Del Mar Village Small Business Spotlight: An's Hatmakers
Del Mar Village Small Business Spotlight: An’s Hatmakers Gelato
Welcome to our business spotlight blog series, in which we interview the folks behind your favorite Del Mar Village businesses. We hope you learn something new and stop in soon!
Get to know An’s Hatmakers:
Kris Warren, Principal
Tell us your backstory: What was your path to owning a business in Del Mar Village? Did you grow up here? Why did you choose Del Mar Village to set up shop?
I attended UCSD with my best friend and we spent most of our free time at the beach off 15th Street. After college, we started our careers (he is an attorney and I am an asset manager) and years later we started a small gelato shop with a couple other friends as a fun side project. That shop is in North Park and in the three years it has been open has won awards and become a business that has potential to grow. Soon we began looking for a second location and returned to our old stomping grounds, Del Mar. After learning about the new ownership of Del Mar Plaza and seeing the tremendous work they have done to bring in new businesses we became very excited to open our shop there.
Tell us about your business. What should people know about it? What makes it unique?
We want An's Hatmakers to be something special for Del Mar that Del Martians can be proud of. We are a gelato shop with an executive chef that has over 15 years of experience as a gelato consultant in France, Italy, and Spain. His gelato, all made completely from scratch, is served in Michelin restaurants and he has collaborated with celebrity chefs.
Our first shop in North Park is called An's Dry Cleaning. We chose that name because it was the name of the previous business in the space we took over. In Del Mar, we wanted to bring some brand recognition from our first shop but we don't want to be a chain. So we kept "An's" and chose hatmakers because of the rich history of Del Mar and the racetrack and the tradition of wearing extravagant hats to the races.
More than anything we want An's Hatmakers to be an experience. All the flavors are named after hats. Every tasting starts with an off-menu palate cleanser made from fresh mint and lime (inspired by the popular racetrack drink mint julep). There are two menus – a rotational and more experimental menu of flavors like macadamia praline and vanilla or brown butter with chocolate chip cookies, as well as a standard menu of classics with a twist like salted caramel with pieces of chocolate covered waffle cones or German chocolate cake.
What is one menu item or product you are most known for or is particularly special to you?
We partnered with an Amsterdam-based design firm to create ceramic jars that are double fired in Vietnam and then shipped to us. We use these almost like growlers at a brewery. You can buy them and fill them up with gelato and then bring them back to refill them. You also get access to secret flavors we're working on that aren't public yet and invitations to private tasting events. It's basically a gelato membership club.
Tell us one fun fact about your business most people don't know.
We have a flavor suggestion board in the shop that anyone can write notes or ideas on. All of the owners and our chefs review it every couple of days and we often create flavors based on those suggestions.
What do you love about Del Mar Village?
Easy – the people. Del Martians are kind and so supportive of each other and local businesses. We can't wait to serve our gelato to them and meet the community.
How would you spend the perfect day in Del Mar? Where would you go? What would you eat or do?
A day at the beach followed by a cocktail at Monarch while watching the sunset sounds pretty perfect to me.