Lowcountry pastry chef turns ice cream entrepreneur

By Mike Switzer

Published June 29, 2022 at 5:30 AM EDT

When we were down at Daniel Island earlier this year to cover the Credit One Charleston Open women’s professional tennis tournament, we were intrigued by an ice cream cart we saw that was selling what appeared to be fried chicken. Of course, it was actually ice cream but in the shape of pieces of fried chicken. Upon further investigation we discovered that the owner of this business is a six-time James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef and now she’s an entrepreneur. Mike Switzer interviews Cynthia Wong, founder of Life Raft Treats in Charleston, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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