As Siloam Springs continues to expand, two fresh and natural businesses have planted their roots Downtown and are bringing a new outlook on food and ice cream to the small Arkansas town.
Pure Joy is a small ice-cream shop situated in the heart of Downtown Siloam Springs. It is not your typical scoop shop.
“As a whole, we have become so distant from fresh natural ingredients due to over-consumerization of food,” Matt Feyerabend, owner of Pure Joy, said. “By bringing back the taste of natural foods, we’re introducing something amazing and special.”
To ensure their ice cream is of the highest quality, Feyerabend said that Pure Joy chooses to use strictly natural ingredients from Northwest Arkansas.
Kevin Gabbert, a Senior graphic design student from John Brown University, works at Pure Joy. He said that local businesses as well as the Siloam Springs Farmers’ Market downtown currently provide most of Pure Joy’s ingredients.
“We use pure and local ingredients in order to support local businesses,” Gabbert said. “In one recipe, we use Pour Jon’s donuts, and our cold brew coffee is from Bad Dog Beanery.”
A block down from Pure Joy resides Chickadee’s, a fresh fare eatery. Chickadee’s Fresh Fare and Pure Joy Ice Cream have both attained good reviews and popularity in Downtown.
Chickadee’s and Pure Joy have landed a place in the top ten list for their respective categories in the 2017 Best of the Best, hosted by the Northwest Arkansas Democratic Gazette.
Bryan and Stephanie Truitt, the owners of Chickadee’s, have dedicated their business as well to providing customers with fresh and natural food.
Located at the entrance of Downtown Siloam, Chickadee’s is a fresh fare restaurant with a menu inspired largely by the West Coast.
“We’re the only restaurant in town that has a glossary,” Bryan Truitt said, laughing. “A lot of people haven’t heard of things on our menu because the style of food is so different than anything else in Siloam.”
Both businesses add nuance to Siloam Springs’ food scene by bringing natural and fresh offerings to a field dominated by deep-fried food and Southern dishes.
Stephanie Truitt said she and her husband love to eat at a good barbeque or Thai restaurant, but, after growing up in Siloam Springs, they thought it was time for the town to have another option—a restaurant that could offer things like acai bowls and Mediterranean cuisine.
Like Pure Joy, Chickadee’s focuses strongly on natural ingredients.
“We try to source food as local as we can and refuse to have a fryer on the premises,” Bryan Truitt said. “Wheat wraps and that extra fiber and nutrients is essential, and it also tastes good.”
Both businesses look forward to providing for the Siloam Springs community and connecting with a big part of their target market: JBU students.
“We would love for JBU students to come out this fall and hangout,” Stephanie Truitt said. “There’s plenty outdoor space. We’re also looking into possible live concerts and events with the visual department at JBU.”
SAM BAILEY – World and Local Editor