Sunday, July 27, 2008
Food, "Behind the Bar", Q&A
Put it on ice
Ice Caters offers cool alternatives for entertaining
Spark St. Jude
Michael Shoer of Ice Caters
By Hope S. Philbrick
Want your next party to be really cool? Perhaps an ice sculpture or ice barware is the answer. Thanks to Atlanta-based Ice Caters, getting your hands on frozen creations is easier than you might think. To get the scoop, The Sunday Paper recently talked with Michael Shoer, Ice Caters founder and CEO.
Q Why did you launch Ice Caters?
A My birthday happens to be on September 11, and so for obvious reasons I hadn’t celebrated it in awhile. In 2004, I decided it was time to take back my life and said to my wife, “Let’s have a kick-ass cocktail party for my birthday!” I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get an ice sculpture shaped like a martini glass? Or even cooler if guests could drink from frozen martini glasses?” One thing led to another. People thought I was crazy, that this was impossible. I was a television news media executive for about 25 years and had been doing all this work advising media companies about online marketing strategies and wondered why couldn’t you order ice? A friend of ours had recently sent us ice cream from Manhattan, and it arrived just fine. I didn’t know what it would entail to manufacture and ship ice, but as a television journalist I knew how to research and was familiar with search and discovery missions. By January 2005, I was test marketing in Atlanta and introduced the product to caterers and chefs—and they all went nuts over the fact that it’s so easy. This is an alternative to individual custom ice carving. We’re about four years into it now and there’s been some trial and error along the way. We have some of the biggest names in the hotel, casino and liquor industries as clients, plus anyone can order online. Our product is ice, but Ice Caters brings more than ice: First, we have a lower cost compared to traditional ice carvers and we can do items in volumes. Second, our packaging not only allows us to do overnight shipping of certain items but they’re delivered in insulated boxes so they don’t need to be put in a freezer if you’re using them the same day they’re delivered—or, if you do have room in the freezer, you can keep the product indefinitely. Third, I discovered and use a product called Magic Snow that absorbs water, so you don’t need to worry about display pieces sliding around or creating water overflow.
What are your most popular products?
There are five. The first is the ice bucket, then martini glass that you can drink out of, ice shot glasses, a big martini ski jump luge and ice bowl.
What’s relatively new but really catching on is our ice ball. These are perfectly round clear ice spheres—like ice cubes but not a cube. You put one in a cocktail, and it’s really dramatic. Plus it serves a purpose: It’s slow melting and therefore won’t dilute a martini or Scotch or any cocktail.
Everything we do is made food safe. We operate under the standards of safety and quality established by the International Packaged Ice Association, utilizing patented processes and proprietary technologies and know-how. It may not seem at first to be important, but it is because we’re making items used in food service. A little known secret about ice is that ice carries bacteria it it’s not handled properly and E. coli doesn’t get killed by freezing.
You debut the ice ball at last year’s Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. Will you introduce anything new this year?
I don’t have the full answer yet because we’re working on a number of new items. We have come up with some signature creations for big liquor companies to help launch new brands. We’ll have a bunch of martini glasses for people to use. And we’ll be included in a session on wedding trends—the ice balls will be showcased in that. SP
To learn more, call 888-464-3838 or visit www.icecaters.com.