Clementine’s Creamery in St. Louis: All-natural ice cream in decadent flavors

Tamara Keefe had her “aha” moment staying at Lake of the Ozarks with some close friends.

“I broke down,” she said, smiling now at the memory of those tears. “I said, ‘I’m 38 years old. People think I have this glamorous life.’ I was traveling (for work) all the time. In 2012, it was 262 days. I said, ;I can’t do this.’ ... My friends started laughing! I said, ‘What should I do?’”

By the time she returned to St. Louis, with a little help from her brainstorming friends, she had a plan: Her adopted city and neighbors in Lafayette Square needed some really great ice cream. And she was going to give it to them.

But “I wanted to do it different.” She did.

Today, near the corner of Lafayette and Eighth streets, sits the Scoop Shop of Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery. It’s where 39-year-old Tamara and her cheerful and knowledgeable staff sell the small-batch ice cream she creates. Think “nice” flavors like Brown Butter Candied Pecan, Midnight Pleasures (several kinds of chocolate), Decadent Coffee and Summer Southern Sweet Corn (a seasonal hit).

On the “naughty” side, you’ve got to be 21 or older to try her Banana Rum with Salted Butterscotch Caramel Swirl and Chocolate Cabernet, among others. Maple Bourbon is the favorite in that category.

Boozy or not, think really high butterfat content and all-natural ingredients. Everything made from scratch — Tamara even makes her own caramels. Cream from very happy, local, pasture-raised cows. The mint in Front Porch Mint comes from a community garden.

Ice cream can go into cones, waffle bowls and cups with petite (two scoops, $4.50), moyer (three scoops, $5.50) and Grande Cru, a tasting platter of five scoops for $9.95. Sundaes are $6.50/$7.50. Add toppings like strawberry-balsamic glaze, doughnut chips, candied bacon and honey-roasted pistachios.

“Gooey Butter Cake is our best seller,” Tamara said, standing near the glass case where all her creations reside (temporarily) in tubs. A chalkboard shows what flavors are available each day, naughty and nice. Typically, there at least two dozen, with pints in the freezer to take home.

“Plus, we have one vegan flavor all the time,” she said.

She’s always thinking up new flavors.

“This morning I dreamt about fresh peaches,” she said. “A new naughty flavor: beer, peaches and white chocolate, I think.”

Clementine’s has a commercial kitchen in a small-business incubator in the city where Tamara has been making ice cream since last October. It’s called a micro-creamery, which according to the state means the business can make no more than 3,000 gallons a year of small-batch (20 quarts max), all-natural ice cream with at least 16 percent butterfat and no more than 30 percent overrun, which is the air whipped into it. (100 percent is typical of commercial ice cream.)

“That’s when we started selling to restaurants,” she said of fall 2014. Her ice cream is offered at a variety of eateries in the bi-state area, including Cleveland-Heath in Edwardsville. It’s also sold at Whole Foods stores.

She opened the Scoop Shop in May, buying a narrow, two-story building and turning the first floor into a French-inspired space with white subway tile and vintage brass sconces on the walls. But even before that happened, word got out in her neighborhood and she ended up delivering ice cream to customers who couldn’t wait for the creamery to open its retail doors.

“We did 1,500 pints in December.” Plus, Tamara and her team will come to your wedding, birthday or special event to serve up flavors out of Clementine’s Spoons & Spokes Bike Cart.

Of course, this dream didn’t come without sacrifice: A marketing executive for a nutrition company, Tamara was tranfered to St. Louis from California in 2008. She came to area “kicking and screaming,” she said, complaining she didn’t even know where the St. Louis was.

Then she fell for the place, especially her Lafayette Square neighborhood. She quit her job in April 2014 and cashed out just about every penny she had to invest in the business.

It helped that she had inspiration to spur on her plan: She grew up in Southern California with a mom who decided that when they didn’t have money for ice cream after church on Sundays, the family would make its own.

You’ll always find Tommy’s Toffee Butter Brickle on the menu. It’s a family classic and named for her oldest brother.

Clementine, she said, is a favorite name — one she would give to a daughter if she had one.

Today, she couldn’t be happier with her leap of faith in ice cream and business acumen. “It’s my passion, my life. It’s 24/7, but that’s all right. I own my life. I make the happiest product. I make people happy.”

She plans to spread the happiness over the next two years, when she opens four more shops in city neighborhoods.

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 4:16 AM with the headline "Clementine’s Creamery in St. Louis: All-natural ice cream in decadent flavors."