A teenager is leading a family’s mission to tempt Wodonga’s sweet tooth.
Abby Pugh’s mum, Naomi, is the owner of Bubble and Scoop, located outside Target in the Wodonga Plaza, and Abby’s been inspired to spread the word through social media.
The business is named after one of its popular treats – bubble waffles, a steady trend in the global food industry and on social media.
After 18 years of teaching Special Ed, in both Sydney and Wodonga, Mrs Pugh thought it was time to take on a new adventure and her family backed her decision all the way.
Thirteen-year-old Abby, who has dyslexia, is her muse.
“Abby’s my inspiration behind all of this,” Mrs Pugh said.
“She has a keen business mind and she was my motivation to jump ship and do something to guide her.
“Abby came up with the business name and she is social media crazy so the idea to do bubble waffles came from her.
“The bubble waffle is a big craze all over TikTok and in the cities – it’s a waffle just in the shape of bubbles.”
The hot waffles can be folded into a cone shape and filled with ice cream and drizzled with chocolate or served flat on a plate with a choice of toppings.
Amazing ice cream cakes, hot dogs, thickshakes, milkshakes, smoothies, hot chips and Wodonga’s largest range of scoop ice cream flavours are also on the menu.
“We have our ice cream sundaes but we are taking the next step up with our vertical sundaes where you layer brownies or sticky date pudding with ice cream,” Mrs Pugh said.
Customers have been enjoying the modern look dessert bar that includes television screens displaying the menu and neon signs are coming soon.
After school hours, Mrs Pough has help from her three daughters – Abby, 13, Charlotte, 11, and Lucy, 7.
“This is the best thing, the kids love coming here and it’s giving them such great people skills with the customer service when they greet people,” Mrs Pugh said.
“I am also blessed to have a friend who is a chef and it was her dream job to work at a dessert place so if I am not in then she is here.”
Abby looks forward to driving the businesses social media account and is already working on a number of promotional videos for social media.
“She calls herself the social media manager,” Mrs Pugh said.
So what is next for the business?
“We have a crepe machine coming and it’s a nice one-metre long crepe machine and people will be able to watch the crepe being created,” Mrs Pugh said.
“We reckon this will be a big drawcard.”
Bubble and Scoop is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9am to 5.30pm and Thursdays and Fridays from 9am to 7pm.
The business is also open on weekends – Saturdays from 9am to 4pm and Sundays from 10am to 4pm.