Jeni Britton Bauer found success in Columbus by creating unique, gourmet ice cream.

At restaurants and shops, people surrounded her, asking about her unparalleled ice cream creations. The year was 2000, and there was something peculiar about the attention she was receiving.

Bauer had just abandoned her first business venture, the ice cream stand Scream in downtown Columbus.

The shop had been unsuccessful, but it was clear that Bauer had gained some local fans.

“We were very young and inexperienced, and I thought I knew everything,” Bauer said. “Looking back on it now, I thought I knew more than I did because the ice cream just didn’t work.”

Two years later, Bauer became the founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, a Columbus-based business with five locations spread throughout the city.

Bauer, 36, was born in Eatontown, N.J., but her family was constantly on the move.

“I got used to meeting people and starting a new life almost every single year,” Bauer said.

Eventually, the family settled in Columbus, where Bauer graduated from Upper Arlington High School. While attending high school, Bauer started working at the French bakery, La Chatelaine. Making pastries gave Bauer an opportunity to blend her artistic instincts with the culinary world for the first time.

As Bauer moved on to college, her interest in art only grew stronger.
“I studied art history at Ohio State,” Bauer said. “I was thinking a lot about pastries and I wanted to make something different.”

That something turned out to be ice cream, and Bauer wanted to experiment with wildly different flavors.

“I started making ice cream, and one of the first ice creams I made was chocolate with cayenne mixed in,” she said. “I served it at a party and everyone just freaked out. Nobody had ever had ice cream like that before.”

Her friends’ enthusiastic reactions led to more experimentation.

“After that came rose petal and sweet basil,” she said. “I was making ice cream for all of my friends, and they all loved it.”

It was while making ice cream that Bauer discovered what she wanted to do with her life. Starting a business proved to be a much harder task.

Bauer chose a location near the North Market in downtown Columbus and named the business Scream. However, after earning roughly $600 a month, Bauer realized some serious changes had to be made.

“I knew that if I wanted to do this for a living, we had to close, write a business plan and figure some things out,” she said.

Bauer worked hard to gain a better understanding of how ice cream is made. She read books, spoke with people at OSU and enrolled in a two-week course at Penn State that focused on how to make ice cream using food science.

Bauer was determined not to make the same mistakes with her second business venture.

“Scream was like practice, an education of sorts,” Bauer said. “The second time around, I wasn’t going to do anything that would jeopardize the business.”

Bauer wanted customers to trust that her new business wasn’t going anywhere. Her new business plan meant that change was inevitable, from the name of the stand to Bauer’s personal appearance.

“When I opened Scream, I had pink hair. I was definitely a crazy artist. It was sort of my fun place.” Bauer said. “The second business, I wore a starched white shirt every day with a starched apron and brown hair.”

The change in appearance was easier than deciding on a name.

“I didn’t want to call it Jeni’s, but I was encouraged by some of my mentors to call it that,” she said.

Naming the business Jeni’s gave Bauer a whole new sense of responsibility.

“I would say you name it after yourself because when you look up at that sign, you have no excuse to not get up early,” Bauer said. “You’re the one that’s on the hook for all of the quality. It’s the best thing I ever did.”

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams has since expanded. Bauer opened a second location in Grandview and has since added locations in the Short North, Bexley and Dublin.

Columbus residents aren’t the only ones who have noticed Bauer’s success. Jeni’s ice creams have been featured in The New York Times, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Gourmet magazine, and The Boston Globe, just to name a few.

Much of the acclaim has centered on Bauer’s unique flavor combinations. Queen City Cayenne, the chocolate ice cream with cayenne pepper, was featured on Food Network’s program “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.”

Other unexpected flavors include Thai chili, wild berry lavender, and goat cheese with roasted red cherries.

Business lately has been “great.” According to an article in Ladies Who Launch that profiled Bauer, Jeni’s generated $5 million in revenue last year.

“Business has been really good,” said Hannah Curran, a salesperson at the Grandview location. “Most of our customers have read about Jeni’s, probably in Bon Appetit.”

“Here at the North Market, we had a really good summer and we were busy during the winter too,” said Lisa Sterle, a saleswoman at the North Market location. “We’ve been selling a ton of pints.”

A pint ranges from $8.50 to $10 depending on the flavor.

“I think it’s a little expensive, but they have a wide variety of good flavors,” said T’Lisa Dent, a fan of Jeni’s flavor combinations.

Dan Ginter stopped into Jeni’s with his wife while driving through Columbus and had similar feelings.

“It’s a bit expensive, but it’s a premium, high butter fat ice cream that tastes very good,” Ginter said.

Both Jeni and her husband, Charly Bauer, who is the director of operations for Jeni’s, had a response to those who criticize the price point.

“We support local farmers,” Jeni said. “One hundred percent of our cream comes from single herd cows in Ohio. Our vanilla is flown in from a family farm in Uganda, and our chocolate comes from single farms in the Midwest.”

“Our thought is, maybe it’s a luxury ice cream, but there isn’t a better ice cream out there as far as ingredients. So you might pay another dollar for it, but everybody can afford it. It’s not like the difference between a Geo and a Lexus,” she said.

Charly Bauer offered a simpler reason as to why Jeni’s remains successful.

“We hand-make our ice cream the same way we did on day one, which includes small batches by hand, created by well-trained artisans,” he said.

Eight years have passed since Jeni’s opened, and it’s still family-owned and operated by the Bauers and Charly’s brother, Tom. All three serve as partners and owners of the company.

Jeni and Charly have two children, Greta and Dashiell. Jeni also has a cookbook on the way.

“We got it figured out in our kitchen,” she said. “I think we can stand as a beacon in our community and in Ohio, being known for great service. As long as we can do that, we will continue to grow.”