Photo by Mark Mahan
Toa Green, owner/operator of Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream. Crank & Boom was named the 2021 Small Business of the Year during Commerce Lexington’s Salute to Small Business Awards.
Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream was named the 2021 Small Business of the Year at the Commerce Lexington Salute to Small Business Awards in late September.
During her remarks, Toa Green, owner/ operator of Crank & Boom, along with husband Mike Green, thanked her team for their dedication and spoke of the importance of community. “Who knew what Crank & Boom would become?” she said. “For us, it was just coconut ice cream, and the community rallied behind us and demanded more. We’re just so fortunate and lucky to do what we do.”
Community and connection are twin themes running throughout Green’s life. The first in her family born in the United States, she grew up working in her parent’s Thai restaurant, Smile of Siam, in Frankfort. “That’s where I learned most of my hospitality and food service skills,” she said. “We had a lot of regulars, and I was always in charge of writing Christmas cards. We built our own community within our little restaurant.”
After graduating from the University of North Carolina with a journalism degree, Green took a marketing job with Lexington Habitat for Humanity. She traveled internationally several times with the organization, including to India with 60 fellow Kentuckians for a four-month-long project helping to rebuild a fishing village devastated by a tsunami. It was there that she and Mike connected. “I figured any person who would take their entire year’s vacation to go build houses in India probably had something about him really special,” she said.
In 2006, the couple decided to return to Toa’s restaurant roots and open Thai Orchid Cafe in Lexington, with help from her parents. As coconut ice cream is a favorite treat in Thailand, Green purchased a two-quart ice-cream maker o. Amazon and began making batches at the restaurant. Before long she noticed that customers were coming in just for ice cream. “I started to think, what if we had ice cream as a separate side business?,” she said.
What’s now Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream began in 2013 as a cart serving high-quality, homemade ice cream at local events. The business has grown to comprise a flagship shop on Manchester Street, a second location on Clays Mill, a large warehouse and commissary kitchen in North Lexington, and ice cream shipped anywhere in the nation. The Greens’ latest venture, a soft-serve concept called BoBi Cones and named after the couple’s children, Bodhi and Bindi, is set to open in November in Palomar.
“My mom taught me early on that you’re going to have to do a lot of work when you’re an adult, so you might as well learn to like it,” Green said. “I’m lucky that I have a job that I like so much.”
What is it about your work that brings you joy?
I think it’s just seeing other people happy. Back then [at Smile of Siam] it was knowing that people enjoyed the food and had a nice time while they were here.
Even today, I think that’s what makes us special. We have a great product, but we also have a real talent for building community — even if it’s a small connection in the short period of time that we’re interacting with a customer. In a way, I feel like we’re hosting our own party every day at each of our locations.
And it’s ice cream. It’s fun!
It’s hard to not have fun with ice cream. And it’s hard to not make someone’s day better because of the product and how good it is. Also, just meeting people with kindness. I think the world lacks opportunities for those connections like we used to have. If our locations can be a little respite of connection and warmth and kindness in the form of giving you ice cream or making your day a little better or making your kids smile — all those things are what makes me happy, and we get to do this every day.
Photo by Mark Mahan
And now Crank & Boom is a destination.
Our goal, when we opened the spot at Manchester, was to become one of the top three places where, when people come to visit, you must take them. Usually, with our friends, we take them to places like West Sixth, County Club and Windy Corner. We wanted to create a place that’s on everybody’s top three list. And part of it is creating a space for community. I love the fact that we’re able to be part of Lexington’s highlight reel.
How do you come up with new flavors?
We look at ingredients, we look at what’s available, and we think creatively about fun spins we can put on a flavor. We also take customer and staff requests, because we do Small Batch Friday every week — that’s 52 brand new flavors that we release every year — which keeps it fun and interesting.
And you make most everything from scratch using local ingredients?
This year, we’ll spend about $60,000 in Kentucky Proud purchases, not including alcohol.
Ouita Michel is a huge mentor and hero of mine, and when she talks about using food as a way to boost the economy and how we can create this beautiful local food system by buying local and educating customers about this way of eating, it really resonates with me.
It’s about creating a value-added system at every level and at a fair price for everyone. For example, the strawberry farmer now designates a certain amount of strawberries each year just for us, and we work together to estimate how much we’ll need — which is a lot! As we grow, hopefully he grows as well. We, by our actions, get to control that little piece of the economy and help a farmer that’s working so hard. And, quite frankly, it just tastes better.
So, ice cream can help make the world a brighter place?
I think absolutely it can. I think about my grandmother. They didn’t have a lot of money, but she was always willing to feed anyone who needed food. That sense of generosity informs my outlook — even if I don’t have a lot to give, I can give you my time or some food or whatever I have. She taught my dad, “If you feed others, you will never go hungry,” and that has stuck with me.
"She taught my dad, “If you feed others, you will never go hungry,” and that has stuck with me."
As we’ve grown, it’s like ‘OK, we have some capacity where we can really help the community. One organization we have partnered with is FEED, Fayette Eating, Education and Delivery Backpack Program. It’s a great program and a good fit, because what they need is logistics, which is easy for us. We have a storage area and we have staff who are willing to help.
It’s also a nice reminder that, for as busy as we get sometimes thinking about all the things we have to do, maybe we can take a little break and do this thing for someone else that really means something. I think that means everything to the people who work on our team. We need to stay in business, but we’re not just here for the bottom line. So yeah, I think ice cream can change the world. And it happens to be a fun vehicle for positive change.