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A waffle cone with Berries n' Cream (made-to-order and containing fresh blackberries) is a steal at $5.95.
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The crux of the business... In one window are three huge tanks filled with food-grade liquid nitrogen. Ices Plain & Fancy is currently going through one tank per day.
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Nineteenth-century culinary pioneer and author Agnes B. Marshall--"our patron saint," according to co-owner Darla Crask.
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Her book that inspired the concept, and the name.
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Marshall's patented gizmo that inspired using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream.
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First step: adding premium ice cream base to a mixing bowl.
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After flavors are added (berries, mint chips, salted caramel, etc.), liquid nitrogen is added to the rotating mixing bowl.
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Enthralled and amazed--as were we.
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A propane torch is used to dislodge the contents from the frozen bowl.
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Besides whipped cream, Berries n' Cream is garnished with flash-frozen blackberries, that according to co-owner and flavormeister Max Crask, "shatter into small pieces" when mixed with liquid nitrogen.
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The ordering system is tablet-based. (That's co-owner Darla Crask taking a call.)
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Butter Pecan (the richest rendition this writer's ever tasted), topped with candied pecans.
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The building at 2239 S. 39th Street before the renovation.
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...and after
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Hours of operation during opening week
As first reported by the RFT back in May, four college friends (Troika Brodsky, Matthew Deutschmann, Darla Crask, and her brother, Chef Max Crask) were planning to open an ice cream shop in the Shaw neighborhood, one with an unusual twist: using liquid nitrogen to literally make ice cream to order. Well, it’s here and it’s spectacular--Ices Plain & Fancy opened at 2256 S. 39th last week.
The idea of using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream is not entirely new—high-tech technique chefs from across the country have been using the minus-320 degree marvel to quick-freeze food products for several years now. What a lot of the fooderati may not know is that the technology is old, as in 140 years old.
In 1885, a Victorian entrepreneur named Agnes B. Marshall published a book called Ices Plain & Fancy: The Book of Ices, wherein she detailed how to make ice cream faster than the traditional slow-churning method. She was granted a patent for Marshall’s Patent Freezer, which apparently could freeze a pint of ice cream in five minutes. The so called “Queen of Ices” also suggested using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream even faster.
Fast forward a century or so to the 1980s.…
Liquid nitrogen is the catalyst that makes Dippin’ Dots possible. It was instrumental component of a newfangled food science called molecular gastronomy, with chefs like Wylie Dufresne (wd-50) and Grant Achatz (Alinea) flash-freezing everything in sight, creating oddities like spherical sweets that were frozen on the surface yet remained liquid on the inside, resulting in literal bursts of flavor.
After its repeated use on reality cooking shows, many of the edgier chefs started experimenting with the stuff. For example, when Chef Crask was exec chef at Tripel, he told SLM he used liquid nitrogen to quickly open oysters, “to keep them intact, unbruised, and shell- and grit-free.” (Crask’s complete Q&A is here.)
At Ices Plain & Fancy (named after Marshall's inspirational book), Max Crask is the point-man, the hub, the culinary mad scientist, the resident Einstein of ice cream. He assembles all three ice cream bases (vanilla, chocolate, and soy), as well as concocts the fresh-fruit add-ins (currently blackberries and peaches), as well as prepares the toppers for garnish.
(Although this is the first liquid nitrogen ice cream store in the St. Louis area, there are similar shops elsewhere, such as the multi-unit Sub Zero Ice Cream and Yogurt.)
The ice cream making process is amazingly simple—and totally amazing. Ice cream base is added to a Kitchen Aid-type mixing bowl, add-ins are then added, followed by 6 to 8 ounces of liquid nitrogen extracted (LOUDLY!) from a tap that looks too frozen to be able to dispense anything. The components are quickly blended. Clouds of cold smoke obscure the immediate area. The mixture gets so cold it can’t be released from its metal bowl, so a plumber’s torch is then employed to dislodge the contents. Total elapsed time? Just over a minute.
Cold smoke and fire? Trust us, this is maximum entertainment.
And the results are superior—way superior--for several reasons: traditional slow-churning produces a product with large ice crystals, and thus a grainier consistency; when liquid nitrogen is used, the ice crystals remain small, resulting in a silkier, creamier end product. And according to Crask, in such a fast process there’s very little “overrun” (ice cream speak for added air), which produces a denser, more flavor-intense product.
There is also soft serve ice cream available (vanilla and "Sump Pump," infused with coffee from Sump Coffee)--drawn from a traditional machine--as well as a sorbet. Us? We now prefer our ice cream nitro-jacked, thank you.
Considering the quality, $4.95 for a bowl (cones are $1 extra) is a bargain. The show is free. And it’s one helluva show. The coolest one in town.
And now a bit of stone, cold torture. Ices Plain & Fancy is closed both Monday and Tuesday...
Ices Plain & Fancy
2256 S. 39th
314-601-3604
