It’s been 3 years since Coolhaus rolled onto the scene at Coachella; if you aren’t familiar, Coolhaus has made the once semi-sketchy man selling ice cream sandwiches out of a truck respectable, trendy, artisanal and above all else, cool by selling modern architecture-themed ice cream sandwiches. Originally debuting with aptly named sandwiches including the Frank Behry (sugar cookie with strawberry ice cream), Minimalism (chocolate cookie with mint chip ice cream) and Richard Meyer Lemon Ginger (ginger cookie with lemon ice cream), they now haus over 500 different ice cream flavor and cookie combinations. They also cover more ground- racking up miles in LA, New York, Miami, Austin and most recently, Dallas, and have opened up a brick and mortar shop in Culver City, CA.
With Memorial Day weekend only 27 days away, we caught up with Natasha Case, once architect-foodie turned full-fledged-foodie/founder and co-owner of CoolHaus, to find out what they have in store as the busy season is upon them….
Before you read further you must know that Coolhaus isn’t your vanilla ice cream and chocolate cookie chipwich truck- their innovative ice cream flavors and cookie pairings are well developed and tested, similarly to the process a chef undergoes when constructing a new dish. “Even though we’re a ice cream truck, we love trying nontraditional flavor combinations- really pushing the envelope with savory and sweet,” Case tell us. “Our new fried chicken and waffle ice cream has been flying, people are really embracing it. We think that fried chicken and waffles is a new food trend, sort of the next bacon.” Curious how they’ve turned fried chicken and waffles into an ice cream? Watch their executive pastry chef Jessica Goryl in the video below! “Another seasonal ice cream we have always revolves around Makers Mark.” (now she’s talkin’ our language…) “Right now we have the Manhattan cocktail ice cream with Makers Mark bourbon, amoretti cherries and bitters. It’s great with the red velvet cookie. For the summer we’re featuring the mint julep with Makers Mark and another favorite is the Bananas Foster, which incorporates banana honey mezcal rum.”
500+ possible coolhaus ice cream sandwiches can be quite daunting compared to the 10 mundane choices of our childhood, so do you play it safe or live on the edge? “I love it when people dare each other to try the unlikeliest of pairings. Half the time those end up being the best- our most popular flavors are combinations like the brown butter candied bacon ice cream with potato chip and butterscotch cookie and the fried chicken and waffle ice cream with the hotcake cookie.” Another best seller, and a classic, is the dirty mint chip ice cream with the double chocolate cookie with sea salt, if you’re less adventurous. Bonus: edible wrappers.
And if you can’t find a truck near you, just head to your neighborhood Whole Foods freezer aisle and pick up one of the pre-packaged ice cream sandwiches; thanks to their wholesome product and their distributors, they are able to keep the original recipe without compromise- always 100% preservative-free and 100% delicious. You can even snag one while catching a ballgame at Citifield.
What’s up next for the Coolhaus gang? “Since our hot chocolate has been doing so well in the winter months we’ve been working on a new chocolate bar concept, a little different that what we’re used to but we use a lot of chocolate with our ice cream and cookies that it’s come naturally. We are also going to be stocked in more Whole Foods markets in the coming months (NYC!) and are working on merchandizing. And of course, always developing new ice cream flavors.”
And last but not least, we had to ask, if one person, dead or alive, could eat a coolhaus ice cream sandwich, who would it be? “You know… if you had asked my 13 year old self I probably would’ve said Eleanor Roosevelt, I was obsessed with her. And I’d have to serve her the balsamic fig mascarpone ice cream with the oatmeal cookie. I think she would LOVE that the wrappers are edible. But the me now would probably say the Obamas, including Bo. I’m not sure which sandwich I’d make, they could try each one!”
)
