We’re happy to say that we’ve just launched a little pop-up store in Sydney. For the next four weeks, you can find a couple of Pat and Stick’s freezers chock full of ice cream sandwiches and tubs on Level 4 of Westfield Chatswood, just along from the food court and opposite the Equip store.

Do you have friends or family that live or work around Chatswood? Then we’d love you to tell them about our little retail experiment. Please let them know with the appropriate exhortations to visit and try the product. And of course, if you happen to work in the area, or are a regular to the mall, we’d love to see you too.

Last month, we promised everyone some new ice cream sandwich flavours. But alas, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray (actually, the poem by Robert Burns said: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/Gang aft agley” – but he was a Scot, and that was 1785, so one must allow for a modern translation).

And while our plans haven’t exactly gone astray they have certainly been held up. So while we hoped to have a new sandwich in our freezers everywhere, we only have about 80 of them, a name and a requirement for your feedback.

Presenting what we have called: The Apple Strudel Snicker Doodle. Green apple ice cream with a delightful cinnamon dusted sugar cookie. Wonderful! We think. But we need to know what you think. Saturday June 4th. Eveleigh markets. We’ll be there. And if you want to try the Apple Strudel Snicker Doodle so should you.

But for those who can’t make the markets be not sad. For we have released two new tub flavours that should be available in most places that stock Pat and Stick’s. And if they’re not, demand that they are! The first is Peppermint Choc Crunch. We’ve sourced these neat little balls of chocolate covered crunchy cereal and added them to our peppermint ice cream. The second is Butter Pecan. Three words only – Track. This. Down. Pecans are lovingly toasted in butter and added to a light caramel ice cream. Crunchy, salty, smooth, sweet. Amazing stuff.

And we’ll have both with us tomorrow, along with the Apple Strudel Snicker Doodle. Prizes for those who can say it five times without stumbling. If people like it, it will be everywhere, soon. Promise. So long as no plans go astray.

The last couple of months have been a bit hectic, hence the radio silence. But we’re now back and brimming with news to share.

We were honoured to get the chance to join forces with chef Luke Mangan and supply our Vanilla Choc ice cream sandwiches to Virgin Blue airlines. For the last couple of months, Virgin offered our Vanilla Choc (under Luke’s brand) as a special on all Virgin flights around Australia. Naturally we were thrilled to have gotten on-board and, while the special has now ended, we hope that once the winter chill gets chased away, people will once again be able to enjoy our ice cream sandwiches at 36,000 feet above the sea. For a company our size, it was a wonderful opportunity and we’d like to thank Luke and Narelle from Luke Mangan, Rick and the dedicated Virgin catering team for making it happen. You guys rock!

Before Virgin kicked off, we had just finished another fantastic year down at Sydney’s amazing Open Air Cinema. Our thanks to Rob and Anna from Cinerent for having Pat and Stick’s there. As with Luke Mangan and Virgin, it would have been easy for them to get the big corporate ice cream companies to sell their stuff but they resisted and once again chose to support a business that’s proudly Australian owned and locally made. Just brilliant.

So what’s next? We’re going to have a tinker with our menu. It’s been a while since we introduced a new ice cream sandwich flavour so Pat’s plotting and scheming and whipping up some batches of ice creamy cookie goodness. We’ll have the new flavour in all of our stockists at the beginning of June and will kick it off with a fun wee competition, details will be in your inbox closer to that date.

And for the Sydney locals, we’re happy to say that we’ll finally be back at the Eveleigh markets. Over winter we’ll be at Eveleigh every couple of weeks – the first Saturday of the month and the third Saturday of the month. Next date is May 21st, which is also the day of the Finders Keepers markets…come on down, it should be a blast!

Taste of Sydney is back! Starting this Thursday, 9th March, Centennial Park will be filled with the sounds of people eating and drinking food and wine from some of Sydney’s finest restaurants and producers. Following on from our début at Taste last year, we’re chuffed to say that we’ll be there again. Look out for our cart in Seating Area 1, right next to Bilson’s and Flying Fish. See you there!