WESTBROOK – Going out for ice cream in the depths of winter isn’t usually at the top of Maine to-do lists. However, in just two years, Westbrook’s Catbird Creamery seems to be changing that.

In fact, the shop is thriving, says Andrew Warren, who owns the shop with his wife, Corey DiGirolamo. For example, during the first round of Westbrook’s Winter West events in January, the gourmet ice cream shop at 846 Main St. nearly sold out of ice cream.

Warren and DiGirolamo have lived in Westbrook for seven years. They opened the store in March 2012, after outgrowing space they opened in 2010 in a Portland sandwich shop. Warren and DiGirolamo, the shop’s only employees, say Catbird continues to thrive during the winter due to wholesale sales to restaurants and an active group of regular customers.

Warren grew up in midcoast Maine and studied music before finding his current path. Warren said that while working as a pastry chef, he realized there was “a demand for good, high quality ice cream with interesting flavors.” DiGirolamo also grew up in midcoast Maine and has a degree in business administration.

Warren believes that Maine’s rich agricultural and culinary traditions should be celebrated by not using artificial ingredients.

“Our company’s philosophy is to make unique and delicious ice cream using whole ingredients, which are as local as possible,” he said. “In short, food should be food.”

The American Journal recently spoke with Warren about running a year-round ice cream business:

Q: Catbird Creamery is approaching its second anniversary in the city in March. What has your Westbrook experience been like?

A: We’ve enjoyed a warm reception in Westbrook. Folks have been extremely enthusiastic and supportive about having an ice cream shop downtown. There is a strong and growing interest in good food in this town, and it’s fun being a part of it.

Q: How has the shop changed over the years?

A: We started as a strictly wholesale business and added the retail shop when we moved to Westbrook. When we first opened we had no idea what we were doing. Now we pretend we do.

Q: How do present-day ice cream businesses differ from those of the past? Are people demanding different styles?

A: Ice cream has become more and more generic and heavily processed since the 1950s. Recently ,there is an increasing demand for ice cream without a long list of unpronounceable ingredients. People are making an effort to discover food whose provenance they know.

Q: What is it like to keep an ice cream shop running during the long Maine winter – especially with the winter we’ve experienced this year.

A: We have a strong corps of regulars who continue to spread the word and don’t let a little foul weather get in their way. Our wholesale business keeps us busy during the quiet times. Restaurants in particular tend to order nearly as much ice cream in the winter as they do in the summer.

Q: How have community events such as Winter West affected business? Do they bring more customers through your door?

A: Anything that draws people to Westbrook and gets them walking around downtown is great for us.

Q: Are you in favor of the city’s push for a downtown revitalization coalition? How do you think it could help?

A: A vital and thriving downtown means more fun things for “Westbrookians” to do, a friendlier, safer community, and a wealthier city. Who could possibly not be in favor of that?

Q: What is your most popular flavor of ice cream?

A: Here in the shop, our most popular flavor is Tamari Caramel. Vanilla is always the most popular in any shop, so there’s a significant number of people who say vanilla without even looking at the other flavors. So, when they come in, I make them taste the vanilla, then the caramel, and they almost always choose the caramel instead.

Q: Have there been any flavors that people haven’t been interested in?

A: Not so much here, but back when I was a pastry chef for a while, there was a trio of interesting ice creams option on the menu, and our challenge was to never repeat a flavor. I made so many different flavors that there were definitely some terrible ones. I learned that not all flavors go together.

Q: Do you have any long-term goals for the shop?

A: We started out strictly wholesale, which is what I really wanted to do, but it turned out that I really enjoy having the shop, and people have really embraced us. Ultimately, we’d like to expand the wholesale business more than the shop, but Westbrook needed an ice cream shop, it had been 30 years.

Catbird Creamery co-owner Andrew Warren scoops out a sample of ice cream Wednesday.