Inspiring Conversations with Madeleine Chuy and Elizabeth Allende of Just-A-Craving

We are a Utah local business. We started in Bountiful with a Food Truck, selling food cravings such as Philly Cheese Steaks, Soups, Tamales, and so much more. We started in the Fall, but when the Winter hit, we realized it was very hard to stay warm. So we started thinking about cravings for the Summer. We wanted something different, delicious, & refreshing. Presentation, flavor and quality  has always been our main focus. As a result, My partner and I, thought about what we and our families enjoy the most in the summer, and that was Shaved ice.

We transformed our food truck to a shaved ice shack, and created our shaved ice special cravings, we decided to move to Salt Lake, and after trial, error and a long, hard, meticulous process we made it happen. We were able to open our shack in our RosePark Community, right at Sutherlands Parking lot. After 4 summers of being there serving our community, we decided to take a huge risk and open our first year-round store in Taylorsville, that way, we could introduce our Gourmet Shaved Ice to other communities. We are always very excited and happy to serve our customers, and it makes us even happier when we get compliments on how delicious our shaved ice is and how they never tried anything like it before. This year  we hope we can continue to grow and always offer the best. Our goal is to serve all communities and keep satisfying everyone’s shaved ice cravings

Not at all. But honestly, everything that happened needed to happen. Our first year in Bountiful gave us a full summer to practice and figure out our menu, presentation, and flavors. Salt Lake was a hard process, and once we opened we dealt with theft, tagging, & vandalism, but we kept a positive attitude and our costumers were very supportive. Overall, we wouldn’t change anything. It’s been such an awesome ride and we are still going…

We have created something very special for our costumers, we specialize in gourmet shaved ice. We carry popular flavors, homemade flavors and specialties that have our costumers experience shaved ice on a different level. Just A Craving is a Latin American shaved ice fusion, more flavorful, more natural, fruity and even creamy; you can go crazy mixing flavors and toppings, you could even add chili powder on it or you can trust one of our special cravings. Either way, we want our costumers leaving happy with a big smile on their faces. Our customers are returned customers, once they give us a shot they always come back, we are very proud of how loyal they have become. We don’t only offer shaved ice, we also offer flavored iced teas, and we cater for events and parties. We constantly work on introducing new specialties and flavors. Our latest limited-time new flavor was EGGNOG! and it was a big hit. We will bring it back soon and keep introducing more unique flavors.

When you visit the store or the shack, you will be greeted with a big welcome!

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
To always push forward, with a positive attitude and a big smile. To always push forward, with a positive attitude and a big smile.