Kellie said she and Brandon had local ice cream parlors in their hometowns and questioned why they couldn’t find something similar in Dallas. The husband-and-wife team decided to change that by selling homemade ice cream at farmers markets beginning in fall 2019.
“We got a little scoop cart,” Brandon said. “We did that as a proof of concept to make sure people in Dallas were interested in high-quality, great local ice cream.”
However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted their plans and, like many other small business owners, they had to pivot. The couple began to deliver pints of their ice cream in Dallas.
“We pretty much blew up from there,” Kellie said. “We knew we wanted to eventually open a brick-and-mortar [storefront], so we started looking.”
Because the pandemic had forced many businesses to close, Kellie said the rental market was reasonable for a new business, and they opened Parlor’s Handcrafted Ice Creams in the Hillside Village Shopping Center in April 2022 and recently celebrated the store’s one-year anniversary.
Many ice cream shops have specialty flavors, such as pickled flavored ice cream, Kellie said, adding that these flavors might bring people in the door, but they usually end up ordering a classic flavor.
“We’re unique in the sense that we make our ice cream the way it used to be made,” Kellie said. “We’re more focused on the classic flavors.”
To do that, the ice cream is made daily, Brandon said, using locally sourced ingredients from North Texas farms. In addition to ice cream, the shop also offers chocolate chip cookies using dough from Oak Cliff bakery Candor Bread and serves brownies on weekends made from a recipe passed down in Kellie’s family.
“Our shop is simple,” Kellie said. “You walk in the door and go to the counter and order your ice cream. If you want, you can sit on the benches and hang out, but it’s pretty much just a simple, special ice cream shop.”
Parlor’s Handcrafted Ice Creams, 6465 E. Mockingbird Lane, Ste. 465, Dallas
214-281-5057. www.parlorsicecreams.com
