It’s been anything but a rocky road, but after 22 years in business, Calgary’s most colourful ice cream czar is taking time to enjoy his just desserts.
Rork Hilford, longtime proprietor of My Favourite Ice Cream Shoppe, has passed the scoop to local businessman Joseph Yoon and sold his business in the southwest community of Altadore.
“The property values were right, the business picture and the profit and loss statements were absolutely correct, and it was just time for me to have a sabbatical. With the right owners coming in, I said, ‘thanks very much, I’m going to take my money and run,’ and I have,” says Hilford, adding he’s probably forgotten more than he ever knew about ice cream.
Hilford made his mark on Calgary with his eclectic strip mall shop at 2048 42 Ave S.W., a 364-day-a-year, old-style ice cream parlour that featured local memorabilia, polite uniformed staff and live entertainment along with a buffet of 72 ice-cream flavours.
There was even a tongue-in-cheek shrine – which included a couple of beer bottles – to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein. “His favourite flavour is licorice and pistachio,” reveals Hilford, a self-admitted “hardcore” Liberal and political candidate who made the news with his campaign against the loonie coin and the introduction of a Bre-X ice cream flavour – “dirt chocolate with deep gold veins of gold (butterscotch) running through it, really well-salted with Glosette peanuts.”
“In business, you’re never supposed to talk sex, politics or business, but in Calgary, that’s what people do,” Hilford says. “Truly, I was unusual in Calgary in expressing my thoughts and not biting my lip.”
He adds one of his proudest achievements as a businessman has been working with “some of the best staff in the world.”
“I tried to be the best boss I could,” he adds. “Sometimes I failed, but for the most part, I’m very proud to say that more than 40 per cent of the people who have worked for me and come back to talk to me have started their own businesses.”
The irrepressible Hilford – whose own list of favourite flavours includes passionfruit sorbet – says he’ll miss the customers, some of whom are the grandchildren of his original clientele.
“But I’m not going to miss the eccentric people who decided they wanted to have an argument because of something you said in a media report or because you have an interest in politics.
“However, they did buy an ice cream, and regardless if they disagreed with my points of view, I still got the money out of their pockets, so I guess I got the best deal out of that.”
Before opening My Favorite, Hilford ran a burger joint at the corner of Glenmore Trail and Elbow Drive, and although he’s worked in the food business most of his life – and promoted business and entrepreneurialism to college and university students – he’s now going to take his time in deciding his next career move.
“My thinking is off the mainstream,” he says. “And to say ‘no’ to (a future career in) politics would not be correct. But what I really need is a sabbatical to realize if I’m thinking correctly, or if my thoughts are really irrelevant.
“Watch out,” adds Hilford. “I don’t know what I’m going to do next.”
