Danielle Jowdy, founder of Zsa’s Ice Cream in Philadelphia’s Mount Airy neighborhood, announced that her beloved ice cream shop will close its doors in December 2025. Jowdy, who began making ice cream as a hobby after being laid off in 2009, has spent over 14 years perfecting her craft and growing a dedicated local following.
Her journey into ice cream started with a hand-cranked ice cream maker given to her as a wedding gift. She first experimented with making pumpkin ice cream for a Friendsgiving celebration, and soon realized that working with ingredients like canned pumpkin, milk, and cream required fine-tuning to avoid ice crystals in the final product. Over the years, Jowdy has refined her recipes and grown the business into a cherished local brand. Despite having no formal culinary or business training, her passion for creating from scratch and sharing it with others became a hallmark of Zsa’s.
“I don’t have any formal food training. I don’t have any formal business training. And that’s really where our catchphrase — seriously from scratch — came from,” Jowdy shared. “I enjoyed sharing it with people and watching them form these connections amongst each other because it’s the simplest thing to make a friend with, right? Like everybody has a favorite flavor of ice cream.”
Jowdy’s path from hobbyist to business owner took her through farmer’s markets, local grocery stores, and even an ice cream truck, before culminating in the opening of Zsa’s Ice Cream shop in Mount Airy in 2018. Recently, both Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Magazine named Zsa’s among the best ice cream spots in the city.
But despite the shop’s success, Jowdy revealed that the decision to close was driven by escalating business costs. Over the years, the rising prices of local dairy products, chocolate, and insurance have made it increasingly difficult to maintain the business. After considering various options—including taking out loans to expand, transitioning to a seasonal operation, or wholesaling to grocery stores again—Jowdy ultimately decided that closing the shop was the best choice to preserve the integrity of Zsa’s operations and to avoid burnout.
“The hardest thing was seeing the look of disbelief on everybody’s faces,” she said. “And one of my staffers said that this is so hard to believe because we just had a mural painted last summer. We’re so busy during the summer. How could this be that we’re making this decision to close?”
Jowdy explained that while Zsa’s has a strong, loyal following, the financial pressures of scaling up the business to keep it running long-term would detract from the personal attention she gives to her team and customers. She plans to continue serving ice cream for another year, giving her customers the opportunity to enjoy Zsa’s for as long as possible before closing time arrives.
Local support for Zsa’s has been unwavering, with Weavers Way Co-op—where Zsa’s ice cream was once sold wholesale—expressing regret over the upcoming closure. Jon Roesser, Weavers Way’s general manager, noted that customers frequently ask about the ice cream, which has left a notable gap in the Co-op’s offerings since Jowdy ceased wholesaling in 2020.
“I’m super-bummed,” Roesser said. “So much of the burden falls on the person who founded the business, and eventually, it’s exhausting. I certainly understand.”
Philip Dawson, executive director of the Mount Airy Community Development Corporation, also praised Jowdy for her success and impact on the local community. He noted that Zsa’s represented the type of hand-crafted, locally focused business that thrives in Mount Airy. “Danielle has found great success in Mount Airy, and the community has been the beneficiary of that,” Dawson said.
Despite the closure, Jowdy said she feels proud of what she’s accomplished. “If somebody had said to me, even five years ago, ‘What’s your exit plan for this? How do you think this may end someday?’ I probably would have thought that an exit plan meant that you had failed,” she reflected. “But now, I feel very confident that we’ve run this business to the best of our ability, and that the exit plan that we do have is a really strong one.”
Looking ahead, Jowdy is considering future ventures in the food industry, possibly helping others who are starting small businesses for the first time. She also hopes to take a much-needed break, as she admits she can’t remember the last time she had a day off.
As Zsa’s Ice Cream prepares to close its doors in 2025, the Mount Airy community and many fans of the shop will undoubtedly miss the hand-crafted flavors and personal touch that Jowdy brought to the business over the past 14 years.
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