Founder Feature: Hannah Pollack of Nightingale Ice Cream

0:02You know, when it comes to nootropics for supplements, foods, and beverages, not all ingredients are created equal. Cognizant citicoline is patented with more than 30 years of clinical research. It supports the brain's natural systems, DNA synthesis and repair, phospholipid metabolism, and ATP production. That translates into real-world cognitive benefits. The only branded citicoline studied in healthy adults and adolescents, Cognizant supports focus and attention, improves accuracy, reduces errors, and supports reaction time and motor speed. It even supports working memory and mental energy. No stimulants, no jitters, no crash, just benefits people actually need.

0:42So if you're developing products in the cognitive health space or just want to learn more about the science behind Cognizant, head to cognizant.com. That's C-O-G-N-I-Z-I-N.com for more information.

1:09We just want to spread the joy of our product. And you were saying, ask about why ice cream? And that's something that is such a nostalgic experience for people. It's like you remember when you were a child just running around in the summer and you stopped and had an ice cream sandwich or an ice cream pop And it's such a joyful experience and such a joyful memory. And we wanted to bring that to the retail world with our ice cream sandwiches and recreating those moments, but just kind of increasing the quality of the product and having it elevated in indulgences. Hey, everybody. This is Caitlin Bricker, Managing Editor at Startup CPG.

1:56we are back with another founder feature. Today I'm sitting down with Hannah Pollack, founder and CEO of Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches, a high quality ice cream novelty brand that's celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Hannah's a Marine Corps veteran turned chef who started this business with her husband, a classically trained Belgian chef she lovingly calls Belgian Santa Claus. We're diving into why their ice cream melts like ice cream should, the logistics of scaling a frozen dessert product from regional to national, and Hannah's take on the difference between the real ice cream and frozen dairy desserts that are found in the frozen aisle.

2:34Plus, there's some breaking news she's sharing about their expansion with Whole Foods, and you might want to hear it. As always, enjoy.

2:44Hey everybody, welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin, and today I'm here with Hannah Pollack, founder and CEO of Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches. Hannah, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be talking with you today. I am psyched to talk to you. I already told you this, but I just need everyone to know, the samples that you sent our way did not last very long in my household, and that's for a very good reason. And did you have a favorite flavor? Key lime pie, always for me. We had pie at our wedding instead of cake and key lime is our go-to always.

3:20I just feel like you can never go wrong with key lime. I love it. I'm so glad you love that flavor. That's a true Nightingale fan flavor for sure. Oh, I love it so much. I can taste the key lime as we're speaking about it. I know I just gave it away a little bit in the intro, but can you tell us in your words what Nightingale is? Yeah, definitely. So Nightingale ice cream sandwiches, we're a manufacturer of a high quality ice cream sandwich. That's really just what we're all about is creating just joyful moments with our ice cream sandwiches and making the best ice cream novelty that you've had.

3:59And you know, something that stands out to me is the fact that you are using better for you ingredients, but you're by no means creating a health food product. That's right. I mean, we're trying to really have a product that is kind of ties into that little treat culture that everybody loves, you know, something that is just the perfect size, but it's something that you really feel good about indulging in. It's a high quality, but also we use non-GMO sourced ingredients. We use the best ingredients that we can get for every one of our flavors. So it's something that you can enjoy and that you feel good about indulging in.

4:40Indulgent is definitely the word that comes to mind for me. And I like that you have the little treat culture infused into your branding because I did notice that you have two different sizes, which is very smart. You get the big boys and then what are they called? The chunks. The chomp size is the smaller size. When we started, my husband and I both were chefs. And And so that's kind of how we started this is marketing to chefs and having a dessert on their restaurant menu that they could feel proud of. And that's where the larger size came in. It was like just something decadent that the chefs could slice in half, plate, do a little drizzle, and just feel like it was something that their customers would love and really identify with.

5:25And so that's really how this started and how it took off. And then once we started getting into the retail side, it was like, you know, we want something a little smaller that just is more justifiable as a treat. There are a lot to take down the big display sandwiches. It's possible. We were cutting ours in half when we got the samples because, A, we needed to taste our way through all the flavors and have the experience together and, B, because it's indulgent. We like the chomp, too, because you can try different flavors and just, like, have an assortment. are like we like to say like do a charcuterie board of ice cream sandwiches.

6:02There's something I haven't seen yet. We've seen the butter boards. We've seen what frosting boards. I have not seen an ice cream charcuterie board yet, but hey, summer 2026. Yeah, that's the next thing. There you go. Well, you touched on this a little bit. Can you tell us a little bit more about why ice cream or how you got into making ice cream? Yeah, well, so my history is I was veteran of the Marine Corps. And when I left the service, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I always loved food. I loved to cook. I always was making our holiday meals, watching Food Network. And it was just something that I enjoyed.

6:41It was a passion for me. And so when I left the service, I was like, I'm going to go to culinary school and just like make that into my career. And that's how I met my husband, who is from Belgium. and he's a classically trained European chef and he's just the epitome of a European chef. He's just like a Belgian Santa Claus. That's what I always call him. He's just so full of joy and love for food and wine and just he has so much knowledge about it. And he came here 17 years ago to open a restaurant and that's how we met. I worked with him for a number of years and that's where we created the first ice cream sandwich as a menu or a dessert on his restaurant menu and that's just how all of this started all of this a love story for food and a love for each other definitely that really is what nightingale all is about too is like we just want to spread the joy of our product and you were saying asking about why ice cream and that's something that is such a nostalgic experience for people.

7:45It's like you remember when you were a child just running around in the summer and you stopped and had an ice cream sandwich or an ice cream pop. And it's such a joyful experience and such a joyful memory. And we wanted to bring that to the retail world with our ice cream sandwiches and recreating those moments, but just kind of increasing the quality of the product and having it elevated in indulgences. I have two things that I want to touch on with you when it comes to ice cream. First thing is that I noticed that you have a statement about palm oil on your website. Can you talk to us a little bit more about your stance on the sustainability with palm oil and why that's so important for brands who are choosing to use palm oil on their products?

8:35Yeah, I think it's definitely like a controversial ingredient and we very much are about sustainability with all of our ingredients all of our products we want to make sure we are being cognizant of what is out there and what is the best way to source these products it's something that we really make sure just a value of nightingale and everything that we do that the product is sourced sustainably so that's something that with palm oil, it does create a great product for us with our cookies. So we start with that as a base, but we are RSPO certified, which means that the palm oil is sustainably sourced and handled.

9:20Very cool. I think it's a very important call out for brands because I think palm oil can be a very polarizing ingredient for some people, especially if you're not in the manufacturing process and you're just seeing things unfold and seeing information on the internet versus actually being a part of that supply chain and incorporating it into your product. So I wanted to touch on that. Yeah, definitely. So we really want to like, that's something just again, that's a value of Nightingale is our number one value is product excellence. And that's just, again, goes into every single ingredient that we use as we want to make sure that it's the cleanest that we can use.

10:00It's the most sustainably sourced. And that's something that's very important. It's not just about the butterfat of the ice cream or the amount of cocoa powder or whatever. It's really thinking about those issues as well and making sure that we are on top of it all and have the best product we can for our customer. That is a very good segue into my second question that I had for you. Have you seen that ice cream is trending on social media right now, but maybe not for the reasons that you'd think? I haven't seen that. I mean, I think I know what you're talking about more is just like the way ice cream has different properties or what actually is ice cream.

10:45What are people passing off as ice cream? And I think that's something that's been coming up over the past like couple years is like really getting into what is actually in these products and what makes them melt or not melt or you know what makes them ice cream products versus just like a ice cream treat or something that you can kind of get away with calling it so I think a little bit I understand like where you're coming from with that Yes. So right now there's this big discussion happening on social media. People are going viral for talking about it. They're recognizing that some ice cream is labeled as ice cream.

11:26And then there's other products that look like ice cream, might taste like ice cream and give you the ice cream experience, but they are not labeled as ice creams. They're labeled as frozen dairy desserts. And I think that is so fascinating. My background is as a retail buyer for personal care products. And I just remember my mind was blown when I learned that Dove is not actually a soap bar. It's a beauty bar because the ingredients in the Dove bar do not make it soap. And then I'm thinking here, OK, this is the same thing that's happening in the ice cream aisle. In the frozen aisle, you have these frozen dairy desserts that are cosplaying as ice cream and they're actually not.

12:11Can you tell us a little bit about what the difference is between the two? Well, I mean, it's the difference of like, again, going back to the ingredients is there's some manufacturers out there that, of course, are just trying to get every penny they can, you know, out of their ingredients and like making the cheapest product possible. and just again that's not something that we are interested in is we want to have the ingredients that are yes they're more expensive of course like that is something that comes with using a quality product but it makes a difference to the consumer and I think that's really important is that it's so easy to go out there and try to make a quick buck and have the cheapest product that you can pass it off and try to, which I just think is such a, the wrong way to do things, is try to almost fool the customer.

13:03And like, that's not something that we want to do and that we try to do at Nightingales. We want to be very transparent about our product, our ingredients, and having the consumer really feel confident in what they're eating. You don't want to be sitting there even enjoying your ice cream and start looking at the wrapper and it's like, what is going on here? What is this? You really want to have that experience still be that joyful moment and not be taken away from by like a manufacturer trying to fool you, you know, with their packaging or their ingredients. And you mentioned this too, nightingale melts like ice cream should.

13:44That's right, yeah. That nostalgia that we have when we think about our childhood and eating an ice cream cone and having it melt, you get that same experience with a nightingale ice cream sandwich. That's always like the hardest part of running an ice cream company is that there's a fine balance. I mean, like it has to be frozen and goes through so many different distribution points and we have to protect our products so much. And that's like a very unique challenge to this business. But we also don't want to, again, like put ingredients into it that have it not melt to where something that you can leave out in the sun for hours and it doesn't melt.

14:25Like that's not something that you want. No, thank you. That's a great point, too, because I have heard about the scaling challenges for brands that are frozen or refrigerated. Can you talk to us about your journey from becoming a regional brand and then scaling up to a national brand, what that looked like for you and what the logistics looked like on your end? Yeah, I mean, every business has its challenges scaling. You know, I think just ours is that unique part of having a frozen product and not just a frozen product, but an ice cream product. And the ice cream products have even stricter temperature regulations than, say, like frozen peas or something like that.

15:07So that was definitely one of our biggest challenges because we're trying to maintain the product integrity throughout the whole distribution cycle. So coming from Richmond, Virginia, going to like the local grocery store is not such a concern. But then going from Richmond to Virginia all the way over to California, there's just so many different stops and things that you have to think about before it gets onto the grocery shelf. And that's one of the things that we've always found challenging is making sure that we have that product integrity throughout that whole cycle. And really that is just being so diligent about who you work with, your distribution partners.

15:52And we wanted to make sure that anyone that we worked with knew the challenges of our product and again didn't try to sweep it under the rug or do the bare minimum but knowing that it's an investment in a good product and that you have to make those investments to continue to grow and to scale in a business like ours. Can you tell me a little bit about red flags and green flags that you would look at when you're looking for those distribution partners? I would say a couple things is we really try as much as possible to do site visits that opens up your mind and to see their world and how they work.

16:31And that's something that I really believe in doing as much as possible is really going to visit your partners that you work with and seeing how they work. For me, I'm very much, I'm just so a little OCD organized. Like I I like to have things very clean. Everything has a place. And you can see that in our plant. You can see it just how we operate is that we really think of that when we have created our process. And you can definitely tell when you walk into a place where there's chaos. And that's something that I think, you know, emailing with your partners and all of that is great. But when you actually go and put your feet into their plant, their facility, whatever, that extra time you take to really vet out your partners is something that is so valuable.

17:21And I'm sure that you probably have a leg up having a restaurant industry background and having that culinary experience because you, I'm sure, are very familiar with mise en place, everything in its place. And that sounds like it's going from the kitchen into your ops and it helps you organize everything. A hundred percent. Yes. I love that you use that word mise en place. That's like, because my husband taught me so much, you know, about the restaurant world and just the culinary world and working in the kitchen. And that was always his, you know, number one thing is you have to be prepared, mise en place, have everything ready.

17:57If you have everything set up for yourself for success, even if you have something that throws you off, you have the tools right there to be able to fix it instead of having to run around, run into the walk-in or whatever to find what you need. So I really believe that has like a big part of why our background has a big part of like why we're successful in life, why we have such a well-run facility. I think it's all relative, you know. That's something that I do in my own home kitchen. I am by no means a chef, but I love to have everything pre-chopped and pre-measured and in its own bowl so that when it comes down to actually creating the recipe, everything's ready to go.

18:38I didn't have to think about it. I've read through the recipe already. Nothing's a surprise. I can just create my meal. I love it. You should come work for us. Don't tell Daniel that. That's exactly what I wrote you here. Yeah. Block your ears. I think I would be in serious danger if I worked for you. It's not like a bad place to work. I mean, how can you not enjoy where you make ice cream every day? Surrounded by ice cream all day would be, that's a red flag for me. but more power to you we love some self-restraint now it's just part of our day we eat ice cream every day i mean i would eat ice cream every day i don't know if it would be the best choice but i appreciate the offer i will respectfully and politely decline add you to our taste testers list we have like a growing list of people who want to be taste testers for nightingale that I will accept.

19:32So I got to ask you, you've gotten recognition from Food Network, Food and Wine, Delish. What does that feel like for you as a brand that started off regionally and has grown nationally? Oh, I mean, it's a wonderful feeling. I mean, you know, I think it's really great to look back. This is actually our 10 year anniversary and it's just so cool to look back and see, you know, what started out so small selling. You know, I used to make every single sandwich myself. My husband delivered them. We started out at farmer's markets and local grocery stores and restaurants. And just to look back and see the journey.

20:07It's been the best experience of my life is this journey with Nightingale and seeing where we've taken it to see people all over the country enjoy our product, our sandwiches. is it takes that feeling you get as a chef when you look out from your kitchen and see your customers just their faces light up when they put a bite of food in their mouth. It has that same feeling, but on such a larger scale. And I just love always to hear the feedback that never gets old of when people reach out and be like, oh, wow, that was just the best thing I've ever had. It was amazing. Like I'm a fan for life and like all of the headaches and struggles that you have daily, just growing this business, all that makes it worth it to me is just to have people who love our product.

21:00And again, going back, our mission is to bring moments of joy. And that's just what we do and what we strive for. And that's, I think why, again, why we're successful is like we really want and everything that we do really just builds up to that and creating those moments of joy for customers. I got to tell you, we were at the UNFI trade show in Connecticut. They had their selling show. This was, I want to say June or July 2025. We had an innovation section there. Nightingale was exhibiting at the show. And Jan from Yaw Snacks was like, you guys, you got to try Nightingale. This was my first experience with Nightingale.

21:43And he brings over these samples and he was forcing them on all of us in the section. It was the perfect treat for June in New England. It was just the best. That was my first introduction. And Jan was just so hyped about your products that he turned us all on to you. That's so great. I'm sure I know my husband was at that show. He just like handed them out to everybody. He just loves to share the product and the story. And we just like that's what it's all about is we love to have see people get excited about it and just taste it and just be like, oh, wow. And like run to share it with other people.

22:21And now I can't escape you because every time I go to my local Whole Foods, there is a big chest freezer near the checkout. So it's like, hey, I know you want me. Just pick one or a few up before you go. It's just a chest full of nightingale. very impressive. Thank you so much. Whole Foods has really been doing so well with the product. The chop size were in the freezers that you see. Sometimes they're in the bakery, sometimes they're in the front of the store, but they have about like eight to ten flavors depending on the time of the year. So it's just awesome spot to go and try. If you haven't had our product or if you have, just like to get the best assortment, get that charcuterie board out and cut them all up and have everybody try them.

23:07But yeah, Whole Foods has been such a great partner. We love working with them. What does seasonality look like for you? In my mind, I'm assuming summer is going to be a very fast moving time for you and your brand. Is that the case? Because there are some frozen brands that I've spoken to before that say, actually, no, that's when people want to go out and get ice cream at a shop versus buying it off the shelves. Definitely summer is our busy season. Like April through August is just super busy. We're slammed. It's just constant new accounts and fill-in freezers. And we do see like a pretty dramatic drop-off in the winter.

23:47It's not top of mind going into the holidays. Yes, it is a great dessert for holidays. And we're really trying to push that more as something that you can bring to your holiday gatherings and just kind of have something that's unique but we do see a drop off for sure it's just kind of the nature of it I think with your flavor profiles too especially I just have to shout out key lime pie again like why would I not opt to save a few hours of my time and not bake a pie when I could just go pick up some ice cream and deliver the same experience if not better exactly I love it see that's where you gotta work for us it's the same thing like the key lime pie that's what i love is like going into the flavors and like explaining the ingredients it's everything that's in a key lime pie it's sweetened condensed milk the florida west key lime juice and then our cookies are like the crust so it's just the same thing it's just frozen in a better form so what's your favorite Well, for years, it's been banana pudding.

24:52I love that flavor so much. And that's kind of our babies. It's just becoming more and more popular. And one of the reasons is just, again, like the quality ingredients and the care that we put into it. You know, we get hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh bananas in. We ripen them to the right stage, peel them, and then puree them into the ice cream. So you really get that actual banana flavor. It's not that artificial like Laffy Taffy type flavor. It's exactly like eating banana pudding. But then we've just come out with our caramel churro flavor, which is now they're competing for my favorite spot.

25:32I'm just not sure which one. The caramel churro is so delicious. It's a dulce de leche ice cream and it's swirled with cinnamon sugar churro pieces. And it's so delicious. I love it. I feel like you couldn't go wrong with any of those ingredients. Great flavor profiles. And it's very extensive, too. And speaking of extensive, what do you have coming up? Any exciting launches? Well, we actually do. We're very excited. We're expanding our partnership with Whole Foods. You're getting the first. look here about this partnership, but we're in the bakery freezer. So those freezers that you're talking about, the reach-in freezers, but we're also expanding into 175 Whole Foods Center Store.

26:18We'll have dual placement. We'll have the bunker freezers. You can go, you know, find your favorite flavor and then head on over to Center Store and pick up a four-pack of some of the flavors that we have available. So that's really exciting for us. We just, again, have such a great partnership with Whole Foods. They're so great to work with and they just continue to support us. And it's just, yeah, it's great. We're so excited for this Center Store launch. Congratulations. For anybody who's listening right now, I know there's founders that are listening. Can you just briefly explain what Center Store means?

26:53Yeah, so it's where we have the freezer doors. So if you just go into a store that shows you where the different products are, so you'll have your ice cream, ice cream novelties, things like that. So it's just when you go in and open that freezer door. Perfect. You know, I'm sure there are people here who have never heard that term before, so it's good to get some background. I hadn't heard it before either, but when I started, I was like, what are you talking about? So funny. All right, Hannah, it's been great chatting with you. Of course, I'm very hungry now and I would love some more Nightingale.

27:27Before we go, I have one other question to ask you before we wrap it up. Why Nightingale? What does the name mean? Well, so when I was a chef, we work at one restaurant. It was called Greenleaf's Pool Room, and it was named after Ralph Greenleaf, who is a world-famous pool player. It was a really cool place. We came up with the ice cream sandwich kind of to fit in with that because we did updated classics. So I would do like fancy deviled eggs. That was super fun. like french gypsy sandwich just like kind of things updated with that elevated experience and the ralph greenleaf his wife was called the oriental nightingale at that time was kind of a spinoff of that name it's just kind of transformed over the years it's just crazy to see we used to hand stamp every package with our logo of the bird that's just like had its own evolution of something that we actually took off a wall or took a picture of a wall of it was graffiti that my husband one time he was in Belgium and he just like took a picture of it and we turned that into our logo and then it's just changed so much over the years but it's just kind of a fun you know little tidbit about the company and about our logo and the name.