🧵 In Today’s Edition

1. Freeman’s Grub & Pub Celebrates Ten Years This Weekend
2. Shafna Shamsuddin Draws on Far-Flung Flavors for Unique Frozen Treats
3. What We’re Reading

Freeman’s Grub & Pub, housed in the old Freeman General Store building, celebrates ten years this weekend. (Photo: Sayaka Matsuoka for The Assembly)

‘We Just Want to Celebrate’

Freeman’s Grub & Pub will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Sunday, May 18, with a special menu, vendors in the parking lot off Spring Garden Street, and gratitude for a decade of community support.

But the road to a decade wasn’t always clear or easy.

Read the full story here.

— Sayaka Matsuoka

Thanks for reading The Thread, a 3x week newsletter written by Greensboro editor Joe Killian and reporters Sayaka Matsuoka and Gale Melcher. Reach us with tips or ideas at greensboro@theassemblync.com.

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An Elaka Treats product. (Photo courtesy of Shafna Shamsuddin.)

Shafna Shamsuddin Draws on Far-Flung Flavors for Her Unique Frozen Treats

“Culture and flavors transcend borders,” says Shafna Shamsuddin. It’s an ethos that has guided Shamsuddin in her frozen desserts business, Elaka Treats, since founding it in 2019. 

The term “frozen dessert” encompasses a general range of cold, refreshing sweet treats—ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt, gelato. The U.S. Department of Agriculture website gets more granular for ice cream, specifying that it must “contain not less than 20 percent total milk solids, consisting of not less than 10 percent milkfat.” Some Elaka Treats products qualify as ice cream, but due to the nontraditional ingredients Shamsuddin also incorporates into her recipes, others don’t. She’s adopted a simpler term: “frozen desserts.” 

Though each Elaka Treats recipe contains a unique base, the process of creating each flavor is the same. Each mix gets churned, and, similar to gelato, less air is incorporated than in ice cream, creating a noticeably denser product.

Elaka Treats began operations at the Piedmont Food Processing Center in Hillsborough in 2019, and Shamsuddin got her start selling the product at Triangle farmers’ markets. She’s since moved production to Greensboro, focusing on wholesale. 

In her time selling between the Triangle and Triad, Shamsuddin says she’s picked up on certain distinctions between audiences.

Read the full story here.

— Gabi Mendick

Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.

What We’re Reading

JetZero Zeroes In: This week JetZero confirmed PTI Airport as one of three top sites for a new manufacturing facility. If the California based company chooses PTI, the factory could create 10,000 new jobs in and around Greensboro. WFMY has the story.

Special Delivery: Amazon plans to build a 192,026-square-foot, $24.4 million facility in Greensboro. The company bought an undeveloped 85.25-acre tract for $12.07 million in February. The News & Record has the story.

Other Messages From Our Sponsors

Sayaka Matsuoka is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She was formerly the managing editor for Triad City Beat, an alt-weekly based in Greensboro. She has reported for INDY Week, The Bitter Southerner, and Nerdist, and is the editorial/diversity chair for AAN Publishers.