NORTH CANTON, Ohio -- On this hot, sticky August morning, David Steele and Lauren-Michael Tyler are, undoubtedly, the two happiest working men in all of Ohio.

Attired in crisp pink chefs' smocks embroidered with the words "Woo City," the two veteran restaurateurs-turned-ice cream makers are preparing several batches of Black And Tan Ice Cream for a new restaurant and jazz club called Wonder Bar on East Fourth Street in Cleveland.

"Guinness would be your black and Bass Ale would be your tan," says Mr. Tyler, a pastry chef who made a 12-foot-tall wedding cake for Maggie Hardy Magerko's 10th wedding anniversary. He also studied with Nicholas Lodge, the Atlanta-based cake designer who made one of the 25 cakes for the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer.

With strong malt flavors, this ice cream would delight discriminating beer buffs because it's made with 12 cans of Guinness, along with 85-percent-cacao chocolate and cream.

Mr. Steele says that most ice cream is made to order at Woo City Ice Cream Manufacturing Co.

Because the company had so many owners before him and Mr. Tyler, they don't know the origin or meaning of that fun name, but it was formerly located in Wooster. Their ice cream is making some say "Woo-hoo!"

That's because it has fewer and better ingredients, says Mr. Steele, explaining that most commercially made ice cream is pumped full of air, known as overrun, and made with oil-based emulsifiers. Woo City, which does not use air or emulsifiers, is the only certified organic ice cream made in Ohio.

Woo City, which produces ice cream, sorbet and Woo Fu, a vegan product made from silken tofu, supplies 261 restaurants and hotels in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Locally, it's sold at Whole Foods, the East End Food Co-op and a Carnegie ice cream shop called Oh Yeah! located at 920 Forsythe Road.

A secret base

Woo City starts with a proprietary base that is blended with organic cream from Amish farmers who live in Holmes and Wayne counties.

"This is the way ice cream was made 75 years ago, in small-barrel batches," says Mr. Steele with an enthusiasm he barely contains.

When he waxes about the joys of six-fold vanilla, he becomes so animated that he reminds you of actor Nathan Lane in his role as Max Bialystock in the Broadway musical "The Producers."

"Ice cream does something to us," he says. "It's not being a kid again. It's being a kid with all the benefits of being an adult."

The two men are also whipping up 15-liter batches of two Woo City best-sellers -- Five-Star Chocolate and Extreme Vanilla. All the while, they are extolling the glory of organic cream from grass-fed cows and a low-temperature vat pasteurization at 153 degrees that allows beneficial omega-3 fatty acids to remain in the product. Ultra pasteurization, as done at higher temperatures with most dairy desserts, eliminates omega-3s.

Being wooed has never tasted quite so good or been nearly this much fun.

These two gentlemen can't wait to watch people taste samples of this intensely flavored ice cream, which is 16 percent butterfat.

"Their eyes roll back in their heads," Mr. Tyler says.

Who likes Woo City? Last month, celebrity cook Paula Deen, America's queen of butter, appeared at a benefit for the Culinary Vegetable Institute in Ohio's northeastern community of Milan, where she tasted Woo City's Butter Pee-CAN, accent on the second syllable.

"Darlin', you have to tell me how you make that," she cooed to Mr. Tyler.

"Our customers seem to prefer the Organic Extreme Vanilla and the Natural Malted Vanilla," said Justin Kovach, associate grocery team leader at Whole Foods in East Liberty, which carries 17 flavors that are priced between $4.79 and $4.99 a pint.

Sweet deal

Mr. Steele and Mr. Tyler are the very picture of the word "upbeat."

As Mr. Tyler uses a spatula to load his latest concoction into one of three stainless steel Carpigiani machines, he warns a reporter and photographer to stand back.

"You never know when you're going to be wearing chocolate," he says. "And that's a nice thing to wear," Mr. Steele adds.

During their 25-year partnership, the two men have owned three restaurants, a catering business, a travel agency, a bed and breakfast, a bakery, a chocolate shop and a wedding cake business called Lauren-Michael Designs.

After all those efforts, they were ready and able to retire. Still, Mr. Tyler, a native of Canton -- a "Canton Onion" he jokes -- longed to open a pastry shop in Cleveland called Ganache. Then, a friend in the business community told him about the chance to invest in Woo City.

Mr. Steele resisted but agreed to attend a meeting on a dreary November day in Wooster, Ohio, at a drab office with an old metal desk, folding chairs, an attorney and an accountant. "They wanted us to invest. We stayed a little while and left," he recalls.

Two months later, as the duo toasted their retirement with vodka martinis during a vacation in North Carolina's Outer Banks, a business broker seeking investors in Woo City called again.

Now on his second, three-olive martini, Mr. Steele heard himself say, "We won't invest in it. We'll buy it!"

The two men invested savings and mortgaged their Lakewood home to buy Woo City out of bankruptcy in May of 2004. In January 2005, the company moved into a 14,400-square-foot building in North Canton, Ohio.

Then, for about a year, Mr. Steele said, "I went out on the road" in search of customers.

At one fancy restaurant, the head chef initially refused to come out of the kitchen. Mr. Steele, a former executive chef himself, waited for an hour and never offered a sales pitch, knowing that chefs are interested in taste, touch and smell. Finally, the chef emerged and dipped a fork into the ice cream; Mr. Steele left with an order.

Not surprisingly, "Chefs are the best sources for flavoring agents," Mr. Steele said, adding that the two men search the globe for ingredients.

The pomegranate juice on one of their shelves hails from Azerbaijan.

But Woo City also buys locally produced, organically grown fruits for sorbets; mint from a farmer in Dalton, Ohio; and honey from a Cleveland supplier.

Recently, an Ohio chef asked them to make vodka strawberry basil ice cream.

"The first thing your palate should recognize is vodka, then strawberry, then basil," Mr. Steele says.

They have also made cucumber-jalapeno sorbet as well as ice cream flavored with balsamic vinegar and cracked peppercorn.

Mr. Steele and Mr. Tyler employ six people and hope to add five more staff members to their Woo Crew by the end of September.

Woo City is growing. Earlier this year, an Orthodox rabbi asked the company's leaders to make a private label, non-dairy product for Orthodox Jews. To do that, Mr. Steele says, "We will become kosher by the end of August."

In one of the building's vacant rooms, just a few feet from a gigantic freezer, the two men plan to open their first factory store.

With 2,400 square feet, the first store, Mr. Tyler says, will feature an elegant but fun atmosphere of 1940s-era Hollywood glamor.

And soon, Woo City will roll out three new flavors -- cinnamon, dolche de leche and mint chocolate chip.

Also on the agenda is a trip to the Sicilian seaport of Catania, where Mr. Tyler can visit his brother, a U.S. naval officer, and the duo can produce a line of gelato, which will be 14 percent butterfat.

Mr. Steele prides himself on his agility and versatility even though he's gained 20 pounds since buying Woo City.

"I'll mop floors. I did the laundry this morning. I serve food."

In a typical week, the two men devote Monday to paper work, Tuesday and Wednesday to making ice cream and Thursday and Friday to delivering orders.

But every day is a good ice cream day.

"It's so basic," says Mr. Steele. "God gives you cream and you make it into ice cream and you smile all day long."