Some business names are more than just that. There’s a story in there, too.

Growing up, Ryan O’Hara spent much of his summers at his grandmother’s house in Rock Mountain Lakes, a community between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. After every lunch and dinner together there, they’d have some kind of ice cream. It might be store-bought or hand-churned. In sundaes or milkshakes.

Regardless of which treat they were having, Ryan would first go to his grandmother’s kitchen drawer and reach for the biggest spoon he could find to enjoy it with.

With food-related memories like that, it’s no wonder O’Hara pursed a culinary career as an adult. In Birmingham, he scored a job as a pasta cook for award-winning chef/restauranteur Frank Stitt’s Italian-inspired Bottega Restaurant. O’Hara was later sous chef at Stitt’s French-style bistro Chez Fonfon. During this time, he met his future wife, Geri-Martha, who was restaurant group’s pastry chef.

In 2014, Ryan and Geri-Martha O’Hara decided to try doing their own small-batch ice-cream company. They started small as small gets, with a trike (three-wheeled bicycle with cargo area) and $500 worth of ingredients, at neighborhood pop-up events.

The name they decided on for their new venture was a nod to those childhood summers: Big Spoon Creamery.

By 2016, Big Spoon built enough business to expand to a food truck. That grew into a storefront in Avondale the next year and then a second location, in Homewood, two years after that. Between their Avondale and Homewood shops, Big Spoon Creamery sells around 10,000 gallons of ice cream a year.

Their flavors rotate seasonally. There are signature staples like coffee almond toffee, goat cheese strawberry hibiscus, almond peach cardamom and brambleberry cobbler, as well as boutique takes on classics like strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and cookies-and-cream.

With the O’Haras’ fine-dining background, there’s an emphasis on ingredients, like fresh strawberries from Cullman. “You can’t make great ice cream with low-quality ingredients,” Ryan says, so it all starts with using great ingredients.

In summer 2023, Big Spoon Creamery will open their third location and first-ever outside the Birmingham area. They’re bringing a shop to downtown Huntsville, at The Avenue, located at 201 Jefferson St., in the space formerly occupied by Cookie Dough Magic.

Big Spoon’s been looking for a Huntsville location for about three years. The Avenue is home to a loft-apartment complex of the same name, complimentary businesses like sandwich-focused Melt and upscale restaurant Purveyor, and a short walk from downtown bars, Von Braun Center and Big Spring Park. This was finally the right play.

“We love Huntsville,” O’Hara says. “It is such a beautiful, vibrant city. It’s growing rapidly and, as far as we can tell, it’s a wonderful community there.” Although Huntsville’s already home to some chains and a few local standouts like Oscar Moon’s, downtown felt ripe for Big Spoon, Ryan says. “We feel like we fit in perfectly there.”

Like in Birmingham, Big Spoon Creamery’s Huntsville shop will feature 12 flavors at a time. The current lineup boasts flavors like lemon meringue pie, passion fruit chiffon, tiramisu, blood orange sorbet and cinnamon coffee cake, as well as chocolate chip cookie dough and rocky road.

The pricing goes from a $2.60 kid’s scoop and $3.75 single-scoop to $7.25 double, $11 triple and $11.75 flight. Pints are 10 bucks. They also do a variety of $5.25 ice cream “sammies” including the “classic” (vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, sea salt). Six and 12-packs of “sammies” are available too.

For sundae enthusiasts, options include: a $6 “original” (vanilla bean ice cream, malted fudge, candied hazelnuts, vanilla bean whipped cream, Amarena cherry); $11 banana split (brûléed banana, vanilla bean ice cream, honey graham crumb, pineapple passionfruit compote, vanilla bean whipped cream); and $15 “Big Spoon” (dark chocolate rum brownies, vanilla bean ice cream, coffee whipped cream, malted fudge, salted caramel, hazelnut croquant, cherries).

You can get a milkshake made from any current flavor. There’s also a “vegan shake.” During colder months, Big Spoon also offers house made hot chocolate. The online menu helpfully lists any allergens under each ice cream flavor. For example, dairy, eggs, gluten, nuts, etc.

In Huntsville, Big Spoon will employ a staff of around 15 to 20. Their combined Birmingham staff is about double that during summer. Their Avenue space will be around 1,400-sqaure-feet with capacity for around 25 guests inside and extensive outdoor seating on the patio. Big Spoon Creamery is working with Amanda Loper, of David Baker Architects, to design the Huntsville shop. Expect similarities to the Birmingham locations, but with an updated look and feel.

And yes, they still have that trike they started Big Spoon Creamery with, Ryan says. “We still use it for catering.”

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