Hmmmmmm, as someone who grew up in the western half of the U.S., I gotta tell you that "soft serve" has never meant frozen custard to me. Soft serve is a fast food thing, and it sometimes has hardly any dairy product in it at all. Frozen custard always meant real ice cream, with the addition of egg yolks. At least that's what it meant when we cranked our own each summer. :)

I'm not sure where to get frozen custard around here (although I'm now considering a drive to Bonney Lake). I've had some great custards in the midwest and in New Mexico (where I lived for a decade). You haven't lived until you've experience frozen vanilla custard, smothered in fresh mangoes, topped with red chili-salted pecans. Creamy and sweet, fresh and fruity, salty and spicy -- it might be the best food ever!

Softserve and frozen custard have never been the same thing. Here's the DL on it: http://www.thedairygodmother.com/whatis.asp

Old School *is* really good; they've got the right equipment *and* the right mix, which are both crucial to success. It may be a *TRIFLE* less rich than the frozen custard of my memories, but it's *WELL WORTH* the drive, even at $4.15/gallon. I live in Kitsap, and I have *TOTALLY* driven there for custard if I get that unshakable urge.

Car.

Keys.

Now.

Call it research. ;0)

There is a fabulous frozen custard place near Pittsburgh, PA called "Glens". Only good one I've ever been too. I'll have to try the local options sometime.

Dahlia, have you tried the cold and creamy stuff at Pep's? It's on Freeport Road, near Pittsburgh. I have not been to Pep's for over 20 years, but it's still there. mmm

Nancy, as a New Yorker, I have a nostalgic yearning for the Carvel's soft-serve joints of my youth in Flushing, Queens. Chocolate in wafer cones that would drip out the bottom, dipped cones, "flying saucers"... We'd always stop at the location at Main Street and Booth Memorial Ave (then a seasonal store, now winterized). It's still there, just a couple of blocks from my old friend Moshe's house.

I don't know any Seattle native who calls it soft serve - it's soft ice cream. When I was very young, my father used to take us to a soft ice cream place on 24th in Ballard - can't remember the name. It was our favorite treat of the summer. Sometimes we would have the soft ice cream dipped in chocolate. Treats!!

Why would you want to go anywhere other than Bainbridge Island where you can a cone of pure heaven at Mora Ice Cream?

Custard, yes!

I'm from Wisconsin and we love our custard, something that I really miss out here. As much as I enjoy Schnoo frozen yogurt, Cascadian Farm organic ice cream, Ben & Jerry's, and Fran's when they used to make ice cream, no trip home is complete without a trip to either Leon's (http://www.leonsfrozencustard.com/) or Kopp's (http://www.kopps.com/). I'd sure like to see more of a northwest presence at http://www.custardlist.com/. Thanks a bunch for sharing the news about Old School. I'd love it if they had a location up here. Of course, I live in Kirkland, so maybe they can consider being on the east side instead. :-)

Sorry Nancy but you're wrong - the Drydock in Cape May is still in business. I grew up in Cape May and my mother lives 8 blocks away from it! I'm sure the owner has changed over the years, but there are still lines outside at night in the summer! Seems to me I recall even better soft serve at Danny's off of route 47 at Green Creek though. Thanks for the memories of soft serve and Philly Cheesesteaks, two of the few reasons to be living on the east coast. If Jersey Mike's didn't exist, don't know what we'd do...

Cindy! Lordy! I stand corrected. If Drydock's still there, I've missed it when I come back to see my old "hometown."

Please let me apologize for Tom, one of our outspoken investors. Our frozen custard is the best ice cream I had ever tasted at any price. I am sure that there are many great places in Seattle to get really good ice cream and I look forward to trying as many as possible. We feel our product is second to none and we look forward to sharing our delicious product in the near future. I worked very hard to develop the wonderful flavor in our vanilla, our chocolate, and our various flavors of the day. Check out our flavor calendar at our website.

Rick Drouet
Manager
Old School Frozen Custard

Rick! No need to apologize for Tom. I'M the one who said the vanilla cone at the Waterfront was nasty! From our e-mail correspondence and conversation, it's clear he's too nice to say something like that. Me? That's another story.

Where does one find a good ole N.J. Lemon Ice in Seattle (area)?

There is now a new location opening soon in Vancouver, BC. very very soon. It will be serving real frozen custard!
The place from my highly confidential source will be called Milwaukee Market Creamery! selling premium frozen custard right in the doorsteps of Canada! From my understanding this will be the first frozen custard being sold in Canada. So anyone out there in Seattle area looking for the real deal frozen custard stuff! You heard it from the great vine! It's here in Vancouver Canada!

I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and boy do I miss the custard from home. I could live on the stuff, yummy. Wish S.E.Texas where I live now, would come up with some custard, lots of ice creams but nothing comes close to custard. Guess good custard is gone with the good ole days but still looking.

Bonney Lake, Shmonny Lake. Why not go to Tacoma's Little Holland Drive In? It's got frozen custard and the best burger in the city. Plus, then you can make the standard Seattle TImes "Tacoma Sucks" jokes. It's a blog post that practically writes itself!

OLD SCHOOL...OLD SCHOOL.....They do it right and don't serve it our of a soft serve machine like that place in Tacoma...... They've be doin' it right for a year now and..... you are kidding yourself if you think the stuff you get at Little Holland is frozen custard......just because it has egg in it DOES NOT mean is is frozen custard...... Have you seen what they do when you order a flavor? They squirt in some flavor to the soft serve "custard" and mix it up....yuck!! I don't know about anyone else, but when I want frozen custard I want it done the way it has been done for years in the midwest...... I urge you to try the real thing and make that trip to Bonney Lake! The real machine, the real mix, the real deal...... So creamy and dense and delicious..... you can't beat the consistency and creaminess of REAL frozen custard!