be here doing this.”

Opening an ice cream shop has been a long time coming for Cassella, who worked in an ice cream shop as a teen growing up in Connecticut.

“I had so much fun working there and doing it,” she says. “My mom’s first job was in an ice cream shop, and she loved it. My brother joined me at the ice cream shop – it was like a family thing.”

After graduating from college with a marketing degree, Cassella worked in corporate America until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. She lost her job and her husband’s job went remote, so they decided to sell their home in Connecticut, buy an RV, and travel around the U.S. for a year with their two-year-old daughter in tow.

Cassella found out she was pregnant with her son while they were on the road, and the couple decided to settle down. They chose to return to Wilmington – a place they had visited on the RV trip – about two-and-a-half years ago.

Shortly after the move, Cassella was offered a job in Florida. Not wanting to uproot her family again, she turned it down, but her husband jokingly suggested she do her own thing, Cassella says, and start a business.

“It just snowballed from there,” she says. “It kind of started as a joke, and now we’re here doing it.”

She explored starting an ice cream food truck but eventually settled on a brick-and-mortar concept, signing a lease for the space in the Bottle Works building at 921 Princess Street last July.

“It was a blank canvas,” she says, “and when we came in it was just the old warehouse building.”

Cassella worked with a contractor to do much of the heavy lifting required to upfit the space, but she also worked closely with friends and family to add personal touches. Cassella’s dad and a neighbor built the shop’s ice cream bar and its furniture, and Cassella worked with friends to create a vision for the shop’s interior, including wallpaper personalized for the ice cream shop’s brand.

“I wanted people to walk in here and just automatically smile,” Cassella says. “And I feel like the design and the look and the colors just kind of emanate that joy.”

Cassella’s travels – including her family’s RV trip – are the inspiration for the ice cream shop’s name and many of its flavors, which are divided into Locals – permanent flavors – and Visitors – rotating flavors. The permanent flavors include Caramelized Banana Nutella, the shop’s best-seller, and Cassella’s favorite Mint Stracciatella.

Cassella makes each batch of ice cream at the store, using a mix of cream and sugar to create a base before blending in ingredients to create each flavor.

To make the Caramelized Banana Nutella, a flavor inspired by Drift Coffee’s French toast (a family favorite), she roasts bananas with brown sugar before pureeing them into her cream-and-sugar base. After an initial batch freeze, she adds in swirls of Nutella.

Each batch requires a multi-day process of mixing and freezing before it’s ready for the case. While Cassella is the shop’s sole ice cream maker, she’s currently training some of her staff. The shop also makes its hot fudge, whipped cream, and waffle cones from scratch, including fresh gluten-free cones that can be difficult to find, Cassella says.

Each month, the Visitors menu features a new slate of flavors. June’s Visitors were inspired by the Cassellas’ journey to Wilmington while July’s were farmers market-inspired.

“I’m taking inspiration from everywhere,” she says. “I get inspiration from things I’ve eaten, from places we’ve been, and I kind of just make it.”

To view more of photographer and stylists Drewe & Kate’s work, go to dreweandkate.com

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