“You would never drink Champagne out of a mug,” says Caitlin Pierce, founder of Lady Chiller, Richmond’s only local craft ice business. “It’s still the same Champagne, right? It’s still delicious, but there’s a specific reason that glassware is chosen for something at that high quality.”
The same principle, she suggests, applies to ice for cocktails: “The bartenders in Richmond are making really incredible drinks, and they need really incredible ice for that.”
Pierce had noticed that friends in the restaurant industry had no local options for craft ice, instead relying on suppliers in Virginia Beach or D.C. High delivery fees made it necessary to buy in bulk, but freezer space for a month’s worth of ice is also expensive. Locally made ice would allow for more frequent deliveries and smaller orders.
Seeing an unmet need, Pierce decided to meet it.
Pierce took part in the Shelfie Program, a free entrepreneurship course through VCU’s daVinci Center for Innovation, open by application to students, alumni and community members. Then, after studying at a craft ice factory in Nashville, she invested in equipment and began to make her own ice.
Lady Chiller’s ice is made of city water from the James River, filtered through a coconut shell activated carbon block. After filtration, the water is uncannily tasteless. “You want to be tasting the drinks, not the ice,” Pierce explains.
The water then goes into directional freezing machines, 40-gallon tanks gently agitated by aquarium bubblers. Keeping the water moving allows it to freeze from the bottom up, rather than from the outside in. This prevents air bubbles from forming. In addition to being clear, ice without bubbles is slower to melt, because bubbles (even tiny ones) increase the ice’s surface area. This makes bubble-less ice doubly well-suited to mixed drinks.
After freezing, the 300-pound blocks are lifted with the aid of a specially designed hoist, left to temper until they are the right temperature to be shaped without shattering, then hand-cut with a food-grade bandsaw.
“What’s cool about doing it that way is you can do any shape and size you want,” Pierce says. Currently, Lady Chiller offers 5-inch Carillon Spears and 2-inch King Cubes — named for Jane King, who ran Richmond’s first commercial ice business with great success in the late 1800s — as well as custom cubes containing spices like star anise, or with edible flowers such as rose and marigold suspended in them.
Lady Chiller ice cubes may currently be seen (barely) in drinks at Lost Letter, Lillian, The Brooklyn, which recently opened in Scott’s Addition, Morty’s Market and soon, Bar Buoy. Many of these connections were made by cold-calling: “I bring my ice to places that have really cool bar programs, and just give a bag of ice to them to let them know I’m here,” Pierce says.
Interpersonal warmth is an essential part of Lady Chiller’s business model. Pierce observes, “People in the industry are working so hard at their craft, and offering excellent service. I think it’s important to give that back to the people who are offering it to us.”
Lady Chiller also gives back in a material way, not only to the restaurant industry, but to the whole Richmond community, by donating 1% of all sales to the Richmond Community Legal Fund, with the succinct explanation, “Ice against ICE.”
Going forward, Pierce is excited to use Lady Chiller’s local focus and her connections with Richmond restaurateurs to facilitate creative collaborations with bartenders.
“I feel like the whole experience of drinking a cocktail is to slow down and be present,” Pierce says. Beyond the logistical advantages of making ice in the city where it will be used — and craft considerations of dilution speed and taste — Pierce sees the aesthetic experience of her clear ice as a significant part of its value. “People have really noticed the clarity, and I think noticing is always good. That means we’re paying attention and that means we’re present.”
Pierce finds that the process of making ice sharpens her own sense of presence. Part of this is attributable to an awareness of the sharpness of the bandsaw. But it is also due to the beauty of the ice. “It’s very elemental,” Pierce says. “It’s such a crazy thing that it’s just water. But it can be such a stunning experience to encounter it.”
Pierce recalls that the first chapter of Gabriel García Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” centers on a character’s first encounter with ice as a child.
Marquez’s description (as translated by Gregory Rabassa in 1970): “Inside there was only an enormous, transparent block with infinite internal needles in which the light of the sunset was broken up into colored stars.”
Lady Chiller’s cubes sometimes also contain a marigold.
To learn more, follow Lady Chiller’s Instagram account.
