Women to Watch: Claire Crowell

Claire Crowell grew up in the Nashville area food scene. Her father is Andy Marshall, owner of Puckett’s Grocery in Leiper’s Fork and in downtown Franklin. By the age of 12, she was making biscuits, stocking the coolers with fresh drinks and helping serve customers. After graduating with a degree in French, she moved back home and found herself excited for the future of A. Marshall Hospitality while discussing her father’s plans, and she wanted in. Claire learned the ropes, worked her way up and eventually became the COO for the restaurant group, which now includes Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant, Scout’s Pub, Deacon’s New South, Americana Taphouse and Burger Dandy.

While working in the Columbia Puckett’s location, she daydreamed for years about using the empty space next door for her own ice cream shop. After her first daughter, Hattie Jane, was born, she put the plan into motion and opened Hattie Jane’s Creamery, a small-batch craft ice cream, milkshake and baked goods shop, in that empty space. Making her own base with milk from a local dairy farm, Claire pushes the envelope every day, with delicious and exciting flavors and brilliant concoctions that reflect and influence Middle Tennessee’s ever-evolving food scene. The sweets expert opened up about her career, her favorite things and what the future holds.

BEST RESTAURANT

I am a little biased because my family owns restaurants. Puckett’s will always be a second home for me, and I love what the team at Deacon’s New South does with both food and service. Outside of the fam, though, I always go back to City House.

FAVORITE ICE CREAM

I like going to specialty grocery stores, like Turnip Truck and Whole Foods, to check out what other brands are doing around the country.

BEST ADVICE

First, think really hard about what path you want to take. There are three ways to do an ice cream business. The first is to resell premade ice cream, which is the easiest but least creative way. The second is to order an ice cream mix and add in premade flavors. The third is to make it from scratch, which is the most challenging [and] expensive, but perhaps most creatively rewarding, way to do it. This is what we do, and while it is definitely difficult, it is also a lot of fun. Second, like in any business, you have to assemble a great team that cares for and trusts each other.

GET INSPIRED

Local growers and producers in our region always inspire me. I also love digging through cookbooks for inspiration, especially old community cookbooks like the ones my grandmother has passed down to me.

MEMORABLE MEAL

When I lived in France in college, my American friends and I organized a Thanksgiving potluck dinner for our French friends and other foreign exchange students. I made a five-cheese baked macaroni with French cheeses. The local pub let us use their back room, and we had about 30 people there from all over the world. We all made little construction paper “hand turkeys,” like we Americans do when we’re kids, and everyone decorated them with their country’s flag colors.

IN THE KITCHEN

I actually don’t make a lot of sweets at home, funnily enough. Maybe because I have a freezer full of ice cream. I love cooking family meals. I get most excited to cook when my garden is in season from summer through fall. I’m working on a year-round garden!