Three sweet spots where you can feed your need for a cone or a cup (or a cone in a cup, if you’re one of those indecisive types).Īttorney turned self-proclaimed ice cream-preneur, Victoria Lai is the powerhouse behind this D.C.-born venture turning out pints that revel in nostalgia - think cookies and cookie dough, mint chip - and artful seasonal flavors, such as orange blossom tea cake and a boozy riff on chocolate-covered cherries. Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats: 200 Commerce St. “More than a decade later, I’m still here. “These days, if you get a three- to five-year run in the food business, you’re doing good,” Byrd says.
He knows how tough the market can be and how fickle fate is, so he wants them to be prepared to handle the ups and downs. He’s now restoring another Metro van to expand his catering option and is teaching his three nieces the ins and outs of running the operation in hopes they will one day take it over, or at least have a good foundation to start a business of their own. Though the menu hasn’t changed much since he opened, Byrd keeps looking forward, thinking how he can take Goodies to another level. His signature features a cinnamon-sugared apple cider donut stuffed with frozen custard and drizzled with caramel, though ’wiches can also be made with an alternate donut, such as red velvet, buttermilk or chocolate. Last, but certainly not least, are Byrd’s donutwiches, which take ice cream sandwiches to a gloriously gluttonous new level. There are several floats on offer, including one with root beer, a nod to the sarsaparilla floats Byrd grew up drinking. On the shake side of the equation, there’s a banana pudding milkshake dubbed the Johnny B Goode and the Jitterbug shake laced with creamy Reese’s peanut butter. You can design your own sundae or choose one of Byrd’s two creations: the Boogie Woogie topped with pecans, chocolate, caramel and whipped cream, or the Jukebox, a classic cookies-and-cream combo featuring plenty of Oreos. All the offerings are built around his freshly made vanilla bean frozen custard.
Like on the truck and at his stand in the harbor, the menu at the refurbished icehouse is short and sweet. The shop is generally open Memorial Day through Labor Day, but Byrd offers catering from the truck year-round. He bought the 300-square-foot building in 2018, spent three years rehabbing it and debuted the brick and mortar in the spring of 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic. “When the Potomac River would freeze over, ice men would go down there to chop out blocks of ice, pack them in sawdust and straw and transport them to these neighborhood ice houses, where you would get ice to put in your root cellar to keep everything cold and fresh,” Byrd says. Turns out, the building was built back in 1931 to house Mutual Ice Co. Along the top of its brick facade, he could just make out the word “ice.” Intrigued, he reached out to the owner. Two years later, he opened a frozen custard and soda bar in National Harbor.Īnother few years down the road, he was driving through Old Town Alexandria when he spotted a run-down, boarded-up building that still managed to radiate cuteness and charm. In 2012, he rolled out the new venture by selling scoops out of Gigi, a 1952 International Harvester Metro van painted with a patriotic color scheme: custard white, Coca-Cola red and sky blue.
“It’s velvety smooth, like pillows or marshmallows,” Byrd says. The treat differs from other icy desserts because it’s made with eggs, frozen at a lower temperature than ice cream and traditionally made fresh daily, all of which helps give it a luxuriant texture. He decided to return to his roots by opening Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats, an homage to the frozen custard he grew up eating in Madison, Wisconsin. “I just wanted to do something fun and wholesome,” he says. But the constant travel and stressful schedule burned him out. Owner of the Alexandria frozen treat shop shares how Goodies stands the test of time.īack in the day, Brandon Byrd was the marketing and events director for groundbreaking hip-hop magazine XXL, crisscrossing the country to produce shows and host parties with the genre’s biggest stars.
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