Milk House Shakes wins 2017 Calling All Dreamers competition
Milk House Shakes, a presidential-themed milkshake shop, was named the winner of the 2017 Calling All Dreamers competition on Tuesday.
Downtown Sacramento Foundation made the announcement, according to a release from the foundation. Kelly Boyles, the founder of Milk House Shakes, will receive a start-up prize package valued at more than $100,000.
The package includes $10,000 in funding, a downtown storefront, business planning and coaching, interior design help and many other services.
Boyles is expected to open a storefront in Old Sacramento in early 2018. Once she secures a location, she can begin using the services and cash donations to help open Milk House Shakes.
Milk House Shakes will offer milkshakes named after U.S. Presidents. Examples of shakes include the “Andrew Johnson,” a vanilla shake blended with peaches to commemorate the first U.S. President to be impeached.
Another shake will be the “Barack Obama,” which blends shredded coconut and pineapple to honor his Hawaiian roots, according to the release. The “George Washington” will feature apple pie filling and pie crust crumbs in vanilla ice cream, according to Sactown magazine.
“I’m so honored to be named the winner of the Calling All Dreamers competition” Boyles said in the release. “This has been an amazing journey and an incredible experience. I am so touched by all the support and encouragement I’ve received and can’t wait to open the doors of my new business in downtown Sacramento!”
The Calling All Dreamers competition has been running since 2013 and has helped 16 new businesses open since 2013, according to the news release.
The competition also helps the businesses that participate, but don’t win. The Bee’s Cathie Anderson reported that the competition helped Amal Iqbal, who entered the competition twice in 2013 and 2016, feel validated about about her business concept.
“One of the great things about Calling All Dreamers is that you get paired with a SCORE mentor, and ours was Venki Venkataraman,” Iqbal told Anderson. “He was just so encouraging, and he believed in us and inspired us to go ahead and take the chance.”
Other 2017 finalists included Churro Project, Miscellaneous, The Kitchen Table, Vity and Sacramento Whiskey Co., according to the release.
Past winners of the competition include:
- 2013: Andy’s Candy Apothecary, 1012 9th St., Sacramento. Owner Andy Paul sells an array of fine candy.
- 2014: Ana Apple, The Old Sacramento storefront closed in January, but owner Ana Manzano continues to run her children’s clothing online at www.anaapple.com/.
- 2015: Allspicery, 1125 11th St., Sacramento. Owner Heather Wong sells a wide variety of spices and herbs, and each order is sized to meet the customer’s needs.
- 2016: Oblivion Comics & Coffee. Co-owners Laura Benson and Neil Estaris plan to open by mid-May at 1020 11th St. in Sacramento. They will sell gourmet coffee from Chocolate Fish and comic books from a variety of publishers.
This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Milk House Shakes wins 2017 Calling All Dreamers competition."