Update on Rachel Burns’ Bold Spoon Creamery

August 17, 2021: Rachel Burns’ Bold Spoon Creamery is a featured business in the MasterCard Priceless program, which is highlighting Black-owned businesses during National Black-Owned Business Month. Burns’ ice cream can be found at the CWE Straub’s. Straub’s is the only store that carries Miss Hulling’s Chocolate Layer Cake with Sweet Cream Ice Cream, and Miss Hulling’s Lemon Layer Cake flavor, which will be released next week. 

Rachel Burns, above, moved to her grandparents home in the Central West End when she was 13 years old. Tom and Estella Burns purchased the house in the 4600 block of McPherson in 1956. Three generations later, the house was sold in May, 2018.

Rachel remembers those early years with fondness. “I had a best friend who lived behind us on Westminster. All the teens in the CWE worked at Balaban’s,” she said. “My first job was in coat check, which I loved.”

Rachel attended the Cathedral School and then transferred to Parkway Central as part of the St. Louis School Desegregation Program. She furthered her education at Forest Park Community College, attended UMSL, graduated from the University of Missouri Kansas City and earned her MBA at Webster University.

I’ve known Rachel since those early years, so when I saw the notice of the pop-up for her new venture, Bold Spoon Creamery at STL Foodworks, 408 N. Sarah, in July, I jumped at the opportunity to sample her ice cream—which is fabulous— and catch up on the intervening years. 

By day Burns is an Investment Consultant with Willis Towers Watson. Her husband Corey Wilkinson, above right, is in the aerospace industry. At the end of each workday, and on weekends, the couple heads to the shared kitchen space to make small batch ice cream.

Wilkinson recently reminded his wife that she hadn’t mentioned the possibility of staying up all night making ice cream before they married in 2014. “In my defense, that’s true,” Burns reported, “but at the time I didn’t know that was even a possibility.” Neither could Burns have imagined that the launch of her brand earlier this year would coincide with the appearance of COVID19.

“The plan was always to begin this spring,” Burns said, “but Covid set us and the rest of the world on a different path. My son Harrison had just graduated from Haverford College in Philadelphia, so was home and available to help launch a website (he has since moved to S.F.), and Corey was no longer traveling for work, so was more available to help.”

Burns’ foray into making ice cream began with a bumper crop of mint she would use to flavor ice cream she made for friends who dropped by their home in UCity. It was such a hit that she began packaging it and taking it door to door for her neighbors. The reaction was so positive it gave her the courage to continue. She enlisted tasters who called themselves “the spoons,” and that, combined with her love of bold flavors, is how she came up with “Bold Spoon Creamery.”

Burns develops her recipes by reading books on food science and couples that with experimenting with flavor combinations in foods she likes.  One that I sampled and loved, goat cheese with fig jam, is a pairing she is particularly fond of.  If her experiment passes the taste test, it becomes one of 6 to 8 flavors they rotate on and off the production schedule according to the season. Ingredients are locally-sourced. Visit the website for the latest flavors and information about those ingredients.

She credits STL Foodworks founder Christy Schlafly for creating not only a welcoming space but also for her expertise in promoting small businesses.

“Christy is amazing,” Burns continued. “She is a big fan of Bold Spoon and introduced our ice cream to another angel named Jane Sehnert who owns Smoke House Market.”

In addition to Smoke House, Bold Spoon Creamery can be found at the CWE Straub’s, Tower Grove Farmers’ Markets, The Boulevard Market,  5 Schnucks locations (Richmond Heights, Ladue, Lindbergh, Des Peres and Woods Mill), and at The Woman’s Exchange in Ladue Marketplace.

They also offer free Saturday deliveries with a 4-pint minimum from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. within a 7-mile radius from Clayton, which includes the CWE. Orders must be in by 3 p.m. on Fridays.  Bold Spoon Creamery also offers individual servings for family or company events. The minimum order is 20 half pints (they need a week’s notice). Call Burns directly for more information about catering events (314) 406-0765.