Kansas City: Ice Cream

Inspired by a recent piece in the KC alterna-news weekly* The Pitch, and by the wintry weather, a few weeks ago I conducted a little frozen custard taste-off. In one corner, Foo’s Fabulous Frozen Custard, the first franchise operation making its foray across state line into Johnson County after many apparently successful years in Brookside in KC proper. It’s apparently held in high regard around these parts.

In the other Sheridan’s Frozen Custard an old school-looking-but-not-that-old locally started franchise; a walk-up custard stand in old Overland Park, with a full food menu and a mild case of Ted Drewe wanna-be. I hear nary a word about this place.

First up was Foo’s. Ordered a mini scoop of vanilla and a butter pecan concrete. The $1-ish mini-scoop is a cheap way to satisfy a custard fix. Seemed like a high butterfat content (owner threw out 14%**), very rich, maybe too rich as it slightly overpowered the vanilla, but still quite good. And really, mostly good texture too. Only complaint was some icy crystals throughout, which I found distracting. Don’t know if that’s an anomaly or a regular problem.

The concrete was not very good. Butterscotch was highly artificial, like a McDonald’s sundae. Pecans were nutty but chopped far too finely. Much preferred the straight vanilla.

No flavor-of-the-day was offered, but they will mix up a wide array of choices.

Sheridan’s was next. Same order. The total was 1 or 2 dollars more, but servings were both bigger. The vanilla was subpar. Way too much air, noticeably lower butterfat, and a dominant flavor of artificial vanilla. In this case I much preferred the concrete, where the butterscotch either wasn’t so artificial, or it didn’t suffer so much compared to the poor quality of the custard. The pecans were bigger, more satisfying chunks, but were oddly sugar-coated-crumbly-textured. I couldn’t quite decide if I liked the nuts that way or not. Ultimately, though, the whole was much greater than the sum of its parts, and I pretty much enjoyed it in a guilty sort of way. Also no flavor-of-the-day noticed.

Verdict: Foo’s custard in a landslide, though the ice crystals trouble me. I’ll have to try the Brookside original. Verdict is out on the mix-ins, though I think I preferred the taste of the odd, amalgamation of the Sheridan’s butter pecan, even though I could easily rationalize it as “worse.”

As a frame of reference, well my experience is limited. Below Kopp’s. Too long since I had Ted Drewe’s. I think Foo’s custard may be better than Scooter’s, but I prefer Scooter’s total package (service, atmosphere, toppings, etc.).

Foo’s Fabulous Frozen Custard
3832 W 95th Street
Leawood, KS 66206
http://www.foosfabulousfrozencustard.com


Sheridan’s Frozen Custard
6825 W 75th Street
Overland Park, KS 66204
913-341-5339
http://www.sheridansfrozencustard.com

*It’s a bit hard to explain exactly why this account made me interested in checking this out. Perhaps a post to come down the road. Suffice to say, there was nothing, untoward, hoity-toity, unusual, or millennial about this spot, at least at 3:30 on a January, Friday afternoon. Seemed nice, though. As an aside, I found it very odd to see a similar conceit used by David Tamarkin on the back page of TimeOut Chicago a couple weeks later.

**I believe the quote was “I think it might be something like 14%.” Direct from Jeff Stottle, guy with the business plan behind the expansion of Betty Bremser’s (sister of Foo) original store. Stottle is formerly of Wendy’s, Applebee’s, and most lately, Zio’s Italian Kitchen. For what that’s worth.

Aaron, I'm glad you led off with an ice cream theme. It reminded me to tell you about Murray's over in Westport. Murray's is real handcrafted ice cream created right there in their little storefront just off the main drag.

They have a magnificent rotating choice of flavors with more than a dozen mix-ins and a display case full of fresh baked cookies.

Unfortunately you'll have to wait a few weeks more before you can check them out; they always close around the hoidays and through the dog months of winter.

A few years back they tried to create a rum raisin ice cream that had so much rum, it didn't set up properly. They couldn't sell the stuff so they gave my brother-in-law the five gallon tub of semi hard ice cream because they knew it would have a good home. Tom said that even this failed experiment was pretty darned good.

Buddy

Murray's ice Cream & Cookies
4120 Pennsylvania Ave
Kansas City, MO 64111-3299View Map
(816) 931-5646

Thanks, Buddy. I've actually got quite a backload, and it will probably take me a little while to catch up. I did visit Murray's a couple times last fall, and found it excellent. Also some pretty decent cookies, and I love that they just close down for a few months and take some time off.

I tried to get down there to buy a few quarts on the day they closed for the season (Dec. 9, maybe). They sell all their remaining stock at half off on this day each year. Unfortunately, they sold out in about 15 minutes, long before I got there.