Three ice cream shops open in Fresno area with old-fashioned scoops and something new
Amid statewide fires and a national pandemic, here’s a little good news: Three new ice cream shops have opened in the Fresno area.
The shops sell a range of sweet treats, from traditional ice cream to Italian ice, sheeps’ milk ice cream and more.
Of course, indoor seating is closed because of COVID-19, so you’ll have to get your ice cream to go.
Here’s what’s new in town.
Heavenly Freeze
This dessert shop isn’t just ice cream. Heavenly Freeze carries ice cream that it makes in-house, along with soft-serve ice cream and Italian ice.
The shop opened about two months ago inside the new 76 station at Fresno Street and Bullard Avenue. It also has a walk-up window and outdoor tables.
The people behind Heavenly Freeze are the same people who used to run three Rita’s Italian Ice franchised locations in town. Those Rita’s locations have since closed, but the partners decided to launch their own business.
They also have a food truck selling the same items. The truck’s schedule is posted on the Heavenly Freeze Facebook page.
They serve cones, milkshakes, sundaes, ice cream cookie sandwiches and concretes (like Dairy Queen’s Blizzard, that’s ice cream with toppings blended into it).
Heavenly Freeze’s signature dessert is the “heavenly combo,” which is soft-serve ice cream paired with Italian ice. One particularly tasty pairing? Vanilla soft-serve paired with mango Italian ice, said owner Isaac Lui.
“Any ice flavor pairs pretty well with the vanilla” soft-serve, he said. “It’s not too overwhelming, as well, not too sugary or too sweet.”
The Italian ice is vegan and gluten-free.
As for the more traditional hand-scooped ice cream, it comes in some creative flavors like “Oreo overload” and “unicorn,” which has white chocolate, cookie dough and M&Ms in it.
Lui described Heavenly Freeze as a “Christ-centered business.”
There’s a lot of negative things happening in the world right now, but “at least we can still spread joy to those who are suffering throughout this pandemic,” he explained.
Creamistry
Remember Creamistry in Clovis? It has reopened.
The ice cream shop at 635 W. Herndon Ave. in the Target shopping center at Willow Avenue was known for freezing ice cream with liquid nitrogen while you wait.
The shop closed in November for some remodeling and installing new equipment with plans to reopen in February. The coronavirus pandemic complicated that, but Creamistry reopened Thursday.
Using liquid nitrogen took a lot of employee training, owner Dhruv Doshi said. And after the Food & Drug Administration put out a warning about ingesting or inhaling liquid nitrogen (even though Creamistry’s end product didn’t contain liquid nitrogen), he decided to make some changes.
The ice cream shop no longer uses liquid nitrogen, opting instead to make small batches of ice cream. The changes also have the added benefit of speeding up the process of ordering ice cream in the COVID-19 era.
“Small batches allows us to provide the same quality ice cream,” Doshi said, adding that special equipment means they don’t pump air into the ice cream.
The shop also does ice cream cakes, sells pints of ice cream and will soon add mini vegan Greek “baby donuts” to its menu. It also added a line of iced teas, including Thai milk tea and a brown sugar boba tea.
Customers can order in store, order at Creamistry.com for pickup, or through delivery services Uber Eats or DoorDash.
Bella Creamery
The people behind Bella Bakery and Bella Rose Cafe & Bakery in Kingsburg now have a new location selling ice cream.
Bella Creamery opened in May in downtown Kingsburg.
The shop serves traditional ice cream made from cows’ milk and also sheeps’ milk ice cream. Some people find sheeps’ milk ice cream easier to digest, including some people with sensitivity to dairy who normally can’t have regular ice cream, said Paiton Coelho, a partner and part of the family behind the three businesses.
“They’re able to enjoy it without feeling so icky afterwards,” she said. “You’re not compromising any of the great flavor or taste. It’s not really noticeably different.”
The sheeps’ milk ice cream comes from Paso Robles-based Negranti Creamery. There are flavors like chocolate, salted brown sugar, chocolate brownie and a fresh mint chip (which is not green because the ice cream doesn’t use artificial colors, but flecks of mint).
Flavors of cows’ milk ice cream rotate, including cake batter and cookie dough, using eggless dough made at the bakery. The creamery also makes its own waffle cones in house.
Bella Creamery sells cones, pints, milkshakes, sundaes, ice cream cookie sandwiches and floats.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 11:42 AM.
