Our Story

Who Am I?

I’m Jessica, founder of The Frosty Monkey. This is my dream and has come together through years of hard work (and a little help from some good friends and family along the way).

How It Started.

This journey started in 2015, my mom & dad were big into VW dune buggies and went to a lot of car shows. I never liked walking around at the shows and preferred to hang out in the enclosed trailer that we moved the dune buggy around in. Eventually I decided I wanted to make some money, and so started selling drinks & shaved ice out of the trailer.

I loved seeing the smiles on kids faces and expressing my creativity through food. I got to thinking and decided I wanted to pursue this as a career.

 

Building My Skills.

 I knew I needed to build up my skills to make a business out of this. So, I enrolled in business management courses at Wilkesboro Community College, and found a job at some local restaurants. Eventually I found work under a master chef and brought my mom onboard to learn about the food industry as well.

I saved up money from working and selling at car shows to put towards my first food truck. Meanwhile I was finishing up my courses, and continuing to learn from working under a chef (and helping her family breed golden retrievers).

Right before the COVID pandemic hit I had started building a custom food truck (I get my passion for cars from my dad). Suddenly times were hard, and I didn’t know if the dream would come true.

 

Changing Direction.

With COVID, money was tight, so rather than build a full truck I decided to get an enclosed trailer and turn that into a kitchen so I could get out and start making money fast. While working on the truck with some of my dad’s friends I met Cody from Carolina Ink who helped create my mascot, the iconic “Fudgie The Monkey” that is my logo and life.

The trailer, before and after getting fully wrapped:

We’re off!

With the trailer ready, we set off and began selling throughout Sparta, Galax, and Grayson County. Me & my mom were excited to see people’s reactions, and appreciate all the love we got from Grayson County, and were already thinking about getting a building for storage. 

After talking with a friend from Independence and hearing about the old dairy bar that shutdown, and how much folks missed that, I decided to bring up the idea of a full shop to my mom.

She was all-in on the idea, so we found a spot, drew up a plan, and recruited my dad and some friends to help us build it out.

My Worst Christmas

Around December 15th, my dad caught COVID, unfortunately he passed it on to my mom. I quit my job to take care of them, and they were so sick. I ended up having to rush them to the hospital on December 19th. My dad recovered but my mom didn’t, and she was called to heaven on December 25th at 3:38am.

For weeks I didn’t even think about the business, the shop, or anything. I was just about done with it. Eventually I talked about it with my dad & friends, and they encouraged me to keep going forward to make me & my mom’s dream a reality.

So with my dad’s help and blessing, we started building the shop.

Building The Shop

We’ve fully remodeled this beautiful old historic building with new counters, walls, fresh paint, and everything else!