Some businesses are born from a five-year plan. Neon Cow Creamery & Sub Shop was born around a dinner table, when Anna and Brad Lassila decided they needed two things in their new shop's name: the word "cow," and something that felt a little more modern. Brad, a proud product of the 1980s, supplied the neon. Anna still gives him full credit. It just clicked.

That dinner-table spontaneity is, in many ways, the whole story of Neon Cow in Hampshire — equal parts heart, hustle, and happy accident. "Cow" was an easy fit for a creamery, of course, but it carried a second meaning too: a nod to Hampshire's own history as, at one time, the second largest dairy-producing area around. Anna and Brad call nearby Pingree Grove home, but it's Hampshire that captured Anna's heart first. She spent 30 years working in restaurants in Oak Park and Forest Park, watching families grow up right in front of her. Her last stop before Neon Cow was Garden Berry, on the corner of State and Jackson, where for two years she served locals, farmers, and families who felt like her own. It was there, behind the counter, that she first heard their current building might be coming available. "I have to know Hampshire," she remembers thinking. "I fell in love with it." Her daughter Stacie did the legwork, tracking down the details and landing her mom an interview with an owner who, as it turned out, loved the concept just as much as Anna did.

Stacie gets credit for the ice cream side of the business; the subs were all Anna, built on bread delivered fresh daily from Turano — sometimes still warm from the oven — not just real turkey, but real meat across the board, free of hormones, and natural, dye-free cheese.

Opening day, Anna admits, is mostly a blur. They ran out of ice cream. They ran out of bread. They ran out of meat. The demand was so immediate and so steady that Patrick, their Turano sales representative, watched Hampshire reshuffle his entire route — what had been a middle stop became his very first delivery of the day. Hampshire didn't just support Neon Cow; in its own small way, it helped catapult Patrick to one of the top-performing reps in his territory. Even something as simple as weekly garbage pickup had to be rethought almost immediately. "We did not expect the overwhelming love," Anna says. Two years in, she still isn't used to watching a first-time customer take that first bite and light up. "That is the best sandwich I've ever had," they tell her — music to her ears, every single time.

That sense of community shows up in smaller ways too. Farmers and neighbors still walk through the door the way they might walk into a friend's kitchen, arms full — tomatoes, zucchini, farm-fresh eggs — just because they want Anna to have them. It's the kind of thing that doesn't happen at every sandwich counter, but it happens at this one.

The community even helped write the menu. Anna noticed a pattern early on: customer after customer from town was ordering the same combination, turkey and salami, again and again. So she made it official, building it into its own sandwich and naming it exactly what it was — The Hampshire. Today it's the shop's number-ten, and one of its most-ordered subs, a fitting tribute to the town that gave Neon Cow its start.

The ice cream itself has its own love story. Anna and Brad chose Ashby's Sterling, made in Ludington, Michigan, because it's where their own family vacationed for years. You can't find Ashby's on a grocery shelf — it's a small-batch, never-disappointing product, delivered fresh and put away with care by the same drivers every time. Of the 50 to 60 flavors in rotation, Neon Cow keeps about 16 on the board at once, leaning toward what customers actually love rather than what's trendy, with an eye toward dairy-free and no-sugar-added options whenever possible. The flavors change daily, which means there's no posting a weekly lineup — regulars simply have to stop in and see. One flavor never leaves, though: amaretto cherry, their number-one seller from day one. Anna's own kids told her nobody would buy it. She kept it anyway. She was right.

If there's a thread that ties every decision together — the bread, the ice cream, the building itself — it's their kids. Anna and Brad have three children: Stacie, who pushed her mother toward Hampshire and has worked alongside her full time since the very beginning; Maria, who recently joined the business full time as well; and Alex, a college student who pitches in whenever he can. Everything they've built is for the three of them. Anna calls her kids her best friends, and it shows in the way the shop runs — warm, personal, a little chaotic in the best way, and entirely a family affair.

Ask about the menu's other namesake, and Anna's voice softens further still. The Anna — ham, salami, pepperoncini peppers, provolone cheese and topped with potato chips traces back to her own childhood, watching an older gentleman at her father's restaurant pile a handful of potato chips right onto his sandwich. Her father taught her everything about this business before he passed eleven years ago, and his influence still shapes how she runs a counter today, alongside the example of her old boss, Bill Loutos of Al's Grill of Oak Park, who still picks up the phone when she calls.

Now approaching their second anniversary, with year three already taking shape, Anna and Brad are eyeing a second location — proof that some of the best ideas really do start small, around a kitchen table, with the people you love most cheering you on.

Hampshire, IL, owned and operated by Anna and Brad Lassila.

Fresh-baked sub sandwiches made with real, hormone-free meats, plus small-batch Ashby's Sterling ice cream.

Yes — Anna and Brad Lassila run it alongside their three children, Stacie, Maria, and Alex.

Jennifer helps local businesses grow through community-driven marketing that actually feels like community — not just another ad. Based in the Fox River Valley after being born and raised in Chicago, she specializes in print-based advertising, neighborhood magazines, and alternative marketing strategies designed for business owners who want real relationships with their customers, not just impressions.

Through printed features, networking events, and community-driven storytelling, Jennifer connects Northern Illinois businesses to the neighbors right down the street — building trust the old-fashioned way, with a modern approach.

Know a business with a story worth telling, or curious about print-based and community-driven marketing for your own business? Contact Jennifer at Jennifer.Abbatacola@N2co.com