Ten years ago this spring, Chef Ashley Bottoms — a pastry chef who'd baked in noteworthy restaurants and bakeries in Asheville and Nashville — interviewed to become the first "ice cream chef" for the Chattanoga-based Clumpies.

At the time, Clumpies served ice cream out of one location, with really only one full-time employee, who was also the owner.

She interviewed. She got the job.

Over the next decade, Ashley helped transform Clumpies even further into both a household name and tourist destination with a locally-sourced menu as creative and pioneering — Cookie Butter with Biscoff crumbles, Honeycomb, Sugar Plum Sangria Sorbet — as any in our regional food industry.

Now, Food as a Verb is proud to announce:

Chef Ashley Bottoms is purchasing Clumpies, becoming the third owner in the storied ice cream company's 27-year history.

"We are really excited," she said.

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On April 15, Ashley Bottoms, 35, will purchase Clumpies for an undisclosed amount from Rock City.

"She's one of the most talented, humble, driven leaders," said Doug Chapin, president and CEO of Rock City. "She's a really high capacity person who cares about people, cares about doing the right thing and cares about doing things with excellence."

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"I love it," said Marshall Brock, who launched Clumpies in 1999.

"From the day we sold Clumpies, she's been the person who's been most in charge of the most precious part, which is making ice cream," he said.

"She takes the ingredients and quality so seriously and brings more expertise to it than I ever had."

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The Clumpies story began in 1999. These were chocolate-vanilla-strawberry days. The most adventurous thing in ice cream was coming out of Vermont.

"Ben and Jerry's," Marshall said.

Marshall's an ice cream guy. ("I grew up eating Mayfield's. I love it. I've got it in my freezer right now.") But he wanted to push the dairy-dessert envelope a bit, creating both the finest ice cream and a superior brand.

Did he ever.

(More stories to come this summer on the early days of Clumpies.)

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In 2013, Rock City purchased Clumpies. It was a dream come true for Doug Chapin, also an ice-cream guy.

"The whole time I was in middle and high school, I thought Clumpies was the coolest thing," he said.

Doug balanced that difficult, daily tension between running a small business and focusing on a vision that grows and expands.  

Plus, he was doing it all: making, delivering, scooping. Here's good trivia for all you old-foodie-heads: anybody remember the original place Clumpies made its ice cream?

Anybody? Anybody?

"A windowless room in the back of Market Street Tire," said Doug. "It's where Niedlov's started, too."

He knew what was possible. The vision was clear. But could he get there?

Soon, he began searching for someone to help.

Welcome to Chattanooga, Chef Ashley Bottoms.

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After culinary school in Charlotte, she began baking for the Biltmore Estate, then moved to Nashville's famous Provence Bakery, then Barista Parlor.

Her background was more pastry than dairy, but she figured if she could make 500 macarons a day there, she could also make fabulous ice cream.

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She and Doug blew up the menu, opened more locations, all while offering excellent service and shifting the perception of ice cream beyond vanilla, chocolate, strawberry.

"At the time, there was no working oven," she said. (Just a solitary butane burner.)

She got to work.

Early designs pushed the definition of normal. An olive oil and thyme recipe didn't work well. ("There was like one woman who liked it," she laughs. "We still interact on Instagram.")

Neither did avocado.

But pastel colors in the spring and new flavors began getting people's attention.

Then, one flavor really shook people's attention.

"Sweet corn blueberry," Ashley remembers.

"The news came."

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Over the years, Ashley would author and invent more than 300 ice cream recipes, creating a Clumpies menu that's among the most imaginative in the city, and securing her place as one of our region's most inventive chefs.

Plus, she oversaw the transition to Clumpies pasteurizing its own ice cream, a cow-to-cone move that's basically unheard of in the national ice cream world.

(Currently, the in-house pasteurization process isn't making financial or practical sense, she said. Clumpies is considering discontinuing this.)

And the Clumpies team expanded to more than 30, with eight full-time employees working across three, now two, locations.

Clumpies ships anywhere in the continental US.

Its front-of-house recently became fully compostable; its online products are fully recyclable.

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We visited the Clumpies production and test kitchen last year. It was astonishing, all this cow-to-cone magic right under our noses.

Rock City opened the kitchen near South Broad St. in 2017; it currently partners with The Howard School's culinary program while also sourcing from as many local farmers and growers as possible.

The numbers are ice-cream-headache crazy: Clumpies sold nearly 12,000 pints and another 12,000 single-serve cups last year.

In its stores, Clumpies hand-scooped nearly 349,000 scoops.

"That's enough to cross Walnut Street Bridge 30 times," Ashley said at the time.

"What Ashley and the team have been able to do exceeds the expectations I had at that point in 2013," Doug said proudly.

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Last fall, Ashley was eating a bowl of soup for lunch, when Doug asked her into his office. She sensed something heavy was coming.

"I had to set my soup down," she laughed.

Heavy, indeed. Rock City had decided to sell Clumpies.

When I think of someone who can carry this thing forward, you are the best choice, Doug said. You are the best one.

Would you have any interest in purchasing Clumpies?

Internally, for Ashley, the answer came quickly.

"It was immediate," she said. "Yes."

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She left his office, head and heart spinning. Made three calls, in order: her husband, her mom, her dear friend Lauren Zilen from Niedlov's.

They all said the same versions: yes. As in: absolutely-without-question-you-are-perfect-for-this yes.

My money's on you, girl, her mom said.

Now, as she and husband Justin become full owners, she'll continue to steer Clumpies into new territory while also maintaining its roots, goodness and trusted identity.

"It was always intended to be a community place for people," Ashley said. "We celebrate people's best days and sometimes, their worst days."

Not long ago, Clumpies held a celebration-of-life ceremony for a friend who visited the North Shore store every week.

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The baton continues its passing: from Marshall to Doug to Ashley. Together, all three have grown Clumpies in remarkable ways into a true Chattanooga story-brand-destination.

"I'm just really excited about her future," Doug said. "We're going to be the biggest cheerleaders for her and Justin and the whole team."

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Around 2 pm on a recent Monday afternoon, the Southside Clumpies was getting full, with seven people in line and four crowded tables.

Ashley had just messaged every coffee roaster in town, wanting to collaborate.

"We support our community," she said. "We love supporting other people who are making the best in their craft."

We feel the same way, Chef Bottoms.

Story ideas, questions, feedback? Interested in partnering with us? Email: david@foodasaverb.com

This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.

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