The long-awaited third location of Boardwalk Waffles & Ice Cream (1001 Russell) will open next Saturday, March 26, at noon.
All of the edible staples will be available, including waffle and ice cream sandwiches, waffle cones and bowls, milkshakes, and a full liquor license is pending. The décor includes fiercely colored metal tables and chairs, arcade machines, and New Jersey memorabilia on the walls, including a large map of the state. Live music and weekly events, such as karaoke, are planned as well.
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The Soulard location will double as a manufacturing facility for Boardwalk’s line of proprietary ice cream. They’ll all have ‘beachy’ names, says owner Eric Moore. Salty Caramel will become Salty Sailor; and the signature flavor will be orange, blue, and white with pecan sandies, “sandies for the beach.”
Having grown up on the Eastern Seaboard, Moore remembers two things about the New Jersey boardwalks: the fun-at-all-hours vibe and the famous waffle-and-ice- cream sandwiches. When a chance encounter at a bar led to an opportunity to buy a teeny-tiny ice cream shop in Maplewood, Moore thought he could re-create both and opened Boardwalk Waffles & Ice Cream. Almost five years, one food truck, and eight billboards later, Moore plans to manufacture his own line of ice cream. He’s also poised to open more locations—on his way to 20 company-owned units—as well as 40 franchise stores. Boardwalk empire, indeed!
Talk about your childhood in New Jersey and “down the Shore.” I was born in South Jersey, but moved to Bangor, Pennsylvania, which was right across the river but a world away. The boardwalk was bright, fun, with great sights and smells and action all the time. My goal at Boardwalk Waffles was to recreate that vibe in a city situation. As I plan each new location, the vibe is front and center in my mind. I wake up in the middle of the night and sketch design ideas. I want them all to feel the same, but look slightly different. Uptempo music, arcade machines, bright colors, knick knacks from Jersey that I keep adding… When I see “What a vibe!” in comments and reviews, it makes me smile.
When did you get into the foodservice business? When my brother was working at the Water Gap Country Club, in Pennsylvania, he called me one day and said, “You wanna come to work?” and I said, “Hell, yeah!” I started doing dishes that day and worked my way through the kitchen. I was there 10 years, from ’83 to ’93. I had wanted to work ever since I was a little kid. When I was 10, I lied to get a paper route because I had to be 12.
When did you move to St. Louis? In 1993. My parents were here and said there was lots going on in the foodservice business. I tried to get on with Bread Co. [Saint Louis Bread Company] as a GM trainee, but I couldn’t get a callback. I called the home office, said I had a complaint, and asked to speak with the district manager. They said, “Sure, here’s his pager number,” and the guy called me back. When I told him I’d been dying to work for his company, I recall him saying I had a lot of guts for going the way I did but agreed to talk to me the next day. He hired me on the spot.
How long did you work for Bread Co.? Three years, opening and managing stores, but was getting burned out. As restaurant people often do, I dreamed of working 9 to 5 and got a job with Boatman’s Bank, which hired me because of my ability to develop team players, which is what they needed at the time. When Nations Bank bought Boatmen’s, I got a promotion. My job was to close out time deposit services west of the Mississippi, which meant I was the one traveling to tell them they were losing their jobs.
Just like George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air. Exactly. And I was only 26 at the time. I got the job because I was thick-skinned. And because I did it so well, I was promoted again when I went to work for Bank of America. In 1999, the company wanted me to move to North Carolina, at which point I took the severance package.
Then what? I took some time off, then had trouble finding a job. I was 29, without a college degree, and getting desperate. I applied to become one of the guys who fixes code violations in homes before they sell, which I knew absolutely nothing about but didn’t divulge. Heck, I didn’t even own a drill. But I got hired and quickly discovered I had a knack for construction. I became a general contractor for the next 10 years, until 2009, when everything shut down. My then-wife and I bought and sold apartments for a time.
When did Boardwalk Waffles come into the picture? Sitting in a bar one night, I met the owner of this little ice cream place, I Scream Cakes, in Maplewood. He wanted out and said he’d sell me everything for 20 grand, but I had no idea what I’d do with a 550-square-foot space. I thought about the Jersey Shore, about the ice cream waffles at the Boardwalk, and thought, That’s it. No one had done anything like that here, and not much else could be done in that small of space.
What appealed to you about the business? There’s no back of the house, no high-priced chef to pay, no dishwasher, no expensive exhaust hood system, no food spoilage… It’s a single-item concept where every employee knows how to do everything and does everything. We work stations and switch stations, and everybody’s happy with that. Plus, it’s an easy and appealing concept for a franchisee to understand.
Did the concept work out the way you had planned it? That’s the funny part. Not at all. The staffing was different, the equipment I ended up using was different, the waffle was different—better. I thought I could get by with a $400 so-called commercial waffle baker to a $3,000 machine because that’s what it takes…and I needed six of them, so that was a surprise. And I never would have guessed that a large chunk of my sales would occur off-site, at festivals, food truck get-togethers, and catering gigs. We get three to five emails a day about off-site catering. For a time, one of my managers, Leah Williams—who became my right-hand person—did nothing but that. But during the pandemic, in-store sales were a joke—there were entire days when we did, like, $15—so we figured out a way to deliver waffles and ice cream, albeit within a very small radius.
Talk about your involvement. The things I learned working in restaurants, bank, and construction all played into this business. I know about people, food, leases, construction bids, operations—all of it. Early in the operation, my focus was on making sure every waffle looked the same as the photos looked. I don’t want the squished equivalent of a fast-food hamburger. If it looks like that or imperfect in some way, my people are instructed to toss it. It’s cheap. It’s a waffle and ice cream. Make it again. Now, thanks to Leah, I can focus on acquiring real estate and the design aspects of the business.
Describe your management style. I’m very laid-back. I don’t ever get that angry. I learned that a long time ago. Maybe that’s why we turn over so few people. I also would not be where I am today were it not for Leah. She truly helped transform the company. Quitting drinking and focusing 100 percent on the company was key as well. I didn’t wreck a car or do anything dumb. A friend of mine said it best: that he’s not sober, he chooses not to drink, because when you say you’re sober, people start thinking AA. I was tired of hangovers and tired of not remembering details of what I did the night before. I stopped eating pork and beef the same way. I set my mind to it and just stopped.
Do you have any pet peeves? Dirty restaurants. People judge a place by how clean it is. My managers get out from behind the counter and float the store. Meet, greet, and look around, while checking out the floor, bathrooms, trashcans, and the sidewalk out in front. Clean, clean, clean.
Any tricks to the waffle trade? The original Jersey Shore waffle was a square, cut on the diagonal, heated and served with a slice of boxed ice cream sandwiched in the middle. Put that into a cardboard boat, and down the Boardwalk you go. I wanted a bigger, better waffle that was crispy on the outside—so you can pick it up and eat it—but soft on the inside. That formula took me months to develop, changing up the percentages of sugar, butter, and flour. And I chose to pair that with better ice cream. Most people come here for the core product, but we do have other items: cones, bowls, milkshakes, and liquor milkshakes, but we don’t have sprinkles, nuts, sundaes, or banana splits. Gordon Ramsay says keep it simple and do what you do best, and I agree with him. Please the target group. Don’t be everything to everybody, because you never will be.
Talk about the lineage of your ice cream. We started with a local company, switched to Cedar Crest, and then were approached by the Ice Cream Factory, a little company out of Eldon. One of the things I had been looking into was CBD-infused ice cream but couldn’t find anyone here to do it for me. I had the food grade isolate and cannabis terpene to enhance the flavor. Based on a formula I came up with, they began to manufacture several flavors of CBD-infused ice cream for me. I’m the only one they make it for.
Are there any other concepts in your head? No, I just want to build this empire. I would like to have 20 company-owned units, 40 franchise stores, and take it public in five years. We should be able to start franchising by year’s end. My goal is to have at least four stores open by then so that potential franchisees can see which one fits their needs. I’m looking at a space in Valley Park now. Another thing I learned from Bread Co. is to develop area-wide franchisees only and not have any single-unit operations.
Was the original 550-square-foot space a help or a hindrance? It was the right space at the right time. Especially given the pandemic, had I had a bigger space with higher rent, I would not have survived. My rule of thumb when researching real estate is whether I can cover my rent in one weekend’s sales. When I moved to the larger space up the street [at the corner of Manchester and Sutton], I was concerned that it might take two weekends. Fortunately, we cover the rent on one Saturday, so it was a game-changer. Had I not moved into this space, Boardwalk would not be growing the way it is.
When did catering become such a significant part of the operation? It came about organically by people asking us if we could do this birthday party, that event, or somebody’s wedding. We’d take along some ice cream on dry ice, set up a table, plug in a few irons, and we’d be good to go. At corporate events, people from different floors would inevitably drop by, so we learned to always bring enough product to run an extra hundred orders, which happens like 80 percent of the time. Catering is a whole other tentacle that needs to be grown, so next year we plan to have three food trucks and introduce a food truck app.
How does social media work best for you? My posts are most effective if they hit at 6 in the morning, when people are scrolling in bed, or at noon, when they’re eating lunch. Internally, I discuss comments with the staff, good and bad, how we reacted to it and what we learned from it. The Bread Co. taught me to take care of every customer; I empowered the staff to do so, and we have very high-star ratings because of it.
How did you afford to rent billboards when you were operating out of such a small space? I rented eight in the off-season, and the return on investment was unbelievable—the best money I ever spent. I will absolutely do that again in 2022, as we open more stores and I can spread out the expense.
How did you re-create the Jersey Shore vibe in St. Louis? I hung surfboards on the wall along with pictures of the boardwalks, stained some boards in pastel colors, installed a pine-wood plank floor, found some chandeliers that conjure ocean waves, and put up some New Jersey license plates. I built a riser for times we wanted to do live music. I took some advance heat from people who thought I was changing the concept too much, but when you hear the music, the pinball flappers, the sound of kids laughing and people clunking on the wood floor, everybody eating ice cream and having fun, it’s just like at the Shore. It’s the vibe I envisioned.
How did the Soulard location come about? A developer, King Realty, approached me to go into 1,600 square feet of the 6,800-square-foot ground floor, and I committed. When another tenant bailed, I started thinking that the space would be perfect for corporate offices and an ice cream manufacturing plant I had been thinking about, so we struck deal number two. The store will open first. Since the manufacturing plant has to be a USDA-approved facility, it will come online after the store opens. We also plan to have the 3-gallon tubs available at U.S. Foods.
And at that point, franchising could become more of a vertical operation. Exactly. The stores will use our ice cream, competitively priced, of course, which will be distributed from hubs located around the country.
The Grand Center location is arguably as prominent as the Maplewood one. It’s a huge corner space in the eight-story Metropolitan building. There’ll be a full bar and a stage. I’m finishing the large concrete floor in an ocean wave epoxy with a boardwalk of sorts, yellow-brick-roading people through the space. It’s similar to the treatment I’ll be putting on the countertops at all stores. I learned how to do it on YouTube. We hope to catch event traffic from the Fox, Powell, Chaifetz, Grandel, SLU, The Sheldon… Our marquee lights will fit right in.
What’s new at the Maplewood location? The weekend waffle brunch is doing well. Guests are greeted by the bartender, who’s mixing up bottomless mimosas and bloody marys. I bought a mobile bar that lights up, which fits the vibe.
Do you have any events planned? I’ve been toying with doing a bike ride—a Tour de Boardwalk—where participants go from location to location, at their own pace, so they can see the different personalities of each one.
Do you have any hobbies? I’ve been playing drums for decades and been in countless touring bands… My new band, Blinded by Stereo, spent all of the pandemic recording a new album. I have three kids who keep me busy. I also spent the past year taking care of my dad, who recently passed. I’m meeting my brother to continue spreading his ashes at his favorite places and some he never visited. We’re going to Niagara—to hit up the Maid of the Mist boat ride—and then to the Baseball Hall of Fame. This year, I went to Arizona. My dad always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon.
An abridged version of the Q&A with Moore appeared in the October 2021 issue.
