Boardwalk Waffles & Ice Cream is about to change ice cream suppliers to one that provides a new ingredient: CBD.
The Maplewood shop recently signed on Eldon, Missouri-based The Ice Cream Factory to supply ice cream for its signature Jersey Shore-style waffle ice cream sandwiches. The Ice Cream Factory will make flavors including Peanut Butter Blast, Oreo Cheesecake, Coconut Almond Paradise, and Cookie Monster.
It also will supply two flavors with CBD oil: Hempy Vanilla CBD-infused ice cream and Chocolate Brownie Blast CBD-infused ice cream. Those flavors have 12–15 milligrams of CBD per serving. The infusion is 99.9 percent pure CBD isolate from Bluebird Botanicals, a Colorado-based hemp extract and CBD company.
There’s an “untapped market” for CBD-infused ice cream, says Boardwalk Waffles owner Eric Moore. Moore spent six months trying to find an ice cream supplier who would make CBD-infused flavors. Coincidentally, The Ice Cream Factory contacted him and asked if he was looking for a distributor. He wasn’t—until he tried their product. “When I saw their quality, attention to detail, and pricing structure, it was exactly what I was looking for," says Moore.
At the recent Taste of St. Louis event, Boardwalk's CBD flavors outsold the other flavors two to one. The new option was so popular, in fact, that people came back “three or four times” for additional scoops, says Leah Williams, catering and outside sales manager at Boardwalk Waffles.
Moore says Boardwalk Waffles might add one or two more CBD-infused ice cream flavors, depending on the success of its vanilla and chocolate brownie flavors. In the meantime, it will offer its vanilla and chocolate CBD-infused ice cream alongside 14 other flavors at its Maplewood location.
In the future, Moore plans to offer 22 regular flavors at forthcoming locations. New locations are currently under construction in South County, at 4065 Union Road and 4348 Telegraph Road. Moore is also working on opening a location in Ellisville, and he plans to move his Maplewood shop down the street to a new space. All locations will have liquor and jazz music in addition to waffles and ice cream.
Boardwalk Waffles' food truck will also hit the streets soon. Moore is redesigning the truck’s website to include an app that allows customers to request it for community-based events. For example, if people are waiting in line for a concert, they can request the Boardwalk Waffles truck with the app and get an autoreply when it’s arriving.
“I want the truck to be places people want it to be,” Moore says. “That’s something no one else does—in addition to CBD-infused ice cream and waffles and ice cream.”
