After working for seven years as a certified public accountant (CPA), Jared Plummer left his job to pursue his dream and family rooted passion, ice cream. Now, the NC State alumnus has joined the Greystone Village community with his new shop, Two Roosters Ice Cream.
“Looking at our food landscape here, in particular here in North Carolina — I’m from North Carolina, born and raised, lived my whole life here — we have a unique kind of food offering in our state which I think is fantastic,” Plummer said. “It serves as a backdrop to a lot of my flavors.”
It was in 2011 when Plummer started really geeking out about ice cream. Plummer attended Ice Cream University in New Jersey, run by Malcolm Stogo, known as the godfather of ice cream.
“I went up there a couple times and did this kind of intense training and through that, I met a couple ice cream owners,” Plummer said. “I would take vacation time from my CPA work to go and basically work for free at a handful of ice cream places in the country.”
According to Plummer, these friendships allowed him to learn more about ice cream and the ice cream business.
“I think with my business background, going through business school and being a CPA, it’s kind of a backdrop to saying ‘I love making ice cream, can I make a business out of it,’” Plummer said. “That’s the marriage between the creative side to who I am and the business side of my training and education.”
Plummer and his wife shared the ice cream shop dream and began planning and saving up. The food truck was the first point of entry, according to Plummer. Two Roosters crafts a unique image with a 1965 Ford truck, an old-style camper and paintjobs with the signature Two Roosters blue.
“We’ve been running the streets since 2014 and we just opened this brick and mortar July 16 of this year,” Plummer said. “This store is only about two months old. We’re still getting our feet under us but it’s been a great ride. Opening day was more than I had ever expected.”
After moving to Raleigh, Plummer and his wife worked on bridging the fact that they loved Durham but were moving their operation to Raleigh. An opportunity came up with the Durham Bulls, according to Plummer.
“I love the Durham Bulls,” Plummer said. “We love going to baseball. What’s more Americana than baseball and ice cream? There was an opportunity at the ballpark for an ice cream vendor so long story short, we spent this last season having ice cream at the Durham Bulls.”
Two Roosters Ice Cream uses the local food landscape to create their flavors. Some of the regular, permanent flavors include Girl Scout mint, coffee bourbon, blackberry hibiscus and more.
Mallory Schaffer, a fourth-year studying psychology and a worker at Two Roosters Ice Cream, shares what goes into the ice creams.
“The ice cream that we serve is all local and is all made with the highest quality ingredients possible,” Schaffer said. “We get our dairy/ice cream base from NC State and Homeland Creamery here in Raleigh. When Jared has an idea for an ice cream, he piddles with the ratios it would take to make that flavor a reality. Since all of our ice cream is made at the shop, all of the ingredients that go into the ice cream are also put together at the shop.”
Ingredients for flavors are sourced from other local shops as well. The sola cinnamon donut ice cream uses donuts from Sola Coffee Cafe, according to Plummer. The blackberry hibiscus ice cream uses tea from Tin Roof Teas in Cameron Village.
“Our menu has the classics or what I call the regulars, and then there are guests — the guest flavors,” Plummer said. “The classics will be there all the time. They’re flavors that I kind of invented when we first started the truck. A lot of people know about them and they have kind of a history, a story to tell.”
The guest flavors consist of four to six flavors for the month that go with a theme. The September theme is Greystone Village, and each of the five flavors listed represents a business in the area.
“Every month, the guest flavors will change,” Schaffer said. “For example, during the month of September, Jared chose to highlight our lovely neighbors in the Greystone Village area. Choosing the guest favors was pretty simple. He chose a certain ingredient or two that would highlight the type of food or drink that the particular restaurant would serve.”
The story of Two Roosters Ice Cream goes back to Plummer’s family. The name Two Roosters comes from two wooden roosters that were above Plummer’s grandmother’s door. Plummer would go to his grandmother’s house to make homemade ice cream with old rock salt machines on the front porch.
“That family experience was very visceral for me and such a formative time,” Plummer said. “I had an incredible childhood. So thinking about the storytelling of a brand and the name, it’s just quirky enough that people will remember it and it makes people ask the question ‘where does the name come from’ so it’s really fun for me to tell my family story.”
Two Roosters continues to serve the community with its food truck, ballpark location when in season and new permanent location.
“Two Roosters is different from any other ice cream place, but not just because of our ice cream,” Schaffer said. “Two Roosters is different because of the people I have the pleasure of working with and because of the community we serve.”
Jared Plummer, NC State alumnus and Two Roosters Ice Cream owner, hands a customer a scoop of cookies and cream ice cream at the Two Roosters Ice Cream shop in Raleigh on Sep. 12. After working in the world of accounting, Plummer decided to open an ice cream food truck called Two Roosters. After the success of the food truck, Plummer and his wife Kelsey opened their physical location in July.
