Old School Frozen Custard

It's that time of year when people enjoy chilled drinks and frozen desserts. Capitol Hill now has a few places to enjoy ice cream and its distant cousins frozen and CUSTARD.

Read some old posts and you will see that frozen custard is a childhood favorite of mine and the only place I really get to enjoy it is when I go back to visit my family in Wisconsin. When I was a kid I pretty much thought it was a given that you would always get smooth, rich and creamy custard when going out for frozen treats. After living on the West Coast for several years, I realized that wasn't true. Welcome to the neighborhood Old School Frozen Custard.

L. had yet to visit this spot so after dinner we walked up the hill to try it out.

Walking up to the spot, I saw that Chocolate Peanut Butter was the flavor of the day. Now, even as a kid I stuck to straight vanilla but I wanted to see what this was all about since I have already sampled the vanilla. Everyday they offer vanilla and chocolate along with a special flavor.

When we got there it wasn't crowded and the staff were ready to help us. The menu is big and at lunch time you have the option of getting down on Nathan's hotdogs. The custard options vary from cups, cones to sundaes. You have several topping choices and blended dessert if you want to get down like that. Check out their whole menu here.

Like I said, I decided on the chocolate and peanut butter and decided on the cake cone. I was happy that it held that creamy and smooth texture that I love about custard but their is something about Kopps that nobody is coming close to. What was missing from this custard is the richness that I truly love. L. went with the plain chocolate in the waffle cone.

I think he shared my sentiments about the custard because he too has been to the holy land of Kopps. Special flavors rotate all month and I snapped a quick pick of the July calendar...I immediately realized I wish I was going today to try that coconut! They also have the flavor calendar online.

Also hiding in the massive open counter is a small freezer which contains pints of special flavors from days past. I looked for coconut, but no dice.

The decor on the walls are vintage looking photos of local schools. I seriously did not realize why they had all those school pictures up until I left...WOW.

It's hard to be that excited that custard is right here when it makes me miss the GOD of custard, but I am happy to have the choice here on the hill.

1316 E Pike
Sun-Thurs 12-10pm
Fri-Sat 12-11pm

Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream

Out of all desserts, I favor ice cream more than any. I actually enjoy frozen custard more than ice cream but lets not go there right now. About a month or so I was out to dinner in Wallingford with some friends and we drove by Molly Moon's. 40 or more people were lined up around the block to get in. My friend driving informed me that they supposedly had the best ice cream in town, I immediately became impatient and wanted to get some for myself but we were off to a show so Molly was going to have to wait.

One afternoon a few weeks ago L. and I took the bus to Wallingford to visit our friends and wanted to also grab some brunch (which reminds me I need to write about that place). We ate our brunch and started heading towards our friends house and there we have it...we walked right by Molly Moons. It was the middle of the afternoon and there was still a damn line. We got in the back and waited our turn with the other intersted parties. Just looking around, I was plesently surprised by the selection of ice creams and the simplicity of the space.

As we waited we were able to see and smell one of the employees making fresh waffle cones. Having the waffle irons right out at the counter most likely increases sales, we both got waffle cones.


I went with the Salted Caramel (reminicient of the taste I had from Mark's amazing fudge cake with salted peanut ice cream at Spring Hill) and L. went with the Vanilla Bean.This ice cream was really good it was rich and tasted very fresh, creamy and natural.

If I remember correctly some of the other options that day included Chocolate, Basalmic Strawberry, Maple Nut, Raspberry Sorbet and a limited edition flavor...Baracky Road. Upon reviewing the website, I noticed you can also request flavors! I think someone should make an ice cream that tastes just like Jell-O's pistachio pudding. All of the ice creams are made from local and organic ingredients and the cups are compostable, this place is so green. The place was packed so we had to take the ice cream out onto the street which was fine because all of the screaming kids were a bit too much to take anyway.

I think Molly found the perfect place to set up a place to get ice cream in a community that needed an ice cream shop. By the way, Molly Moon is a real person and she writes her own blog about her ice cream business experiences, check it out!


1622 ½ N 45th St
Wallingford, Seattle 98103
206.547.5105

Open Noon to 11pm
Everyday

soft serve beach

the other day we took a short field trip to stinson beach about 30 miles southwest of novato. the way in, we took the long, twisty road through fairfax to the beach....i seriously thought i might lose my cookies in the backseat if i didnt reign it in and mentally conquer my motion sickness. i was pretty quiet for those first 45 minutes until the road opened up to more exposed terrain, and i was most thankful at the sight of the beach.

oh, wait, did i mention that we got the idea to go to stinson beach after seeing a story on the news about a great white sighting? yeah, that's right, pep, a damn shark warning. this is the permanent signage at the beach.

and this is the swimming/surfing closure notice as of 8/28. awesome. the news reports and closure warnings didnt seem to deter children and adults from playing in the waves as far out as 50 yards, though. i was jealous, though, the waves looked perfect for surfing.

after walking a great length of the beach (beautiful!), we were all thirsty and decided to stop at the turfside cafe where they serve burgers, fries, shakes, and other beach-appropriate fried foods.

this bastion of burger delights was the perfect beachy/60's-authentic food shack. cash only, walk-up window, take a number.

i was thirsty, but mostly i wanted a vanilla, soft serve cone. i love that shit and probably hadnt eaten one in at least 5 years. also, the sun forced my hand, and i had to devour the melting tower of delicious, semi-frozen goodness. rats.