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Ice Cream Chain Ample Hills Creamery Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Ample Hills (QueensPost)

March 16, 2020 By Michael Dorgan

A popular ice-cream chain with locations in Astoria and throughout Brooklyn has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Ample Hills Creamery, which was established in 2011 and quickly grew to have more than a dozen stores, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday after experiencing financial difficulties.

The company’s decision to seek bankruptcy protection had nothing to do with the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, according to a Ample Hills spokesperson.

The Brooklyn based company–known for churning out innovative and story-themed ice-creams – was founded by married couple Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna. Their establishment was the first ice-cream parlor in the city to pasteurize on-site – making it a registered dairy plant in the process.

The scoop shop has 13 locations– with six in Brooklyn, two in Manhattan, two in Long Island and one in Queens.

Ample Hills Creamery

The company also has a location at Disney World’s BoardWalk Inn in Florida and one Jersey City.

The company had a store in Los Angeles that closed in January. There is no word if other stores will close too.

“We are taking the necessary next steps to preserve and ultimately bring Ample Hills into its next phase,” according to a statement released by the company.

“In order to do this, we are filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows us to restructure and refocus. We have learned a lot from our growth and this is a strategic decision that allows us to course-correct and continue doing what we love most: creating a delicious product from scratch, in our beloved Brooklyn home.”

“Nectar of the Queens” (Photo: Ample Hills)

email the author: news@queenspost.com

3 Comments

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Anonymous

There’s one in Astoria and one in Jacob Riis park – doesn’t that make two in Queens?

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James

This is what happens when you expand too quickly. Instead of having so many stores they should’ve stuck with one or two and made people keep wanting it and making it something hard to get.

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