Meet Natasha Case of Coolhaus Ice Cream in Culver City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natasha Case.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Natasha. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I majored in architecture in college at UC Berkeley and then began to explore the intersection of food and architecture (I call it “Farchitecture”) and how design could enhance your eating experience while in grad school at UCLA. After graduating, I was an architectural intern at Walt Disney’s hotel division, and around that time I started baking cookies and making ice cream and naming the ice cream sandwich combinations after famous architects and architectural movements for some comic relief among our staff since there were a bunch of layoffs happening while I was there.

During that period I met Freya Estreller, who’s now my wife, and she helped me make those ice cream sandwiches behind the scenes while also crunching the numbers to turn our hobby into an actual business. A few months later we bought a beat-up postal van on Craigslist and turned it into an ice cream truck for our ice cream sandwich line, which we officially named Coolhaus after architect Rem Koolhaas, Bauhaus– the minimalist design and lifestyle movement of the 1920s and 1930s in Germany– and because the ice cream sandwiches looked like tiny cold houses!

Then we drove out to Coachella in April 2009 to make our debut, and thankfully the festival helped us build buzz through a loyal social media following and a ton of viral press, and before we knew it, we were in business!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Having so little money and resources to work with was without a doubt hindering.

However, the most valuable advice came from our friends who were so excited and supportive of our wackiness.

Which really gave me the fuel to go on, knowing that even if I failed I had a team rooting for me.

Please tell us about Coolhaus Ice Cream.
I oversee the Coolhaus business on a daily basis for our two LA-based brick and mortar scoop shops in Pasadena and Culver City, as well as leading expansions outside of LA. We currently have ten mobile ice cream trucks and carts throughout Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York as well as distribution in over 7,500 retailers nationwide ranging from Whole Foods to Safeway to Publix markets.

I also oversee our branding and innovation, so that means constantly developing fun new flavors and product lines from our pints, to our sammies, to our hand-dipped ice cream bars, and then designing merchandise and packaging as well as overseeing our marketing department and continuously building relationships that’ll keep Coolhaus at the top of its game.

I would say I’m most proud of how widespread the Coolhaus brand has become since it was conceptualized. What started out as a hobby and craigslist purchase turned into an ice cream empire.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
It’s so hard to think of going back and changing anything – because what’s most important is what you do with the mistakes/failures/set back.

The learning lessons were some of the biggest building blocks to the success we have now – what’s most essential is to fail forward, fail fast, and see what the positives are out of any difficult experience – and apply those to the future.

Contact Info:

• Address: 8588 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
• Website: www.cool.haus
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coolhaus/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Coolhaus/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/COOLHAUS

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