Marble Slab Creamery (Marble Slab) is an American chain of

ice cream shop Ice cream parlors (American English) or ice cream parlours (British English) are places that sell ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and/or frozen yogurt to consumers. Ice cream is typically sold as regular ice cream (also called hard-packed or hard se ...

s owned by FAT Brands. Its corporate offices are in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. There are more than 392 stores in various countries, all independently owned and franchised.

History

Marble Slab, which began as a single unit operation called Cones & Cream, was founded in Houston by chefs Sigmund Penn and Tom LePage in 1983. They were inspired by Steve Herrell of Herrell's Ice Cream in Boston, who pioneered the mixing approach to ice cream toppings. In 1986, Marble Slab became the first ice cream treatery to use a frozen granite slab to blend mix-in toppings into the ice cream.Franchise Solution
Marble Slab Creamery -The Freshest Ice Cream On EarthTM
Franchise Solution, Retrieved on 2008-03-27 Later that year, Marble Slab was bought by Ronnie Hankamer of Texas, who laid the groundwork for the brand's franchising concept. In the late 2000s, Marble Slab expanded beyond its southeastern presence and has been recognized as a fast-growing franchise. In 2007 it was ranked in ''

Entrepreneur Magazine ''Entrepreneur'' is an American magazine and website that carries news stories about entrepreneurship, small business management, and business. The magazine was first published in 1977. It is published by ''Entrepreneur Media Inc''., headquarte ...

s Franchise 500 (#93), Fastest-Growing Franchises (#72), and America's Top Global Franchises (#75). As an independent company it had its headquarters in the Westchase area of Houston, Texas. After the NexCen acquisition, initially the brand's headquarters were in unincorporated

Gwinnett County, Georgia Gwinnett County ( ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It forms part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In 2020, the population was 957,062, making it the second-most populous county in Georgia (after Fulto ...

. In July 2010, NexCen announced the sale of its franchise business to Global Franchise Group, LLC, an affiliate of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Global Franchise Group is now owned by Lion Capital LLP and Serruya Private Equity.

Ownership changes

In February 2007, Global Franchise Group purchased Marble Slab Creamery taking the company off the stock market, since its acquisition the chain has been a franchise brand with

MaggieMoo's Ice Cream and Treatery MaggieMoo's Ice Cream and Treatery is a chain of independently owned and operated franchised stores that specialize in serving ice cream and other desserts. The first MaggieMoo's opened in 1989 in Kansas City, Kansas. At its peak, the brand had ...

and

Great American Cookies Great American Cookie Co., doing business as Great American Cookies is an American chain of independently owned and operated franchised stores that specialize in gourmet cookies, especially cookie cakes. It has over 290 stores in the U.S., part ...

. After the NexCen acquisition, initially the brand's headquarters were in unincorporated

FAT Brands FAT Brands is an American multi-brand restaurant operator headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. History FAT Brands began as a holding company for Fatburger in 2017, gaining a chairman in Ed Rensi. On August 13, 2020, Johnny Rockets wa ...

, owners of

Fatburger Fatburger North America Inc. (doing business as Fatburger) is an American fast casual restaurant chain. Its tagline is ''The Last Great Hamburger Stand''. While it is a fast food restaurant, the food is cooked and made to order. Some Fatburge ...

and Johnny Rockets. The acquisition was completed on July 22.

Products

The chain specializes in serving homemade

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

. The chain serves a variety of other desserts including

ice cream cake An ice cream cake is a cake with ice cream as the filling for a swiss roll or a layer cake. A simpler no-bake version can be made by layering different flavors of ice cream in a loaf pan. Ice cream cake is a popular party food, often eaten a ...

s, sundaes and

milkshakes A milkshake (sometimes simply called a shake) is a sweet beverage made by blending milk, ice cream, and flavorings or sweeteners such as butterscotch, caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, fruit syrup, or whole fruit into a thick, sweet, cold mixture ...

as well as

smoothies A smoothie is a beverage made by puréeing ingredients in a blender. A smoothie commonly has a liquid base, such as fruit juice or milk, yogurt, ice cream or cottage cheese. Other ingredients may be added, including fruits, vegetables, non-dai ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Restaurants in Houston Ice cream parlors Companies based in Fulton County, Georgia Companies based in Houston Fast-food franchises Restaurants in Houston Restaurants established in 1983 1983 establishments in Texas 2007 mergers and acquisitions