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| Two Scoops of Love |
Some might be surprised to learn Molly (Johnson) Ross puts her nursing skills to work as owner, operator and ice cream connoisseur at Zesto at Coldwater Crossing, a Fort Wayne favorite for fans of sweet summer nights.
As it turns out, ice cream with family and friends is often just the right medicine.
“When you think about taking care of people, Saint Francis homed in on not only taking care of people’s physical health, but also their emotional, spiritual and social health,” Ross said. “With Zesto, I’m not taking care of people physically, but I’m utilizing the part of nursing that I love—taking care of people’s well-being.”
Ross spent a few years working as a nurse after earning her BSN, including providing care at St. Joseph Hospital. Deciding that she “loved taking care of people, but didn’t love taking care of sick people,” she moved into medical sales. After a few years, she became a stay-at-home mom while assisting with aspects of husband Adam’s business, Ross Restoration.
Now comes the part of her story that tends to make people say, “Aww!” Molly and Adam met while they were high school students working at Zesto, so it naturally holds a special place in their hearts. Today, one of their favorite activities on family vacations is to visit local ice cream shops. They’ve enjoyed it so much they often visualized owning their own ice cream shop, which was not a farfetched idea since Molly calls Adam “a serial entrepreneur.”
It happened almost in an instant. While on his way to meet the family for lunch at Panera Bread one spring day in 2023, Adam stopped for gas and casually looked up “ice cream stores for sale in Fort Wayne, Indiana” on his phone. He read this description of one of the first items: “Iconic ice cream shop.”
Adam sat down with the family in Panera and said to Molly, ‘You’re never going to believe this.’”
“We’re like, ‘It has to be Zesto!’” Molly said.
They shared their cute backstory with the seller, made an offer and bought Zesto at Coldwater Crossing. They started serving ice cream and fun vibes on Sept. 28, 2023. Madison, Lola and George enjoy working with their mother (and father, when he’s not tied up with a restoration gig).
“I love serving people and getting to know those regular customers,” Molly said. “I love hearing people’s stories. When we dreamed, we dreamed about owning an ice cream shop because of those reasons.”
Molly says she continues to use much of what she learned about caring for people during her time at Saint Francis and as a nurse. Her parents—Dave and Rosie Johnson—are nurses, and Dave is a longtime professor at Saint Francis.
“I love the University of Saint Francis,” Molly said. “I know from experience—when I was out in the community in sales or working as a nurse—Saint Francis grads are held in high esteem; they are well respected and well received.”
Molly tries to emulate the best of her mentors as she works with young people at Zesto.
“Not only am I serving customers, but I’m serving my employees,” she said. “A lot of times, Zesto is a young person’s first job, their first time making eye contact with customers, their first time dealing with somebody who’s upset and their first time learning how to de-escalate that. They are learning how to create an environment where people want to come back, and that can transcend to whatever else they do later in life.”
There are some probable entrepreneurs blooming in their children, as Molly characterizes her college-aged daughters as “outgoing and business-minded.”
Molly and Adam recently invested in another business that promises to be less physically demanding than restoration, or even working in an ice cream shop, as they enter the next phase of their lives. That business—Transworld Business Advisors of Fort Wayne—is a brokerage to help people buy and sell businesses. No matter what lies ahead, they will always have a soft spot for Zesto, which they have no plans to relinquish.
“Adam and I are in the ice cream business, not because of our relationship—that’s the icing on the cake and it is a cute story—we’re in the ice cream business because we love people,” Molly said.
Photography by Roots of Life Photography/Creative Roots Media
This story and others are available in the Spring 2025 online edition of Saint Francis magazine.
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