North Manchester ice cream and donut shop expands in Fort Wayne

A North Manchester ice cream and donut shop has opened its second location in southwest Fort Wayne. ChillzDelights was founded by Janzin Cripe. He opened his very first location in North Manchester in 2018. 

Through trial and error, ChillzDelights grew in popularity. Then, Cripe looked to Fort Wayne for a second location. Between the economic opportunities and the family ties, it was an obvious choice for Cripe to add a second location in Fort Wayne. 

Input Fort Wayne sat down with Janzin Cripe to learn more about his journey as a business owner and content creator. 

Input Fort Wayne: What inspired you to start an ice cream business?

Janzin Cripe: Ultimately, I started this business as a sophomore at Purdue University. It was one of those things where I had been applying for internships. At the time, I was studying economics, and I thought it was the thing to do – I needed to get an internship. I started just doing some interviews and realized very quickly that that was not going to be for me. 

It got me thinking, ‘Okay, I’ve always wanted to start a business.’ The idea of ice cream came into play, and it was an opportunity in our hometown, North Manchester, where there really just wasn’t much for ice cream at the time, and I said, “Let’s do it!”

I jumped in headfirst and knew absolutely nothing about ice cream. I did not have any previous experience with ice cream. It would have helped, I’ll be honest, because the first year was definitely a grind. Then, pretty much every year after that was a grind too and still is, but that’s how it began. I just went one step at a time.

My sisters own a business called Rhinestones and Roses. They allowed me to set up a shed on the property of their business in North Manchester. Renovating a shed to make it work was something that was reasonably affordable and allowed me to get going and test it out. I just knew I wanted it to be this color of green, and I wanted it to be a place that makes people happy, and that has been the burning passion that has really kept this thing going. It didn’t necessarily start with a passion for ice cream, but the way ice cream makes people feel – that’s pretty great, and that’s been the thing that’s been so addicting over the years.

I started ChillzDelights in a small community of 5,000 people, and I’m so grateful for that community. Over the years, I’ve tried so many different variations, so many different concepts and twists and turns, different ideas. For them to still just kind of stick with me and be willing to give feedback on those items has really led us to what Chillz is today and will continue to grow and morph into. 

IFW: What made you choose Fort Wayne as your second location, and how has the response from the community been? 

JC: The dream over the years has always been more locations and I’ve kind of had this guiding light in my head the entire time that I’ve been doing this and it has not been an easy road you know eight years into this thing at this point and you know just now working on that second location and really getting things moving here has been a dream come true. 

Fort Wayne was very obvious to me. For one, I mean, from just the economic side of the brain, a very high population, and it is the closest thing to us with that high of a population, so from that perspective, that all checked out.

I’ve grown up coming here my entire life, my mom has a business, Animal-Grams…I grew up helping with this business every weekend. We were always in Fort Wayne, pretty much every weekend, working. Because of that, it was just such an obvious transition to bring this business that I put everything into to a place where I’ve grown up. 

It’s kind of funny, I’ve never lived here, but in a way, it just seems so obvious that this was the next transition. I’m pretty familiar with the area already and it just felt like the right move and you know as far as reception goes, I’ve been absolutely blown away and it’s been insanity just trying to keep up with it all. We’re finally in our groove now and able to really operate smoothly, and it’s requiring less of my time, which has also been a lot of fun too, so I get to kind of start working on other aspects of our business, which has been fun.

My sisters’ business, Rhinestones and Roses, also has a location in Fort Wayne, and so it’s been fun to see us both grow. 

IFW: How long had the Fort Wayne location been in the works before it became a reality? 

JC: This second location took a year just to get open. I signed the lease, and then it was practically a year by the time it opened. Did I face any challenges? Yeah, oh yeah. It’s been constant challenges  – a hurdle every step of the way. But I knew that’s how it would be. I knew. 

I didn’t come into this with a ton of money, so it was one of those things I knew was going to be a challenge in and of itself. I’m still learning, still figuring out what this concept is, and what Chillz truly is to its core. I’ve had these ideas, and being able to kind of put them together has been a really cool thing, but as far as challenges go, running out of money constantly. That has been eight years of struggle. It’s not easy. 

Between our previous location in North Manchester, I relocated from the shed to a new location, and that was one of the hardest times of my life. That building ended up being a complete nightmare and was a total overhaul. It ended up taking every penny that I had in my name, everything, any personal savings that I had, anything the business had, and then some debt. It was a very scary time, and at the end of the day, you just have to keep going. What’s the alternative? When you start asking yourself that question, you realize there is no alternative; this is it, this is what I’m doing. 

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IFW: When did you feel ChillzDelights had found success? 

JC: That’s a great question because it’s hard to even know what success means. In my head, it still feels like day one, July 1, 2018. Still figuring things out. Still on a wing and a prayer. It still feels that way to me, and the irony is, even on our 20th location, I’m imagining I’ll probably still say that same thing. It’s hard to say. 

I will say this: this past year has been a very eye-opening year for me. It’s definitely changed my life. It kind of finally felt like we broke through. It felt like people began to know about us. This past year, it’s been a really tough road, truthfully. It has not been easy, and it’s just humbled me in so many ways. It ripped apart any little bit of ego I would have had left. This past year marks posting on social media for eight years. When you put your life into something and also share it all online, like it’s a pretty scary thing, and to be able to just put it all out there and also get a reception to it has been the most humbling thing of my life. 

So, between how busy we were at our Manchester location this past year, with people traveling hours, like I had a guy travel from Fort Worth, Texas, to come to ChillzDelights. I can’t even wrap my head around that to this day. So many people traveling two, three, four, five hours to get here, that was really eye-opening. 

Then, when we opened in Fort Wayne, having a literal non-stop line for almost three weeks straight out the door and down the plaza was the craziest experience of my life. I’m still recovering. I really am. I’m still tired, but I’ll take that every day of the week over the days of making $30 like I did in the beginning. 

IFW: What role does social media play within your business? 

JC: The way I look at social media and business is it’s one of the same. You would be crazy at this point not to be sharing your story. Learning how to market yourself and the business you’re in is priority number one. You can have the absolute best product in the world, but if you aren’t able to get that message out there about that product, it means nothing. So it is so important. 

Word of mouth is also extremely important because the other side of things is, I’ve definitely seen at this point, it’s like we’re almost perceived as that as “that TikTok place.” But you know what, we’ll take that. I’m extremely grateful to even have people mention us in any form, but the reality is, I would still be here one way or another without social media. If that means I’m going knocking door to door and handing out donuts, I’ll do that. Social media is an extremely important tool that is something that I’m sure our grandparents would have dreamed of having if they were opening a business 50 years ago. It’s available to us, and it would be crazy not to use it.

IFW: You have over 23,000 followers on TikTok. How do you balance being a business owner and creating content online?

JC: For years, it was just me. I was posting. I was videoing. I was editing. The part people don’t really think about is always being on. I don’t know how to explain that entirely unless you’ve experienced it, but you’re always on, and you’re always being videoed. You’ve got to be ready for anything. It’s so extremely difficult. It’s two full-time jobs. The day is not over when the day is over. You work 12 hours, and now I have to edit a video. Now, I have to do this. Now, I have to do that. It is extremely difficult. 

I thankfully now have roped my fiancée into our social media lineup, and now she can really help me with a lot of it and is taking it to levels that I was never good enough to do. So it’s been a lot of fun to kind of see her grow within that and really kind of see your own creative juices flowing, I guess you could say, because it is not easy.

I mean, I encourage people to jump into social media if you have a business, but I also warn people, you know, it’s non-stop. It is 24/7, always thinking about new content ideas, new business ideas – I mean all those things.

IFW: What’s your favorite item on the ChillzDelights menu? JC: I actually just did a video on this pretty recently. People have kind of been pointing at the Janzin Specialty, or whatever you want to call it. It’s a donut delight, but it has our amaretto cherry and lemon cheesecake ice cream flavors, and then hot marshmallow, of course, with our warm glazed donuts. So it’s a fantastic donut delight. Honestly, I’ve been eating that for years, and people have been asking me more and more what my favorite item is, and it’s that. It really is. It would be that or our classic glazed donuts. I would say the primary reason is just the amount of work that’s gone into developing our homemade donut recipe. Everybody told me that’d be a bad idea. Frankly, they were right, just with the amount of time that it took, but overall, I would say glazed donuts and then that specialty.

Follow ChillzDelights on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, or visit their website.