August 19
August 19, 2008
Edna Breaux Uzee
August 21, 2008
Nearly one year after opening Chubby’s Ice Cream Parlor in Thibodaux, Alex and Jill Mabry have taken on two new business partners to help expand the Chubby’s trademark in the Houma area.
“We look forward to coming into Terrebonne Parish and making an impact on the residents,” Alex said. “We want to be a big contributor to the community.”
Alex is a full-time employee with Cisco Food Distributors. But he’d always toyed with the idea of owning his own business.
“One day, I came home with the idea to open an ice cream shop. I told my wife about it and she thought I was nuts,” he said. “But I didn’t care. I knew what I wanted to do. I went to the bank and picked out a place and told her it was a done deal.”
The Mabry’s opened their ice cream parlor December 2007 on Canal Boulevard in Thibodaux. When it came time to pick a name for the place, Jill liked “My Chubby Hubby’s Ice Cream Shop” but – hard as it may be to believe – it is already taken: It’s a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor. Jill shortened the idea to “Chubby’s.”
The second task, creating a business logo, was much easier.
Alex opted for an upside-down sugar cone as a hat for a vanilla ice cream-faced clown. “We do it for the kids and the community,” he said. “We like making people smile.”
Alex said owning a business has gotten easier as the days pass. For the most part, the Mabrys are pleased with the success of the ice cream shop. Chubby’s will celebrate one year of service this December.
“It’s been a pleasure to be in business in Thibodaux. The people are so friendly and loyal,” he said. “We didn’t see a need for an ice cream parlor, but we did see a need for a family-friendly place for the community.”
When talk turned to expanding, the Mabrys immediately thought of Terrebonne Parish.
Thibodaux’s Gus Tierney and Christine Barrios will operate the Houma store. They partnered with the Mabrys in May 2008. This is the first business venture for both Tierney and Barrios.
“For years, we have talked about opening up a business, but we didn’t have any idea what we could do and still have our careers,” Barrios said.
Outside of the ice cream business, the two are full-time professionals.
At the rank of captain, Tierney is a firefighter with the Harvey Fire Department. He has been with the fire department for 19 years.
In the meantime, Barrios has worked at Thibodaux High School as a consumer science teacher for the past 28 years.
“I can be here every day except three days out of the week, and then Chris can be here on the weekends and at night,” Tierney explained. “We can make this work. It will be a win-win situation for everyone.”
Opening a second Chubby’s was actually Tierney’s idea. He’d been anxious to team up with his longtime friends in the business venture when the parlor first opened its doors in Thibodaux.
He contemplated it for a couple of months before approaching Alex about branching out.
“I told Alex that I needed to talk to him about something,” Tierney said. “We were in the backyard and I told him that I wanted to open another Chubby’s.”
“I thought he was joking,” Alex said of that conversation. “But Monday morning, I got the call that everything was in place, and all I had to do was give the go-ahead. From there, it has been nonstop for us.”
When asked how she felt about buying into the Chubby’s name, Barrios said from the beginning she was onboard with the idea. She predicts owning a business with the Mabrys will be fun and exciting. Not to mention that she is a Chubby’s fanatic.
The partnership is also a family effort. Barrios’ daughter, Ashley, has been hired as the evening manager, and her sister-in-law, Arlene Distefano, will serve as morning manager.
The estimated buy-in cost for the Houma store was $75,000. It is located at 292 South Hollywood Road. The store is currently being renovated and is not open yet.
Chubby’s is planning a soft opening during Labor Day weekend.
The owners chose the 17,000 square-foot building in Hollywood South Plaza as the most profitable location because their aim is to attract the lunch crowd that comes off Louisiana Highway 311 and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
“Houma’s going to be in for a shock once we open,” Alex said.
A seven-person team will operate the Houma location – the same as the Thibodaux store. However, no employees have been hired for the Houma store other than the managers.
Just like its competitors, Chubby’s offers a variety of flavors. But Alex believes that having a marble slab mixer helps to set his parlor apart from the rest.
With the mixer, customers can combine an array of Chubby’s unique recipes, he said.
The top 10 mixed flavors are the Crunch-a-Nator, the Black Forest, Cinn-a-Mental, the Snapping Turtle Sundae, the Swamp Mud Sundae, the Cajun Pirogue, the Louisiana Lazy Man, the German Chocolate Cake, the Ultimatum and the Louisiana Purchase.
“The flavors are too complex to tell residents what’s in them,” Alex said. “All they need to know is that they are good. Our motto here is ‘Let your imagination run wild.'”
The Houma store will have the same closing hours as the Thibodaux location except that it will open an hour earlier, at 11 a.m.
Alex said during football season, both Chubby’s Ice Cream Parlor locations will stay open until 11 on Friday nights.
Chubby’s Ice Cream Parlor is expanding into Terrebonne Parish. Store owner Alex Mabry (at right) is teaming with business partners Gus Tierney (left) and Christine Barrrios to open a second parlor at Hollywood South Plaza and South Hollywood Road in Houma. * Photo by SOPHIA RUFFIN
