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64 SUMMER 2016 K KEENELAND.COM getting the scoop T he largest and highest-profle handcrafted ice cream business here, Crank & Boom, is an only-in- America story of entrepreneurship and communalism. Like Sav's Chill, it originated as a dessert option in a restaurant — owner Toa Green's Thai Orchid Cafe on South Broadway near the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Green — her given name was Vipavee Toa Veer- asethakul — was born in Kentucky. Her father, Kat, and mother, Suda, emigrated from Thailand to attend Kentucky graduate schools and opened Smile of Siam restaurant in Frankfort in 1990. Green grew up working in her parents' restaurant. After graduating from the University of North Caroli- na with a journalism and mass communications de- gree in 2004, she was marketing coordinator for Hab- itat for Humanity in Lexington, spent three months with Habitat tsunami relief in India and Thailand, worked for a caterer and as a freelance web designer — all before she opened Thai Orchid Cafe with her parents' help in 2006. Thai Orchid did well, and in 2011 Green and her husband, Mike Green, whom she married in 2008, purchased it from her parents. Not long after that, she Crank & Boom 1210 Manchester St. Lexington, Ky 40504 859-288-2176 Open daily bought a two-quart Cuisinart ice cream machine on Amazon and began making a Thai-in- spired coconut ice cream. It proved popular, and she soon added more favors. In 2012, what she thought might be an interesting side business took off. "The turning point came when customers started coming in and asking about our ice cream," she said. In 2013 she bought commercial equipment and created Crank & Boom, named in a round-about-way after a college roommate. Crank & Boom grew. In June 2015 Green opened Crank & Boom's brick-and- mortar shop (which includes a sundae bar and beer, wine, and cocktail service) on Manchester Street in Lexington's Distillery District. Last December she sold Thai Orchid Cafe. Since its Manchester Street opening Crank & Boom has prospered, with sales of 200 gallons of ice cream and sorbet a week (made at a separate facility in Lexington); steady lines of customers; a core of 20 employees that grows to 35 seasonally; placement in local markets, including Whole Foods, Kroger, and Lucky's; and plans for regional and national expansions. (Crank & Boom will open a second Lexington location next year at The Summit at Fritz Farm, a new, upscale mixed-use center.) Green is president and owner of the company and its "chief happiness offcer." Mike Green is CFO. Its bottom line aside, Crank & Boom is a business with a purpose. "Can we use ice cream for positive change?" said Green. "That's our main goal." The company achieves that in several ways, she added. It has a "positive, inspir- ing" work environment, and employees make a "fair living wage." It hosts and sponsors numerous community events. Its shop's second foor can be booked for occasions like baby and bridal showers and corporate meetings (and has an alcove for Crank & Boom selfes). "We're a place for the community to hang out," said Green, "a place where people can create memories." Crank & Boom's price — $8 a pint — refects "the economics of positive change," Green said. Its ice creams and sorbets are natural and made with local ingredients when possible. (Its dairy mix is from a Russellville, Kentucky, supplier, and Crank & Boom purchased so much of it last year, Green said, that it caused a state-wide cream shortage and "boosted the local economy.") The top seller is bourbon and honey ice cream, and Kentucky blackberry and buttermilk is a popular signature favor. KM Toa Green offers specialty ice creams and sorbets as well as old-fashioned standards such as root beer foats at Crank & Boom Ice Cream Lounge.