Climb Ice Cream coming to The OC Mix section of South Coast Collection this fall

When growing up, JoJo Ichikawa vividly remembers “convincing” her father to allow her to enjoy ice cream for breakfast every morning. After all, the then six-year-old reasoned, anything made from fresh strawberries and cream must be healthy, right? That love for ice cream never wavered and, after discovering an equally-strong passion for rock and ice climbing, Ichikawa and her husband Matt are combining the two interests to open the inaugural Climb Ice Cream at South Coast Collection in Costa Mesa. The entrepreneurs signed a lease with Continental Realty Corporation and intend to open their shop at the 292,000-square-foot luxury home furnishing and design lifestyle center this Labor Day. Jillian Sabaugh, CEO, Ukropina Sabaugh, represented the landlord in this lease transaction and Dale Falasco, President, Newport West Properties, represented the tenant in this lease transaction.

JoJo Ichikawa is pivoting from a career in the high-tech industry to start this new venture. Her climbing experiences have taken her to exotic places all over the globe, including Iceland, Cuba and Scotland – as well as to less exotic areas such as dairy farms in Connecticut and Nebraska – where she has sampled the most natural and best-tasting flavors. Ichikawa’s discerning tastebuds have led her endeavor to produce the highest-quality and most differentiated ice cream product available in the Southern California region.

“The ingredients used are everything, as you can imagine,” she said. “If you ever tasted ice cream churned from milk derived from cows that morning, you would taste the obvious difference and that is what I am striving for. I have experienced this in Sweden, Nebraska, and places around the world and that is my gold standard.”

The journey started in Ichikawa’s kitchen when she started experimenting with different recipes and held “tasting parties” for up to 30 friends. In one exercise, she used four different types of vanilla extract to determine which one tasted better and, after each event, she returned to her kitchen laboratory to perfect the formula. Slowly, a few rose to the top - just like cream – including one that utilized Ube – a yam popular in the West Coast, Hawaii and the Philippines. Following the encouragement of friends, family members and even herself, Ichikawa made the bold decision to quit her job and start Climb Ice Cream.

She settled on flavors including pRappel – Ube Chocolate Chip, Chocolate-Peanut Butter Oreo, Do Yuzu Wanna Climb?, Mount Matcha, Sum-Mint Chip, We Climb at Dawn! – Cardamom Vanilla, and Strawberry v5 (of course), with many of the names serving as a nod to her climbing passion. All milk is sourced from Los Angeles-area dairy farms and special ingredients are flown in from around the world, including Matcha, a green tea powder grown in Japan. Climb Ice Cream will also serve non-dairy frozen desserts.

“Climbing requires you to shut off everything inside your brain and be completely in the moment, or something bad will happen,” Ichikawa explained. “Eating ice cream, on the other hand, is a carefree moment, but both experiences bring complete joy and excitement.”

“Upon learning there were no ice cream stores at The OC Mix, we immediately knew it was the perfect place for us,” Ichikawa said, “but we received another strong signal when hearing that a prominent climbing store - Gear Coop - previously leased space at South Coast Collection. We thought that karma was too good to pass up,” she laughed.

Located at 3303-3323 Hyland Avenue in Orange County, and with frontage on the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405), SoCo is anchored by BoConcept, Design Within Reach, La-Z-Boy, and Roche Bobois, with additional retailers including Brown Jordan, Natuzzi Italia, and Room & Board. Restaurants and food concepts include Arc Food and Libations, Butcher’s House, Greenleaf Kitchen & Cocktails, Moulin, Il Girasole, and Portola Coffee.

“Climb Ice Cream helps round out our tenant mix and provides the perfect complement to our sit-down and fast-casual dining options at The OC Mix,” said Kristina O'Keefe, Vice President of the Commercial Division at CRC. “Its arrival adds a fun and compelling new category and furthers our goal of attracting popular destinations for the local community.”

More than 340,000 vehicles pass the SoCo site on an annual basis via Interstate 405. More than 200,000 people, including more than 65,000 households with an average household income exceeding $132,000, are located within a three-mile radius of SoCo. Additionally, 125,000 people work within a three-mile radius.