Kathy Marlowe stops an interview to greet customers at the door and explain to the new visitors that the ice cream, the doughnuts, even the waffle cones on display at Bothell’s new Carousel Cafe and Ice Cream are made fresh, right on the premises.

Still fresh itself, only having opened its doors May 14, the cafe also offers deli sandwiches, homemade soups, smoothies with real fruit, shakes, espresso and made-to-order ice-cream cakes.

“We wanted to do more than ice cream,” Marlowe said regarding the bright, welcoming space that, for now, she operates alone during the day, with help from husband Dan Marlowe in the mornings.

That’s when it’s time for Dan Marlowe to make those doughnuts.

“My husband just loves fresh doughnuts…I do the customer service, he’s more the creative side,” Kathy Marlowe said.

That customer service includes a quick explanation of the ice-cream creations available at Carousel. Each creation starts with one of 18 basic ice-cream flavors, or three flavors of sorbet. Customers then pick out their choice of added ingredients that can range from peanut-butter cups to fruit or nuts to gummy bears.

The ice cream and added goodies are mixed together on what Marlowe called a stone that’s kept at about 18 degrees Fahrenheit.

While visitors certainly are free to experiment and create their own concoctions, there is a long list of suggested creations.

For example, to make black-forest ice cream, you would mix chocolate ice cream with cherry-pie filling, brownies and hot fudge. Carousel is new enough that Marlowe said no creation has yet emerged as the customer favorite. She did mention a chocolate concoction is gaining some momentum.

By the way, if you have trouble envisioning what one of the suggested creations might look like, glance at one of Carousel’s menu boards. They are actually flat-screen TVs and one flashes pictures of finished ice-cream creations.

Regarding the rest of Carousel’s menu, sandwiches range from various paninis to traditional Reubens and hot pastrami. The soup menu changes every day, but there’s always two offerings, which on this particular day were salmon chowder and rustic tomato red pepper.

For the Marlowes, Carousel isn’t their first small business. They ran a totally unrelated enterprise for many years before selling it to buy an eatery franchise in downtown Seattle. They liked the business, but didn’t like the franchise set up and decided to strike out on their own. The first Carousel shop opened in Ocean Shores in 2007. The Marlowes traveled back and forth between Bothell and Ocean Shores before deciding to stick closer to this area. They closed the Ocean Shores store and finally settled on their current location on Bothell-Everett Highway.

Regarding that location, Kathy Marlowe admits many people might not yet know the cafe and ice creamery is there. The store sits off Bothell-Everett Highway near Interstate 405, sort of next to Jack in the Box and behind Bonefish. Marlowe insisted the business is moving in the right direction and that some coming signs on Bothell-Everett Highway only will help.

“For now, it’s a lot of word of mouth… Every day I’m doing better than the day before, so I know I’m doing something right,” she said.

Marlowe doesn’t even seem to mind what could be seen as the grind of being at the store during all its business hours, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.

“I love what I’m doing, it’s a joy,” she said.

With a couple of successful businesses behind her and having reached age 60, might Marlowe think about slowing down a bit?

“I’m not old enough to retire,” she said.