Epic Cones is a cool mobile ice cream truck catering to everyone who loves ice cream, with 100 per cent of the menu options safe for people with any nut allergies.
Epic Cones is a creation born of necessity from Danielle and Adam Turuba, recognizing the need for desserts that are not only completely tree nut and peanut free but also totally delectable.
The husband and wife team’s own son has a serious peanut allergy, so it’s not something they take lightly.
“There was nothing local that was safe for him to just go pick anything off the menu,” explains Danielle. “So my husband had this idea to start a business.”
Since the summer of 2018 they have been offering unique, flavourful and memorable desserts from the Epic Cones ice cream trailer. They wanted a business where they could interact with people, express themselves in their work and participate in community events.
“We wanted to do things a little bit different from anything in the Thunder Bay area.”
Turuba highlights the importance of quality ingredients made from scratch.
“We have all fresh baked items, I bake everything home-made.”
All of their crumbles, cakes, right down to the toffee bits are made in house, setting them apart from other places in town.
The Turubas intended for Epic Cones to be a fun weekend side-gig but it soon exploded into a full time business.
“Our customers honestly, have been great. They continue to show up, over and over again.”
She credits the enthusiasm and customer relationships for Epic Cones’ ongoing success.
“I love interacting with everybody and I love giving back to the community.”
Epics Cones has classic flavours like strawberry, chocolate and vanilla milkshakes, simple soft serve, non-dairy fruit smoothies like tropical breeze, berry blast and strawberry banana. Sundaes and cups with tasty toppings like s’mores supreme, brownie explosion and their most popular — caramel apple crumble. They go through almost 1,000 pounds of apples each season — peeling, coring and cutting everything by hand.
“Exhilarating everybody’s taste buds, we really want to focus on keeping everybody happy. We found that nut-free has opened up so many doors for us. We teamed up with schools this year because schools have to be nut-free. So we did a lot of graduations and family picnics.”
They’ve expanded their menu to include gluten-free options and dairy intolerance so there’s something for everyone at Epic Cones.
The trailer does limit their selection because only so many ice-cream machines can run at a time, which is why they are hoping to expand to a brick and mortar location. They also need more space to accommodate the baking preparations.
“All the baking that we do, just last Christmas I did over 190 baking trays.”
All of their hard work and dedication has paid off, Epic Cones attained triple platinum status for ‘Community Votes’ winning Best Ice Cream, Best Dessert and Best Food Truck.
Epic Cones can be found all over the district, at schools and community events like The Canadian Lakehead Exhibition, Folklore Festival, Ribfest, Nipigon’s Fall Fishing Festival and local community centres. When they’re not at festivals, you can find them every Sunday at Oriental Gardens and Apple Self Storage in Northwood on Saturdays.
