April 30, 2020

Two seasonal businesses that share a parking lot on 41st Street east of Phillips Avenue have opened.

Sub Zero Desserts and Carla’s Flower Farm are both back for their second year next to Your Pet Stop at 501 E. 41st St.

Sub Zero, which sells shaved ice and rolled ice cream from a customized shipping container, has added online ordering for customers who want to avoid contact because of COVID-19 concerns, co-owner Jessica Rooney said. They can pull into the parking lot, and an employee will bring their treats to the car.

All employees are wearing masks and gloves, and the worker handling cash doesn’t touch anything else, she said. Customers can use credit cards too.

“We bought a new register that you put your own card in,” Rooney said. “We tried to take every precaution we could think of.”

Sub Zero removed picnic tables, and she’s hoping to get the property owner’s permission to paint markers on the ground to help customers follow the recommended guideline of 6-foot spacing between each other.

For now, hours are 3 to 8 p.m. daily, “which allows us time to scrub everything down at night. … Come June, we might lengthen the hours, a little bit earlier and a bit later, as the days get longer and warmer, if there’s less COVID.”

Sub Zero has new treats this season, including rolled ice cream cakes. Customers order them online the day before, with different flavors of ice cream and a base of cake — made by The Cookie Jar Eatery — or a crushed cookie or graham cracker crust. The rolled ice cream cakes can be customized beyond the standard offerings, Rooney said.

She’s also experimenting with a popsicle made with Sub Zero’s shaved ice flavors.

“We’re trying to get creative with in-and-out options for those who don’t want to wait around.”

Rooney and her husband, Matthew, started the business almost five years ago with Dakota Snow. Most of the mobile trailer’s scheduled school events and graduation parties have been canceled or postponed, but “we are open to still taking the trailer out to places,” Rooney said. “We ask that people do the same thing – maintain 6 feet between each other and don’t crowd the window.”

They bought a second trailer, but plans to deploy that have been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

On the east side of the 41st Street parking lot, the pop-up greenhouses of Carla’s Flower Farm are filled with bedding plants, succulents, tomato plants and more.

“We enlarged the area, so we have a lot more space, more flow, more social distancing, more plants,” said Carla Michel, who started the business last year with Amy Gaikowski.

“We did bring in more succulents, different varieties that you’ll probably find nowhere else,” Gaikowski said.

A large selection of mint plants will be coming, like “chocolate mint, orange mint,” Michel said. “Especially with social distancing and hanging out at home, we’re thinking they’re going to want some mojitos and some cocktails, so the mints are going to be great for that.”

The locally grown plants will keep coming for several weeks.

“My favorite items are not here yet, the native perennials,” Michel said. “They’ll be coming in the next week or two. A lot of the perennials, we like to wait until later to bring them in so it’s warm enough.”

Carla’s Flower Farm sells hanging baskets and planters filled with flowers too.

“When they first arrived (last year), they weren’t as colorful and ‘wow’ as they are now,” Michel said. That’s thanks to a warmer, sunnier spring, Gaikowski said.

Michel is selling her signature hypertufa planters again this year. She makes them using a mix of Portland cement, vermiculite and peat moss on a chicken wire armature.

“I’ll plant them as time allows,” Michel said. “Most likely, somebody will buy them all before they even get planted.”

Hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Customers who have COVID-19 concerns can schedule appointments to shop before the business opens for the day.

Editor’s note: Jessica and Matthew Rooney are the owners of Sub Zero Desserts. Their last name has been corrected since this article was first published.