Sanders & Sons Serves Up Happiness in a Cone
During a family Thanksgiving visit to New York City in 2015, which was unexpectedly extended an additional week, Sanders Marvin and his three sons found themselves stuck in a tiny Airbnb studio in Manhattan with nothing to do. Sanders, an aerospace manufacturer, decided to take his boys for a citywide ice cream crawl. They visited four to five artisanal ice cream shops each day, noting the different flavors, toppings, presentations and prices. When they returned home to Ojai, a plan began to form. At first, it included ice cream, but they soon realized that gelato was more appropriate for Ojai’s plethora of fresh organic produce and Mediterranean climate.
“I wanted to do something that I could do with them and build a business that could include my family and that makes people smile. Gelato does just that,” says Sanders, whose first job was serving up ice cream at Sebastian Joe’s in Minnesota.
Before he knew it, Sanders was attending Carpigiani’s Gelato University in Bologna, Italy. He then studied ice cream making at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Agricultural Sciences and with Maria Coassin of Seattle’s Gelatiamo restaurant at Pike Place.
By 2017, Sanders & Sons Gelato was established.
Creating a delicious gelato is a delicate dance between talent and science. In his certified micro dairy in Ojai’s Bryant Circle, nestled between Revel Kombucha’s brewing kitchen and Magic Hour’s tea kitchen, Sanders was able to start developing gelato recipes made from scratch using local eggs, organic dairy products from Straus Creamery and fresh fruit from Churchill Orchard and the Ojai Farmers’ Market. For his more traditional flavors, Sanders sources pistachios from Sicily and hazelnuts from Piedmont, Italy.
“There is a difference between ice cream and gelato. My gelatos contain less fat, flavors are more seasonal and the texture is smoother and softer,” says Sanders. In fact, gelato contains about a quarter of fat than ice cream.
Luck was on Sanders’ side when a spot in the Arcade in downtown Ojai opened up just as he was partnering with nearby coffee shops and restaurants to sell his products locally. Specially ordered gelato equipment for the shop includes a state-of-the-art freezer made in Milan, specifically designed for gelato to keep each flavor at a consistent temperature.
The shop will feature six traditional flavors, including The Godfather Sicilian Pistachio, Cheeky Chocolate (dairy-free rich Valrhona chocolate in a coconut and cashew base, roasted almonds and Amarena cherry) and Topa Topa Tin Roof (a deconstructed hot fudge sundae with chocolate-covered peanuts in a white base); three seasonal flavors, including Hazelnut Coyote on Carne (Mexican hot chocolate with cinnamon and ancho chilies) and raspberry chocolate chip; and three regularly rotating flavors, including Golden Milk with a blend of turmeric and warming Indian spices like cinnamon and cardamom in a white base.
Because COVID has temporarily delayed the shop opening, their gelato is currently being offered at Beacon Coffee in Ojai and Ventura and Ojai Rotie.
Sanders & Sons Gelato
334 W. Ojai Ave., Ojai
SANDERS MARVIN ON HOW HIS FAMILY MEMBERS HELP OUT WITH THE BUSINESS
“Earl (age 16) often does catering jobs with me. We joke that he will be in charge of the complaints department (not that we would need it). Hayes (14) has pinted gelato and is very good about precise measurements of recipes. Quinn (12) is more on the tasting side, though he also has stuck many stickers on our pints. Vida (10), my fiancée’s daughter, has worked in the lab for a large part of her summer. She has pinted, measured, stuck stickers as needed.
“All of the kids and my fiancée have been involved with the business since the beginnings, including the choice of name and logo. Obviously, there are a lot of requests to eat gelato, but they do help in very real ways. They all understand the basics of gelato making and can measure the recipes and run most of the machines. They work on the packing of pints. When our shop opens, I expect they will work on weekends. My fiancée, Gabriela, helps out too.”
