Ice cream: It’s one of the simple pleasures of summer. In a cone, in a dish, sprinkled with toppings or unadorned, ice cream is happiness in scoop form. And, it’s just plain good, so we didn’t need any excuse to pop into The Ice Cream Place for a taste.
Jerry Connell opened The Ice Cream Place in 2007 and has been happily dishing out ice cream to the Southlake community ever since. After retiring from a 40-year career selling application software, Connell wanted a place to take his grandkids for some great ice cream after school.
Not happy with local offerings, Connell did something about it: He opened his own shop. Nearly 10 years later, he’s proud to be the longest-tenured ice cream shop owner in Southlake.
You won’t find Connell in the back churning out the cold stuff, though. He gets his ice cream through Florida-based Ice Cream Club, a company that regularly wins awards for its ice cream.
It’s no wonder the ice cream keeps scooping up accolades – it has a 14- to 15-percent butterfat content. Put simply: This ice cream is decadently rich and fl vorful. Ten percent butterfat is the minimum for ice cream, and 16-percent is crossing into the ultra-premium zone.
The Ice Cream Place’s treats are also made with real fruits and nuts. You get actual strawberries and peaches, for example – not artificial flavors and syrups.
No matter what flavors you’re into, The Ice Cream Place has something for you. It regularly keeps 32 fl vors on hand, and these change seasonally. Connell isn’t afraid to try out different fl vors. Sometimes they’re a hit. Sometimes they’re not.
A longtime favorite is Dulce de Leche. This flavor is simple enough: It’s a sweet cream ice cream swirled with a caramel ribbon. Butterscotch Bomb, an explosively tantalizing concoction of butterscotch ice cream with brownies, Heath bars, cookies and peanut butter cups, is the new favorite this summer.
Though butterscotch is hitting the sweet spot for Southlake now, that hasn’t always been the case. A few years ago, Connell bought a tub of chocolate ice cream laced with butterscotch and roasted pecans. Customers just weren’t interested in the butterscotch swirl, and Connell had a hard time dishing out this flavor.
“Combining fl vors gets tricky sometimes,” he says. That’s okay. When it comes to ice cream, simple works. Maybe that’s why chocolate is America’s favorite ice cream fl vor, according to a Harris Poll, with vanilla, cookie dough, and cookies and cream coming in right behind it.
Whatever fl vors happen to tickle your taste buds this summer, one thing is for sure: The Ice Cream Shop is one we can all collectively scream about.
THE ICE CREAM PLACE
1957 W. Southlake Blvd. Southlake
817.749.0888