What's more summery than combining creamy, soft serve frozen desserts and fresh, crispy fries? Nashville chef Jeremy Barlow couldn't agree more. That's why he started Fryce Cream last summer, offering both dine-in and walkup window service for delectable fries and homemade soft serve.
"It's all about mixing flavors and textures, where salty meets sweet. I envision how foods will react on our palettes, and combine based on that," Jeremy asserts, admitting he feels like he already can truly taste these combos as he dreams them up.
Soft serve is similar to ice cream, but it's softer and less dense due to air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve's been sold commercially in the United States since the late 1930s. Most people assume the practice of dipping hot fries into creamy concoctions surfaced when diners started serving fries and milkshakes on the same menu. Perhaps it came from first having such thick shakes, they required spoons to eat -- fries then became a substitute spoon until more of a shake melted and could be consumed with a straw.
Fryce Cream soft serve flavors include chocolate, vanilla, swirl, an oat milk-based dairy-free option, and rotating seasonal flavors, such as peach, blackberry lemon and wildflowers.
Jeremy's location at 2905 12th Ave. South, Suite 104 (former home of SloCo, Jeremy's sandwich shop) also features an array of toppings for soft serve, such as blueberry pie filling, banana pudding, strawberry drizzle or maple bacon brittle. Toppings are scratch-made with recipes he developed, plus an abundant supply of sprinkles on hand. Additionally, a large variety of flavor dusts and dipping sauces are available for fries, such as garlic herb-y or berbere, an exotic Ethiopian spice blend (tastes like apple pie with vanilla swirl or like chilies with chocolate).
"We have everyone covered by dustings that are sweet, salty or spicy," he adds. "Fries also can come with ketchup, tartar sauce or our mysterious magic sauce.”
The dusts, dips and ice cream toppings change nearly every week, based on Jeremy's moods and cravings.
Jeremy opened his first Nashville restaurant, Tayst Restaurant and Wine Bar, during February 2004, just south of Hillsboro Village. Four years later, Tayst was the first in Nashville to become a Certified Green Restaurant.
Regarding the most outlandish Fryce Cream combination request to date, Jeremy says no one is more food-zany than himself. "I'm waiting for someone to come up with something so adventurous that doesn't sound like it would work, because I love a food challenge," he vows.
