By Kevin Revolinski | Photo by Hillary Schave
In 2021, Stella Buckley found herself with a newly minted environmental science degree — but COVID was in full swing and jobs were scarce.
Buckley moved to Madison for a biotech master’s program at UW-Madison, but she had doubts.
“I thought maybe I’ll do grad school and if I love it there, I’ll stay,” she says.
At her professor’s suggestion, she paused her master’s program and took a job at Illumina as a scientist.
But at night, she’d go home and bake.
“It’s just been my thing that I’ve done when I’m stressed,” she explains.
Her then-boyfriend (now husband) got her a KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment. She started making small batches of ice cream, then brought in friends and family to try it.
“One thing led to another and it really just kind of blew up from there,” she says.
Buckley, now 26, started selling ice cream across from the Dane County Farmers’ Market in 2024, and also as a pop-up at events to earn some money and to test whether her side hustle “could actually be a scalable business.”
And eventually, it was — she left her full-time job and opened Stellie’s Ice Cream (her father’s nickname for her) at 1815 E. Washington Avenue in June 2025.
Learning the food safety aspects of the business was the biggest learning curve, but flavor ideas were never a problem. House flavors are honey vanilla bean, strawberry swirl, dark chocolate, peanut butter and cookie dough, salted caramel and candied pecan, and sea salt espresso. Special flavors are on constant rotation, ranging from rhubarb to sweet corn with caramel Sriracha. She also collaborates with The Deliciouser on exclusive flavors throughout the year and with Rally Madison FC for her shop-exclusive flavor Rally Rose, a sweet cream and rose combination.
She also hosts one-hour ice cream-making classes and hopes to expand retail sales.
“Then I would love to just focus on making delicious flavors in-house,” says Buckley.
Flavor Faves
Stellie’s Ice Cream is available in 5-ounce single-serving containers of its six house flavors at all three Willy Street Co-op locations and at Hy-Vee in Fitchburg. It is also on the menus at The Old Fashioned, The Deliciouser and Breese Stevens Field.
