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Scoop Shops Put Inventive Twists on Old-Fashioned Favorites

BY SHANNON CLINTON

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

With fall in full swing, there’s no need to abandon your favorite frozen treats. Thanks to the creativity of local ice cream shop owners, you can have your holiday pumpkin pie in milkshake form, sample sorbets with exotic ingredients and, for adults only, indulge in a boozy ice-cream based cocktail or float.

Sav’s Restaurant and Gourmet Ice Cream on East Main Street in Lexington sells scoop after scoop of out-of-the-ordinary ice cream flavors to try by the cup, cone, milkshake or pint. The dual concept is owned and operated by Chef Mamadou “Sav” Savane, who originally hails from Guinea in western Africa.

Sav’s administrative assistant Reina Slaymaker said lavender is one of the best-selling ice cream flavors.

“Made with edible lavender, this ice cream is a vanilla base and really captures the strong floral flavors of lavender,” she said.

Customers also enjoy mixing lavender ice cream or milkshakes with chocolate, coconut and pistachio for an added flavor boost, she said.

What caught my eye on a recent visit was hot banana ice cream, made with real bananas and blended with Sav’s specialty hot sauce, “Sav’s Piment.” Being a hot sauce fiend, I had to try a cup of this one alongside a scoop of lavender in hopes of a yin-yang experience.

The perfectly smooth hot banana ice cream briefly tastes only of fresh banana before a tongue tingling, peppery heat akin to coarsely ground peppercorns begins to build. The lavender ice cream didn’t taste like soap as feared — it has a delicate, pleasant flavor that paired well with the hot banana variety.

I also sampled a bite of my husband’s two scoops — Kentucky Coffee (with a bourbon kick) and Spanish Peanut Butter, which Slaymaker said is Sav’s personal favorite. The latter had a vanilla base with a fudge swirl and overall creamy mouthfeel while tasting predominantly of freshly roasted Spanish nuts. Sav also makes his own vegan Beesop and JinJon sorbets in house from west African juices by those names. Beesop, Slaymaker explained, is a best-selling sorbet, made from hibiscus flowers and lemon and JinJon is made from ginger and pineapple.

At Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream, I’ve sampled and swooned over the Bourbon and Honey flavor on many occasions, so it’s no wonder that owner Toa Green said it’s become their top-selling variety.

“I thought, ‘I’m very proud of being a Southern girl, and we’re going to showcase Southern desserts.’”

Located in the distillery district of Lexington, Crank & Boom found some inspiration for its newest cocktail menu creations in neighboring Ethereal Brewing Co. and Barrel House Distilling Co., with a lineup of boozy ice-cream cocktails, floats and “spiked scoops,” a shot of your choice of alcohol drizzled over your favorite ice cream flavor.

Some of the ice cream concoctions feature Buffalo Trace bourbon cream, Barrel House Distilling’s oak rum and Ethereal Brewing’s oatmeal stout beer, which is used in Crank & Boom’s coffee stout ice cream.

The drinks range from elaborate to simple, and can also be made without alcohol. A cocktail called the “Berry White” contains Kentucky Blackberry & Buttermilk ice cream, Barrel House oak rum, cherry liqueur, amaretto, fresh strawberry sauce and whipped cream. The Bourbon & Root Beer Float combines Bourbon & Honey Ice Cream, Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream and root beer.

Fall and winter menus are on the horizon. To create seasonal cocktail menus, creative sessions are held to mix and match ingredients.

“We did a lot of trial and error,” Green said. “We’ve done this long enough that we know what combos work really well and we know what people love.”

At Sweet Matriarch Bakery in Georgetown, owner Tia Chancellor found inspiration for her over-the-top confections during a trip to New York about five years ago. She’d been standing in line at a renowned milkshake bar for about 45 minutes, when an employee emerged to tell the crowd they didn’t know how much longer the wait would be.

The demand for these extravagant milkshakes gave her plenty of time to mull over its applications in her own bakery back home.

“I thought, ‘I’m very proud of being a Southern girl, and we’re going to showcase Southern desserts’,” she said.

Chancellor created “cattywampus shakes,” served in Mason jars and piled high with outrageous trimmings like cake pops and banana bread, whipped cream and homemade chocolate or caramel sauce drizzles.

There’s a core shakes menu, along with seasonal creations. The fall menu includes a pumpkin milkshake with a homemade pumpkin roll affixed, a caramel apple milkshake and a sweet potato milkshake. December’s menu will have some cocoa-based treats and ice cream options, Chancellor said.

The most unusual variety so far is the Bacon-Butter Pecan Shake, with a maple buttercream, caramelized brown sugar and bacon pieces in a butter pecan ice cream milkshake.

People will literally go the extra mile for a cattywampus shake — Chancellor said she’s had customers drive four or five hours one way to her shop. If feeling neither catty nor wampus, customers can also order classic milkshakes in a jar.

The bakery business also benefits, as the brownies and cakes adorning shakes in single-serving sizes are often ordered later in full-sizes once customers try them.

Although the customized milkshakes are gargantuan, “We have a lot of people who do not share,” she said. “They want one all to themselves!” BL

PHOTO By THERESa STaNLEy Tia Chancellor, owner of Sweet Matriarch Bakery in Georgetown, says customers drive from all over for a taste of the shop’s cattywampus shakes, which are piled high with sweet treats.