Local Business Spotlight: How Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream Built a Central Kentucky Institution

From a Coconut Ice Cream Special to a Statewide Craving

The story of Crank & Boom did not begin in a venture capital pitch deck or a commercial culinary lab. It began in the kitchen of Ayita, a Lexington Thai restaurant owned by Toa Green’s family. Tasked with inventing a dessert that paired naturally with spicy Thai curries and satays, Toa experimented with churned coconut ice cream using an entry-level home mixer.

Customers began visiting the restaurant solely for pints of ice cream. Sensing a deeper calling, Toa and her husband Mike purchased an Italian street cart in 2013, churning dairy by night and serving scoops at pop-ups, farmers markets, and weddings across Central Kentucky. The demand was electric. By 2015, they took a daring gamble: signing the cornerstone retail lease at the Pepper Distillery Campus on Manchester Street.

The Local Sourcing Creed: 100% Kentucky Farm Fresh

What distinguishes Crank & Boom from commercial ice cream brands is an ironclad refusal to use premade synthetic bases, artificial dyes, or high-fructose corn syrup. Every single batch starts with 100% grass-fed dairy from JD Country Milk—a family-owned, non-homogenized dairy farm in Russellville, Kentucky.

Anchoring Lexington’s Distillery District Revival

When Crank & Boom first opened on Manchester Street in 2015, the area was largely industrial wasteland. Alongside neighboring pioneers like The Burl, Goodfellas Pizzeria, and Ethereal Brewing, the Greens helped catalyze a multi-million-dollar revitalized entertainment district.

Today, the Manchester lounge features an expansive outdoor patio overlooking Town Branch Creek, a craft cocktail bar serving spiked dessert drinks, and a buzzing second brick-and-mortar hub on Clays Mill Road in South Lexington.