My only pair of shoes are wet, my umbrella is only mildly helping, and we've arrived in Des Moines much later than I had hoped after a 350 mile drive from Chicago. There isn't anywhere else I'd rather be than studying the menu at a clearly storied frozen custard stand. The spot is
Classic Frozen Custard. I'm curious what this place looks like in the daytime, because it ain't much to look at at night. Luckily the menu is looking real nice.
Most frozen custard spots only have three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and a flavor of the day. Here at Classic Frozen Custard, their worn out signage shows nine(!) flavors and all of them sound tasty. I observe that this place is, as their name suggests, a classic custard joint with the huge machine behind the counter, not one of these new, fangled places serving up fancily named soft serve. So how does one explain the veritable cornucopia of options here? Either they don't make it fresh every day--no biggie--or they do good enough business that they are constantly in production. Given that the stand is both run-down and busy, it could go either way. That said, it's after 9:30pm on a Wednesday in Iowa and there has been a constant stream of cars in the drive-thru, plus a few chilly customers like me at the walk-up window.
After much chin stroking, I settle on a tree nut sampler: butter pecan, caramel cashew, and coconut. After they bring me more than a pint of freshly scooped frozen custard, a take it back to the car to enjoy. My lactose intolerant wife-to-be agrees that this place looks LEGIT, takes a Lactaid, and digs in to the butter pecan. She and I are both taken aback by how good it is. The caramel cashew is even better, but only by a hair. And the coconut (also euphoric) is chock full of toasted coconut bits.
This place is real good, y'all. Their menu is more than just scoops of custard, too; they offer twisters, sundaes, malts, shakes, and root beer floats, so there's something for everyone. If you're headed to Caitlin Clark's birthplace, stop at Classic Frozen Custard. "Once you lick it, you'll luv it!"
