The owners of Isabellaβs Ice Cream, the mom-and-pop operation that launched in 2010 from a restored 1920s Ford Model T, dissolved the company this week and will file for bankruptcy.
βUnfortunately, we filed articles of termination with the state and the business will be filing bankruptcy,β said Kristel Johnson, who started the business with her husband, Dominic. βItβs been a lot of tears over the last few months.β
The move comes after the Johnsons late last year lost a $30,000 lawsuit filed by the Gadsden Co., owners of the Mercado San Agustin and the MSA Annex on South Avenida del Convento. The Johnsons had signed a two-year lease in 2016 to open an ice-cream shop in the Annex, a collection of refashioned shipping containers set around an open courtyard that was still in the planning and early construction phase.
Kristel Johnson said that construction delays pushed their Annex opening back by nearly two years. In that time, the couple had opened two shops β one on North Fourth Avenue downtown, the second in American Eat Co. on South Fourth. In September 2018, they told Gadsdenβs owners, Adam and Kira Weinstein, that they were pulling out of their lease. A month later, they closed both their ice-cream shops, although American Eat Co. still sells Isabellaβs ice cream through its Cafe Con Leche coffee shop.
Adam Weinstein said he and his wife tried to work with the Johnsons to recoup the money they invested in improvements made specifically for Isabellaβs Ice Cream and the lost rental revenue, but they were unable to reach an out-of-court agreement.
βItβs very, very unfortunate that thatβs what it came to,β said Weinstein, who said he and his wife championed Isabellaβs early on when the Johnsons rented commissary space at the Mercado to make the ice cream.
Johnson said she is not sure what she and her husband will do next, βbut I feel like when one door closes another one opens,β she said.
