Entrepreneur Magazine wrote about Don Whittemore’s networking practices in their article entitled: Good Connections, Take your business where you want it by networking.
Here’s a link to it:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2006/december/170680.html
Dairy Field, a publication covering the dairy industry, wrote this story on Dandy Don’s introduction of new packaging for its pints of ice cream back. Here’s a link to the Dairy Field archive
http://www.dairyfoods.com/Archives_Davinci?article=138
And here’s a link to the story archived by All Business
http://www.allbusiness.com/agriculture-forestry/animal-production-cattle/260780-1.html
According to Bon Appetit’s 6th annual reader survey (March 2003 issue), the one food most readers must have (when calories don’t count) is ice cream.
We happen to have a ton of ice cream. We make it almost every day here in Van Nuys. You can taste it in fine restaurants all over Los Angeles. You can try it by the pint in some specialty food markets.
You can even have us bring our signature hot fudge sundaes, featuring our award-winning ice cream, right to your home, office, or an off-site location.
805 Living Magazine which covers Ventura County mentioned Dandy Don’s Ice Cream in its story on artisanal ice creams in the August issue. They said, “Some of the best Los Angeles and Ventura County restaurants use Dandy Don’s in their desserts. However, it’s the sundae catering that’s really unusual. Dandy Don’s will come to your party and bring whatever you want, including up to 35 different toppings. Dandy Don’s has catered to all kinds of television shows, law firms, medical offices, major corporations, and, of course, birthday parties. But be careful if you have Dandy Don’s at your child’s next birthday party–the sundae cart is sure to be mobbed by all the adults.”
Dandy Don’s is in Bon Appetit.
By Brent Hopkins
Daily News Staff Writer
Friday, June 1, 2001
In the latest, cruelest, twist of the ongoing energy crisis, superpremium ice cream makers face higher costs for the high percentage butter-fat mix used to produce the upscale treat. According to Don Whittemore, owner of Dandy Don’s HomeMade Ice Cream in Van Nuys, supplies are tight as dairies sell their cream to avoid the high energy costs associated with freezing. So tight, he’s seen the wholesale costs climb 13 percent per gallon in the last two months – the greatest jump he’s seen in nearly three years.
“It’s a crisis of a different kind,” he said. “A fat crisis.”
To concoct his designer dessert, sold in upscale markets and restaurants, Whittemore needs fat, and lots of it. And prices are soaring, out pacing the upward trend of the past year. The price of his mix is state-regulated, set by the California Food and Agriculture Board, and varies in two-month cycles, the latest of which will be announced today. But while big ticket producers can normally conserve the fat, made from cream and milk solids, a tight worldwide demand and rising energy prices have made the usually sweet business bitter.
“Normally, you’d stockpile all this by freezing it away,” Whittemore said. “But with the energy costs, people don’t want to be storing, but they want to get it out right away. When the costs recede, then you can stockpile again.”
And it’s not just ice cream. Anything with a high fat content, from heavy whipping cream to premium cheese has been creeping upwards in recent months, according to Jeep Dolan, vice president of the El Monte-based Driftwood Dairy that supplies Whittemore.
“Butter supplies are lower than they were last year,” he said. “But the demand has been constant.”
This translates into higher prices, which are particularly troublesome for superpremium operations like Dandy Don’s, which relies on 14 percent fat mix. All of a sudden, Dolan said, they’ll see two months’ worth of supply tightening compressed into one day, when the price hike hits today.
“It affects people like (Whittemore). They see the chain whipping even faster,” Dolan said. “They’re impacted a lot more than someone running a 10 percent ice cream operation.”
Despite his increased costs, Whittemore pledges no further price hikes on the consumer side. After raising prices earlier this year, he’s decided to eat the cost for the meantime, to keep his customers happy.
“We’ll bite the bullet and absorb this as long as we can,” he said. “We’ll let other people raise their prices first and maintain our relationships with our customers. Everyone’s going to get hit, and we want to be the good guys.”
Ice Cream Partners, which produces superpremium for both Haagen-Dazs and Nestle, has been hit by high prices, as well.
“The energy situation certainly hasn’t helped things,” said Al Briggs, vice president of operations. “We took the prices up 3 percent for grocers, and how they pass it on goes accordingly.”
Even if consumers may find higher prices in the dairy case soon, they’ll likely keep on indulging.
“There’s a real market for superpremium ice cream, and it keeps growing,” said Nancy Fletcher, director of communications for the California Milk Advisory Board. “It’s for people who want the Cadillac lifestyle, but they can’t quite afford the Cadillac, so they buy the best in other things. When you look at it compared to high priced wine, ice cream’s still a real deal.”
Download the PDF of this article.
The following is an excerpt from the 2001 edition of L.A. First Class, “L.A.’s ultimate’ little black book, it is, to date, the only known comprehensive resource directory of L.A.’s premiere goods and services.” Here is what L.A. First Class Publicist, Regan Haynes, wrote:
“Because of all of your hard work and obvious dedication to your business, Dandy Don’s HomeMade Ice Cream Sundae Bar Catering has been selected as the preeminent ice cream caterer in all of L.A. We certainly expect that you will continue to provide top-notch quality service to all of your many old and new clients.”
L.A. First Class Listing, page 81:
For more than twenty years, Don has been putting smiles on the faces of people who know that pleasure of overindulgence. With such flavors to choose from as caramel turtle fudge, pink ginger, and triple chocolate, and toppings ranging from mint scrapple to white chocolate chips, Dandy Don’s has many fans, including U.S. Presidents, Olympic athletes, and the happy folks over at Disneyland. If you’re planning a fabulous party and have no issue with guilty pleasure, Dandy Don will bring his ice cream parlor right to you.
Claim to Fame: Delighted customers have included the casts and crews of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Beverly Hills 90210, and The Tonight Show.
Dandy Don’s ice cream is now available to the public by the pint. It’s being sold for just under $4 per pint at Village Gourmet at 4357 Tujunga Avenue in Studio City, Village Market at 11653 Moorpark Avenue in North Hollywood, and at Handy Market at 2514 West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank.
Dandy Don’s makes super premium ice cream every day in Van Nuys. Juan Hovey of the L.A. Times calls it, “the best ice cream made by mortal man.” Our flavors have won gold medals at the L.A. County Fair in 1996, 97, 98, and 99. I’m talking about vanilla, vanilla bean, chocolate, strawberry, cappuccino crunch, and white pistachio.
Over 115 restaurants and hotels in the L.A. area serve our ice cream to their demanding clients. Restaurants like Eladio’s in Santa Barbara, 2087 An American Bistro in Thousand Oaks, Cafe Bizou in Sherman Oaks, Santa Monica and Pasadena, Crustacean in Beverly Hills, Flint’s in Santa Monica, Geoffrey’s in Malibu, Joe’s in Venice, Linq in L.A., Reign in Beverly Hills, Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas, all the Maria’s Italian Kitchens and the Marmalade Cafe Group.
Hotels and country clubs include Century Plaza Hotel, Luxe Summit Hotel, Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club, Sheraton Cerritos, Wilshire Grand Hotel and Centre, and Braemar Country Club.
Dandy Don’s
16760 Stagg St. (bet. Balboa Blvd. & Hayvenhurst Ave.),
Van Nuys, 818-994-0111
Every day 9am-5pm
A specialty caterer who lives and breathes ice cream, turning every event (they’ve handled groups from 25 to 16,000) into a fantasyland of mile-high sundaes with scores of toppings served from rolling carts, allowing kids of all ages to create the concoctions their parents never permitted; in other words, if you’ve always dreamed of mounds of ice cream topped with a dozen maraschino cherries, Dandy Don will make that dream come true.
Los Angeles Times
Valley Life footnotes
Friday, May 14, 1999
Summertime and the livin’ is easy. And it’s also the time for outdoor parties. Memorial Day, graduation, a June wedding, Fourth of July, successfully folding your laundry, or just about anything are all ample causes to celebrate.
So, you’re going to have a party. Now only one question remains: Will your party be one that friends will remember for years or one they would just as soon forget?
Dandy Don’s Ice Cream Sundae Bar Catering 818 994 0111 can provide ice cream sundaes for your party. Dandy Don’s ice cream, served at several area restaurants including all Cafe Bizous, all Maria’s Italian Kitchens and the Saddle Peak Lodge, is pre-scooped in disposable cups. Owner Don Whittemore recommends keeping it simple vanilla, chocolate, nonfat sorbet with a choice of as many as 35 toppings. Dandy Don’s award-winning ice cream for 50 guests costs about $300.