Family-owned ice cream shop · Ocean Beach, San Diego
The client
Dick and Carol Ladiges opened Lighthouse Ice Cream on June 10, 1997, back in Ocean Beach after years away—including an 18,000-mile bike tour through eight countries. Ice cream was already in the family: Dick opened OB’s Big Olaf’s in 1982, where he met Carol, who walked in as a customer.
Dick died in 2011. Carol still owns and runs the shop. What people come for has not changed: delicious ice cream, the Hot Waffle Ice Cream Sandwich, and a counter a short walk from the pier.
The challenge
A shop like this does not need a complicated platform. It needs a site that looks like the room you step into—and that a visitor can find before they hit Newport Avenue.
That meant an informational website that loads quickly on a phone, shows up in search, and shows the product instead of describing it in the abstract. Menu copy is not the same as seeing the waffle sandwich. A family shop is not the same as a stock “about us” paragraph.
What we did
Intrepid Network built the site along the same lines as our other local hospitality work: clear, fast, easy to find, with the product front and center.
We also made the assets the site depends on. We photographed the ice cream so the flavors and the signature sandwich are the shop’s, not a generic scoop. We produced a video interview with Carol and the shop manager so the story—Ocean Beach, the pier, the counter—comes from the people who still work it.
The result
The website does what a good boardwalk shop does in person: you see what you are about to order, you understand where you are, and you don't wait on a slow page to get there.
Services
Informational website · SEO foundations · Mobile performance · Product photography · Owner / manager video interview