‘Shark Tank’ success story Crispy Cones comes to Layton
-
- The exterior of Layton’s Crispy Cones, photographed on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024.
-
- The interior of Layton’s Crispy Cones, photographed on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024.
-
- An original creation from Layton’s Crispy Cones, photographed on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024.
LAYTON — Residents of northern Davis County now have a whole new way to enjoy soft-serve ice cream (or, rather, the cones that contain them).
Local couple Shelly and Scott Thorne opened the area’s first Crispy Cones franchise — located just off of Antelope Drive at 2086 N. Harris Boulevard, Suite 2 — earlier this month, bringing with it the emerging chain’s signature fresh dough cones, which are grilled rotisserie-style in the store.
Shelly Thorne told the Standard-Examiner that the move to get into the ice cream business was sudden and unexpected.
“Last summer, we went to Logan to see a musical and my daughter saw a picture of Crispy Cones on Instagram and sent it to me and said, ‘Well, we’re up there. We should go.’ And I said, ‘Alright, let’s try it,’ … It was so good. I thought, ‘I need this closer to me. I need this in my life,’ and I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” she said.
“That night, I went home and did a little bit of research and ended up signing us up for a franchise and then told my husband the next day.”
The events that led to Crispy Cones’ creation were similarly unlikely.
During a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Czech Republic, founder Jeremy Carlson was exposed to what the people who lived there call “trdelník” — conical dough cakes that are cooked on a stick, sometimes over coals on street corners, and then topped with sugar and other sweet ingredients.
“On my last (mission) transfer, I actually had a dream of me making this in the U.S. and I was like, ‘That was so weird. I’m not a chef. I’m not a baker. I don’t know anything about that. That’s insane,'” Carlson told the Standard-Examiner.
The BYU-Idaho alum was inspired by the dream and encouraged by others to pursue the idea as an actual business. From there, Crispy Cones was launched out of a tent in Rexburg, Idaho, while Carlson was still attending school in 2018. Two years later, Carlson and wife/business partner Kaitlyn Carlson opened brick-and-mortar locations in Logan and Rexburg.
To take Crispy Cones to the next level, the Carlsons presented their business on an episode of ABC’s ‘Shark Tank,’ which aired in March 2023. After impressing the sharks with their product, the pair ultimately landed a deal with investor Barbara Corcoran.
“It’s phenomenal,” Carlson said of working with Corcoran. “She’s an investor, partner, mentor and advisor. She helps us with scalability and national growth, national vendors, national partners; she’s been our biggest cheerleader.”
Flash forward to now and Carlson says that the expectation is for there to be some 65 operating Crispy Cones franchises by 2025. Locations are already up and operating in Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Florida and Tennessee, with more to come in other states.
For their part, the Thornes have been taken aback by the reception their fledgling franchise has received in Layton.
“The community support has been above and beyond what we could have even imagined,” Thorne said. “We had a friends and family event and the line wrapped around the building. And then, the next day, grand opening, the line wrapped around the building from open to close.”
The Thornes continue to receive support from the Carlsons, too.
“Jeremy, the CEO of the organization — that has 60-something franchisees currently signed up to open up new Crispy Cones — was cleaning my tables during my opening,” Scott Thorne told the Standard-Examiner.
The Layton Crispy Cones is open weeklong, including during limited Sunday hours, and offers a military discount in recognition of nearby Hill Air Force Base. However, the Thornes are hoping everyone living and working in the area can come in and enjoy their own, customized ice cream creations on the business’ signature gourmet cones.
Added Carlson: “Go visit the Layton location and become a super fan.”
