Meet Mindy Mullaly. She owns Taggarts Ice Cream and Kennedy's Bar-B-Que
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Most Stark County residents are familiar with Taggarts Ice Cream in Canton — be it the famous ice cream such as The Bittner; the food, including burgers and coneys; or the well-known location.
Mindy Mullaly is the owner of Taggarts Ice Cream. She and her family also own Kennedy’s Bar-B-Que.
She calls herself a "Canton City kid." She attended and graduated from Canton City Schools, including Summit, Lehman and McKinley. She later earned a bachelor's degree in nursing from Kent State University in 1995.
“During my last semester of college, I reconnected with a friend that I had known since grade school, Doug Mullaly," she said. "We married in 1997 and began our family in 2001. Our children include Nicholas (22), Christopher (19), Andrew (17), Matthew (15) and Adam (13).
“Plus, we have three doodles, Cooper (labradoodle), Beckham (goldendoodle) and Lincoln (bernadoodle).”
Mullaly began her professional career in retail sales at the age of 14. During college, she had numerous part-time jobs simultaneously at the Kent Stark bookstore, Uniforms Unique, Chili’s and Echoing Ridge. She also worked part time at Mercy Medical Center as a nursing assistant during her last two years of college. She began working in a medical-surgical unit full time as a registered nurse but she kept her serving position at Chili’s until she married in 1997.
“My parents purchased Taggarts Ice Cream in August of 1998," she said. "My husband, my sister and I began our ice cream endeavor making the business a family-run business. Then my parents purchased Kennedy’s in 2009.
“I continued working at Mercy but took a break from physically working at Taggarts when I started my family, although my husband was still involved. I retired from Mercy in 2012; with five young boys at home that is where I needed to be. When my youngest son started preschool, I began to become more involved with the behind-the-scenes activities of both Kennedy's and Taggarts. Doug and I began the transition of purchasing both restaurants shortly thereafter.”
Taggarts and Kennedy's truly are a family business. All five sons, her sister, three cousins and her parents work at the businesses.
“According to my fourth son, the perfect shift would be staffed with the whole Mullaly clan,” she said.
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Why do you think Taggarts is considered the go-to place in Stark County for ice cream and burgers?
Because of the quality of everything from ice cream to homemade soups. Also because of the generous portions, longevity of a Canton classic and because of the staff.
What are the five best-selling flavors of ice cream?
Butter pecan
Cookies n cream
Chocolate Chip
Whitehouse
Reeses
Our seasonal flavors are popular as well, including pumpkin, peppermint stick, cherry cordial, cookie monster and pistachio.
From time to time, I introduce a new flavor that sounds interesting. … Sometimes it works, other times not so much.
How is running Kennedy's Barbecue the same or different than running Taggarts?
From a business aspect, running Kennedy’s BBQ is just a simpler form of running Taggarts.
Being the same type of business, the needs are pretty much the same. The menu is MUCH smaller, as is the space. Other differences include learning the “smoking process” of the meats and most importantly making the “secret relish.”
The hours are shortened to just a daytime shift Monday through Saturday and Kennedy’s is closed on Sunday.
What are your favorite parts about running two businesses that are such staples in the county?
Both restaurants are classic, historic businesses that have stood the test of time.
I love to hear the stories that patrons share about the special events that occurred during their visits. Meeting past employees and hearing about their experiences while working is always interesting.
Our goal is to keep all the original menu items using the original recipes while adding new popular selections to keep the young crowd happy. The history of each restaurant has its uniqueness that we strive to maintain.
How do you spend your downtime in the county?
Our family eats out most of the time. We like to support the downtown local restaurants.
We look forward to First Friday each month and engage in the Hall of Fame activities, especially the concert series.
The McKinley Monument was a staple during our children’s youth and many hours have been spent at the HOF soccer fields since their inception.
Editor's note: Five questions with ... is a Sunday feature that showcases a member of the Stark County community. If you'd like to recommend someone to participate, send an email to newsroom@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: 5 questions with Mindy Mullaly of Taggarts and Kennedy's Bar-B-Que
