Ice cream lovers, you’re in for a treat.
Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream, the cult-favorite homemade ice cream company started by Chad and Lauren Townsend, has set an opening date for their brick-and-mortar location.
On Tuesday, March 15, Millie’s ice cream shop will officially open in Shadyside (232 S. Highland Avenue), with a shop full of sweetness.
In addition to serving up scoops and dishes of their homemade ice cream, the shop will also be featuring lots of other ice cream-centric desserts, including a curated list of sundaes, and a gelato brioche dessert, made by pairing Allegro Hearth Bakery brioche with a scoop or two of fresh-made gelato. Then, things really get good.
“We’ll top the brioche slices with really top-quality butter and seal salt, then put the sandwich in this special press we found,” Chad Townsend says. “So, it’s going to be warm and toasty on the outside with some crispy edges, but the ice cream will remain frozen on the inside.”
The menu will feature a rotating selection of ice cream flavors, including a few permanent favorites, like Salted Caramel and their standard Chocolate.
“It’s a mix between a milk chocolate and a dark chocolate,” Townsend said. “Someone who is picky about chocolate will be able to see that we’re using really high quality chocolate, but it won’t be inaccessible to people who don’t like bitter chocolate. It has a really nice balance.”
The Townsends will also be using local and seasonal ingredients to shake up their flavor selection daily.
“We want it to change a lot, and that’s the ultimate goal,” Townsend said.
That’s because even within a particular flavor, subtle changes come about when ingredients are used at different points in a season.
“You’ll notice that when peaches first hit, they’re really different from when the season is ending in September,” he said. “Because we’re committed to making such small batches, you can see the difference in color and taste from one batch to another.”
Every ice cream flavor is made from scratch using all-natural ingredients, without the use of a mix, in their production facility in Homewood.
The shop will serve between 12 and 16 flavors daily, with more sorbets and fruit-based ice creams in the summer, and heartier fruit and spice flavors in the winter.
Hungry yet? There’s more. All of the ice cream toppings will be also homemade, including a chocolate sauce, a caramel sauce, and seasonal fruit preserves. Plus, they’re making their own homemade marshmallow fluff.
“One of the by-products of what we do is egg whites,” said Lauren Townsend. “Our ice cream is made with the yolks, so we have a lot of whites left. And we’re able to use those to make our fluff.”
The shop will also house a to-go freezer, with pints of ice cream to take home, and ice cream cakes available, too.
Indoor seating is available, with more seating outside in front of the shop, and on their newly-constructed back deck. And, just in time for wedding season, the Townsends have announced that they’re booking personalized sundae bars for receptions, and taking orders for personal to-go cups (think elementary school-style paper cups with wooden spoons) for weddings and other events.
Millie’s Homemade will be open seven days a week. Opening hours aren’t set yet, but the shop will be open until 10:00 p.m. from Sunday through Thursday, and until 11:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Millie’s Homemade (232 S. Highland Avenue)
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