By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – What do you get when you mix sweet cream ice cream from the Lopez Island Creamery with fresh berries from Graymarsh Farm in Sequim, and toss it around in a blender? You get real fruit ice cream, New Zealand-style. And the only place to get real fruit ice cream New Zealand-style, short of an 18-hour plane trip, is from Welly’s Ice Cream in Port Angeles.
Founded just this summer by Lillie & Jacob Phillips, Welly’s Ice Cream has quickly become a staple on the downtown waterfront. They’re easy to spot. Just look for the trailer parked in front of the Port Angeles Wharf, step up to the window, choose a fruit flavor, and Jacob or Lillie will make your cone to order on the spot.
“Our usual menu as berries. So, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry. But we did some fun like tropical Thursdays this past summer. So, you’ve got mango, pineapple, banana, and that was fun to switch it up sometimes and see what people think.”
People think it’s delicious. Lillie says the idea to start an ice cream business came to her after spending a year in New Zealand back in 2016.
“I went over on a working holiday visa, so that means you can pick up jobs when your over there. And one of those was at a little ice cream shop. So, Jacob and I have been wanting to open something of our own the past few years. And we had a few different ideas, but this ice cream is what won and, yeah, that’s how I learned of it and super excited to bring it out to Washington now.”
Lillie and Jacob are operating now out of a converted horse trailer, but the plan is to move the business into a storefront this coming spring, thanks in part to a $5,000 grant they won from the business finance website Nav.com.
“I think the biggest thing is just a huge thank you to the community. I mean, the whole reason that we can push for a storefront after just a few months of being open already, is just because of the total outpouring of love and support that we’ve gotten since since we started. So yeah, just want to say thank you to everybody out there.”
Watch for the Welly’s ice cream shop to open in May in the Harbortown Building, corner of Railroad and Lincoln. And find out more about Jacob and Lillie Phillips on their website, wellysicecream.com.