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Like many great ideas, the name Brightside Creamery came to Carrie Casey while she was driving. She spent months mulling over branding for her vegan and gluten-free ice cream start-up when, suddenly, it came to her. “We have all these food allergies but there is still a bright side. There is still a happy treat,” she says.
Casey’s household is awash in food allergies and preferences: She’s vegan, her husband is celiac, and her daughter is dairy-sensitive. Casey started playing with vegan and gluten-free ice cream as a means of creating a dessert that could work for all three of them. And so grew Brightside and its mission. “I’m not pushing veganism,” she says. “I’m coming from the allergen space.”
Casey crafts her ice creams from coconut milk, sunflower seed butter, cashew butter, or almond butter. And if she can’t source the butters without additives, she grinds the seeds and nuts herself. Aside from crafting flavors like Tamarind Orange Clove in her Lello Musso machine, she attended Sweet Ritual’s vegan ice cream school in Austin, Texas. That’s where she really learned the science behind her well made treats.
With a name picked out and a never-ending rotation of scoops in development, Casey is ready to launch in the Denver market. She’ll start small, with pop-ups, events, and farmers’ markets but hopes to eventually nab a brick and mortar. Casey is also fine-tuning a recipe for soft serve and developing a line of vegan and gluten-free novelties, things like sprinkles, cones, cookie cups (inspired by Dominique Ansel’s cookie shots), and drumsticks.
If you see her logo, stop what you’re doing and head in her direction. If you’re lucky, she’ll be scooping Sunny Butter Chocolate Chip and West Texas Rocky Road (with pecans and vegan marshmallows). All the better if you combine the two for a double scoop.
