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Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats. Photo by Scott Suchman.
The Inside Scoop on Goodies
June 1, 2023 @ 10:00am
Owner of the Alexandria frozen treat shop shares how Goodies stands the test of time.
Back 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. But the constant travel and stressful schedule burned him out.
“I just wanted to do something fun and wholesome,” he says.
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. 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.
“It’s velvety smooth, like pillows or marshmallows,” Byrd says.
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. That was just the beginning. Two years later, he opened a frozen custard and soda bar in National Harbor.
Another 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. Along the top of its brick facade, he could just make out the word “ice.” Intrigued, he reached out to the owner. Turns out, the building was built back in 1931 to house Mutual Ice Co.
“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.
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. The shop is generally open Memorial Day through Labor Day, but Byrd offers catering from the truck year-round.
Like on the truck and at his stand in the harbor, the menu at the refurbished icehouse is short and sweet. All the offerings are built around his freshly made vanilla bean frozen custard. 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. 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. There are several floats on offer, including one with root beer, a nod to the sarsaparilla floats Byrd grew up drinking.
Last, but certainly not least, are Byrd’s donutwiches, which take ice cream sandwiches to a gloriously gluttonous new 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.
Though the menu hasn’t changed much since he opened, Byrd keeps looking forward, thinking how he can take Goodies to another level. 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. 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.
“These days, if you get a three- to five-year run in the food business, you’re doing good,” Byrd says. “More than a decade later, I’m still here. I count my blessings every day.”
Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats: 200 Commerce St. Alexandria, VA; mmmgoodies.com // @mmmgoodies
Scoop There It Is
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).
Ice Cream Jubilee
Attorney 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. 301 Water St. SE, DC; 1407 T St. NW, DC; 4238 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA;
icecreamjubilee.com // @icecreamjubilee
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Happy Ice Cream
The pandemic-born ice cream cart from Happy Gyro’s Ben Brunner is now a permanent fixture on the 17th Street Northwest sidewalk, with the pastry pro scooping flavors like pumpkin with coffee-caramel swirls and graham cracker crumbles, and passion fruit-laced coconut sorbet studded with chocolate chunklets. 1509 17th St. NW, DC; happyicecreamdc.com // @happyicecreamdc
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Van Leeuwen
These hipster scoop shops in Union Market, Georgetown and Adams Morgan offer the company’s classics — such as honeycomb, churros and fudge — and limited-edition collabs with local talent, like birch ice cream with raspberry jam made with Bar Spero Chef Johnny Spero. 418 Morse St. NE, DC; 3245 Prospect St. NW, DC; 2421 18th St. NW, DC; vanleeuwenicecream.com // @vanleeuwenicecream
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Nevin Martell
Nevin Martell is a D.C.-area based food and travel writer, parenting essayist, recipe developer, and photographer who has been published by The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, Saveur, Men’s Journal, National Geographic, Fortune, Travel + Leisure, Runner’s World, Michelin Guide, Plate, DCist, Washington City Paper, and many other publications. He is the author of eight books, including Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery, The Founding Farmers Cookbook: 100 Recipes for True Food & Drink, It’s So Good: 100 Real Food Recipes for Kids, the travelogue-memoir Freak Show Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations, and the small-press smash Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip. He has appeared on The Frommer’s Travel Show, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, the Chatter on Books podcast, and elsewhere. Additionally, he is the co-founder of the highly successful New Kitchens On The Block event series and the internationally acclaimed Pay It Furloughed initiative. Last, but definitely not least, he is a proud poppa and husband. Find him on Instagram and Twitter @nevinmartell.