April 5, 2006
When Custard Freezes Over
Whenever Seattlest visits Milwaukee, we make a point of stopping by Kopp's Frozen Custard for a Fudge Delight sundae. If we still lived there, we'd likely weigh 400 lbs. by now, because frozen custard is one of the most perfect desserts ever churned by human beings.
Milwaukee may not have a Space Needle or citizen initiative process, but it's rich in custard stands -- in addition to arch-rivals Kopp's (our favorite -- imagine Red Mill with an ice cream parlor attached) and Gilles, upstart chain Culver's has sprung up all over.
Which leads us to our question: where the hell are Seattle's custard stands? Yes, yes, we love gelato and sorbetto -- really, if you freeze it, we'll probably eat it -- but they ain't frozen custard. They're so...West Coast.
Seattle is full of transplanted midwesterners. We know what we're missing. Yet no one will satisfy our craving by opening a Puget Sound spin on Kopp's.
Well, maybe not no one. We found a PI article from last year that mentioned frozen custard in Maltby, made by Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream. We emailed Snoqualmie to ask about their frozen custard -- do they have a custard stand? Have they made their custard yet? Barry Bettinger replied:
Our frozen custard is coming along though not as fast as I thought. It will be a hard ice cream, not soft-serve, and we have Lemon finished. For sure Vanilla will be a flavor and we are considering Cinnamon, Banana, and Mango.On the one hand, we love lemon. On the other hand, we wish there were soft-serve frozen custard in Seattle. But now we're planning a stop in Maltby one of these days to see how Snoqualmie's product compares to our childhood memories. It's a bit of a drive, but cheaper than ordering from Kopp's.
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The real question is why Seattle doesn't have any great frozen yogurt places. I love ice cream as much as (probably way, way more than) the next person. But considering how often I want to eat it, a girl's only option is to substitute with some low cal fro yo. I haven't found any around these parts yet though. :-(
So my mom grew up next door to the Kopps family in Milwaukee, and went to school with their son Karl. I believe the story is the mom (Louisa?) started the custard stands after the father either passed or could no longer work. The stuff is the bomb, for sure, and I agree - we need it here, but no fricking yuppie flavors, puh-leeze!
So my mom grew up next door to the Kopps family in Milwaukee, and went to school with their son Karl. I believe the story is the mom (Louisa?) started the custard stands after the father either passed or could no longer work. The stuff is the bomb, for sure, and I agree - we need it here, but no fricking yuppie flavors, puh-leeze!
Don't panic yet. There's a Sheridan's Frozen Custard in Vancouver WA, at 14389 SE Mill Plain Blvd. Keep it in mind for your next trip down to Portland.
10 - 12 years ago there was a short-lived (but very good) frozen custard place on 45th in the U District, diagonal from where Trader Joe's is now. Too bad it wasn't on the Ave. or at Green Lake; I think it would have caught on.
Tell me something: Why must you (and many other pro/semi-pro bloggers) refer to yourselves as "we" all the time? I find it very obnoxious and retarded. I don't care how many folks write for this blog, you're not writing at the same time, nor do I believe that you go everywhere together and share the same exact thoughts. When James writes a post, for example, he should say "I like this, I think that...etc." Or is it the royal "we"?
Jeff, we are, in fact, a Voltron-like assemblage.
We aren't fond of it ourselves, but we bow to house style. (Parse that however you like.)
We suggest you relax and enjoy our royal we-ness.
To all who love frozen custard....there is a new frozen custard shop down in Bonney Lake (about 40 mins south of Seattle) called Old School Frozen Custard. Check out their website for info and flavor of the day calendar (www.oldschoolfrozencustard.com). I have been in many many times and it is just excellent custard! They even have the real deal machine and they aren't a franchise like Sheridan's so I think the quality is much much better... I encourage all of you who like custard to pay them a visit so they can stick around here. I hear they are planning on opening up in Seattle next because the part-owners live in Seattle. Cheers!!