Meet our Suppliers: Scoop and Crumb
Scoop and Crumb are local ice-cream legends, and have been supplying English’s with wonderfully inspiring ice-cream for almost two years. In the latest in our series of interviews with our suppliers, we chat to Jonathan Dickson, owner of Scoop and Crumb, about when his love affair with ice-cream began, and what his personal favourites are.
When did you begin making ice-cream?
I trained as a chef at Brighton College back in the late 80’s before working abroad, including a stint at Movenpick in Switzerland, who are big ice cream makers. I then returned to the UK and studied restaurant management and ran a Haagen Dazs restaurant in Brighton. After catering I moved into business for a number of years but kept my passion in food and ice cream. Luckily our fortunes changed and we decided in 2007 to open Brighton’s first ice cream parlour.
Do you serve anything else at Scoop and Crumb?
Along with quality ice creams and sorbets, we have the largest ice cream sundae menu in the UK with over 50 different sundaes, including the UK’s biggest sundae, The Die Happy Sundae. If you finish it on your own you will probably die, but happily… We also have a good range of home-made cakes, an excellent choice of hot dogs, open sandwiches and baguettes. Our philosophy is, if we can’t make it in-house then we source from high quality local suppliers, such as the Home Cakery, the Brighton Sausage Company and Springs Salmon.
When did you first get in touch with English’s?
We are exceptionally proud to be have been a supplier of English’s for nearly 2 years. I first ate in the restaurant when I was 20 with my family, and never would have thought that 25 years later I would be a supplier to one of the best fish restaurants on the South Coast.
Do you have plans to open another cafe?
If anyone fancies funding it I’m ready.
How many ice-creams do English’s try before selecting the right flavours for their menu?
English’s select ice creams to suit the season and their menu style. The flavours are quintessentially British, such as Pimms Sorbet or Lavender and Honey ice cream. When they have an idea for a flavour we make up a sample to try and nearly always we manage to create what they are looking for. 
What are your favourite flavours?
Hard to choose my favourite as I like them all, but chocolate, lemon curd & ginger is rather scrummy.
What’s the most adventurous flavour that you currently serve in your shop?
We once made a Tokyo Tiramisu, which consisted of layers of honey and ginger ice cream sandwiched between red bean paste and sponge soaked in Sake. Seriously cool! We’ve been asked to recreate a Tequila Sunrise sorbet, which is not easy to do…
What’s are most popular flavours that you serve?
Our classics are always popular, including roasted plum crumble, cinnamon ginger biscuit, Eton mess, gooseberry foul, sherry trifle and sticky toffee pudding. Our philosophy is always taste first, and as a result we’ve been lucky enough to have won awards for our ice cream at the National Ice Cream Competition for the last four years running, which we are immensely proud of. The competition has tight rules and stipulations that must be followed and flavours are generally chosen by the committee beforehand so all the entries across the country are being compared.
You can find Scoop and Crumb just round the corner at 5-6 East Street, Brighton, BN1 1HP.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/scoopandcrumb
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScoopAndCrumb
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/scoopandcrumb/
