Ice cream, you scream...

Ice cream you scream…

When my Northgate Park neighborhood had itself a food truck rodeo, one of my goals was to try out the ice cream being pedaled by The Parlour, a locally churned ice-creamery on wheels.

I had only just learned of it a few days earlier when I found myself creeping up a hill behind this pink school bus. When I realized it was an ice cream truck, I suddenly no longer cared that we were going about 10 miles per hour because I was hoping the back door might open and some loot would roll within my reach.

That did not happen, so I was forced to buy some at the rodeo.

It did not disappoint – the $4 cup of salted butter caramel had that mouth-coat richness that you can only find in small-batch blends, and the flavor was deep.

The homemade chocolate sauce was nothing like the goop that comes from a jar, and I loved their free-whipped-cream-with-the-purchase-of-any-topping policy.

Yoni and Vanessa Mazuz started this operation last May.

A few months before that Yoni realized he no longer wanted to earn a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience at Duke, which is what brought the couple to Durham in the first place.

Vanessa has worked in restaurants her whole adult life, most recently as front staff at Guglhupf slinging coffee and pastry. She said she’s always been drawn to the sweeter side of cooking, and when they were thinking about their next move, it occurred to them that Durham didn’t have a dedicated ice cream parlor downtown – at least one that wasn’t a chain.

They hope to eventually have a storefront. For now, in order to track down the truck you need to check out their website: theparlourdurham.com.

I make ice cream in my own home using a standard machine – the best, and perhaps most used wedding gift I received over five years ago – and it takes all of 20 minutes to get something creamy, cold and rich into a bowl.

But I am impatient and don’t want to bother with the planning that’s required with more ambitious flavors, meaning any flavor that demands you heat the base and then let it cool before pouring it into the machine.

Nope.

That’s usually too much planning, so I stick to the standard vanilla with add-ins, or flavors like coffee or mint that require adding something like an extract to the vanilla base.

I say this to make the point that The Parlour’s flavors take more than a wee bit of planning, and the Durham duo behind this gourmet ice cream truck make sure each flavor is well-tested before lugging it onto their custom-made ride. For example, Vanessa said she easily made ice cream five days a week in the year before they got rolling.

The Parlour’s standard flavors include the salted butter caramel, Vietnamese coffee, vanilla and chocolate, and they also include a sorbet and a vegan option (I know – I balked at the idea of vegan ice cream, but it is possible if you use coconut milk as your base.) The rest of the flavors rotate for a few weeks at a time and are often seasonal, such as the sweet potato batch featured during the colder months. Right now flavors like lemon crumb cake, strawberry and butterscotch banana cream pie are being featured.

The small batches are made in Durham’s culinary incubator, The Cookery, where the Mazuz’s rent kitchen space – mainly use of the commercial ice cream machines and freezers. Their ice cream base comes from Jackson Dairy in Dunn, and the flavorings (like fresh strawberries) come from local farms whenever possible. They never add colorings to their cold confections, so that deep rosy hue in the strawberry is the real deal.

Prices run $3.50 to $6 for ice creams, toppings are $0.50, and floats and shakes run $4.50 to $5.50.

When you order from the school bus window at The Parlour, you should find both Yoni and Vanessa packed inside the truck, which they insist is roomier than you think.

Thy are a young, excited couple that finishes one another’s thoughts. They emanate that Durham energy when it comes to our local food scene.

They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for opening a bricks-and-mortar location – you can check it out at at kck.st/Mgd6Pm – but in the meantime The summers are long down here, and I’m just glad that someone other than me is taking the time to make ice cream with flavors like honey hazelnut crunch.

Yum.

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