Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
The Custard Station in Kirkwood changes hands, from one female business owner to another. L to R: Barb Pfuhl, Tamara Keefe.
Courtesy Downtown Kirkwood Special Business District
Frozen-dessert lovers licked their collective chops this spring when a “New Year, New Owners, New Exciting Things” banner was posted outside The Custard Station (140 W. Argonne), the decades-old custard stand along the railroad tracks in Kirkwood. But it was "a deal that never came to pass," says Barb Pfuhl, whose family has owned the property for more than 30 years. Instead, as luck would have it, Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery founder Tamara Keefe had been scouting locations in the Webster-Kirkwood corridor.
“I saw a newspaper article that said a deal for the place had fallen through,” Keefe says. "The building is cute, nostalgic, in a great neighborhood—it fit the Clementine’s brand perfectly. When the perfect location appears, you have to be ready to jump, and we jumped.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Former Custard Station owner Barb Pfuhl with husband Rich, procuring a memento
The queen of custard met the queen of ice cream, the duo quickly agreed to terms, and a decades-old summertime tradition was revived.
The Custard Station is literally a custard stand, and markedly different than Clementine’s five other locations (in Lafayette Square, Clayton, Southhampton, Lake St. Louis, and the newest in Town & Country), all of which offer inside seating. In the past, the 208-square-foot building served as a taxi stand, a Texaco service station, and a flower shop for the local Women’s Garden Club.
Courtesy The Custard Station
“In about 1990, my father bought the building on the courthouse steps,” Pfuhl recalls. “I remember him saying he was going to turn it into a mini Ted Drewes, and that’s pretty much what he did. We were thinking that 2020 was going to be the last year for us, and when my dad passed away this February, we knew it was the right decision. It started with him; it should end with him.”
Similar to Ted Drewes, the inside of the building was constantly abuzz, with Pfuhl taking customers' orders and the staff assembling the “cements,” cones, sundaes, and shakes. “It was tiny, but well laid out,” says Pfuhl. “At peak times, there were seven of us, and no one had to move—no one could move!”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
The smaller footprint means reducing the number of Clementine's hand-dipped flavors from 24 to a dozen, though bowls, regular cones, and waffle cones will all be available at the new location, as will signature sundaes and “lava loves” (homemade fudgy lava cakes). Keefe’s plan is to focus on Clementine’s most popular flavors, such as Gooey Butter Cake, Salted Crack Caramel, Maple Bourbon, and Midnight Pleasures (a triple dark chocolate made from three fair-trade ingredients), and a vegan offering, such as Coconut Chocolate Fudge.
A side window will be used for pickup and delivery orders, as well as to-go pints. The Custard Station operated for six months per year, from April through September, but Keefe plans to extend those hours into fall and winter.
Not much work needs to be done to the space, Keefe says, so the shop should be able to open in one to two weeks. The white exterior color will remain, and the maroon trim will be painted black. “The place is so small, there’s barely enough space for our signature paint color,” Keefe says of the lone door that will get painted mint green. A dozen black benches will once again dot the property, and a black-and-white striped awning should be installed within a few weeks.
Courtesy Clementine's
Courtesy Soda Fountain at Union Station
A running joke is that no matter how often an article gets written about Clementine’s, there’s additional news to report. Today is no different: Today is National Watermelon Day, and Clementine’s coincidentally introduced Watermelon Ice Cream (not a sherbet or an ice) late last week.
Beginning today, the Soda Fountain at Union Station (which serves Clementine’s ice cream exclusively) is also introducing one of its wacky shakes: the Water-Malone Freak Shake. Made with Clementine’s Watermelon Ice Cream and topped with a glazed watermelon-style doughnut from Vincent Van Doughnut and a watermelon lollipop, the over-the-top concoction will be available until mid-September at the retro diner.
And SLM just learned that Keefe will be featured in a segment on the CBS Saturday Morning show on August 7, that explores how she applied her expertise in corporate marketing to an unrelated entrepreneurial business like small batch ice cream (Update: See video clip from that segment at right.)
Regarding the sale of The Custard Station, Pfuhl says, “It’s important that a business you’ve invested so much time in be handed off to the right person, and I believe I did that.”
In fact, Pfuhl might even work part-time at the shop for a time or at one of Clemetine’s other locations.
"When word got out that I was retiring, I began hearing Custard Station stories from everyone," she says, "and I thought, I guess I did make a difference in some small way. It’s hard to give that up.”
