Frozen custard, just like Leon’s

Frozen custard, just like Leon’s

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Chocolate frozen custard from 2 Sisters (machine by Leon’s)

Frozen custard fans are legion. As a proud alum of the University of Wisconsin, I spent many nights shoveling in the thick, dense and creamy stuff from Michael’s in Madison. Occasionally, when we would go to Milwaukee to tailgate before a Brewers game, we would hit Kopp’s or Leon’s on the way to or from the game. Chicagoans have never really embraced frozen custard like the Cheeseheads. There are a couple of chains in the ‘burbs like Culver’s and Andy’s (which is about to open its first city location in the Block 37 complex), but in the city, Scooter’s has had the market pretty much all to itself. Up until recently, the only suburban independent operation I could think of was Greg’s in Mundelein, but then Bev Thomas gave me a call, and told me I just had to drive South to Midlothian.

Thomas and her sister form the team behind 2 Sisters Frozen Custard in a strip mall that could generously be described as geographically-challenged - even if you live on 147th Street. The Hobbit/Middle Earth-sounding suburb does have one thing going for it: frozen custard as good as Milwaukee. Bold claim? When you consider the ladies bought their one and only machine from Leon’s, and use pretty much the same recipe, the chocolate and vanilla frozen custard is just as I remember it: smooth, creamy and definitely more dense than ice cream, thanks to a lower overrun - the amount of air that’s whipped into the product. The density fools your brain into thinking that this is much fattier than ice cream, but it’s just the opposite: where super-premium ice cream has somewhere between 14 - 16% butterfat, the custard has only about 10-11%. Just like at Ted Drews in St. Louis, they’ll whip up a concrete (frozen custard-speak for a Blizzard/shake) that is so thick, once you blend in the Reese’s or Heath Bars, you could easily stand a spoon up in the middle of it for 10 minutes. If you want to see the ladies in action, check out the video here after 11:30 a.m.

Banana split from 2 Sisters Frozen Custard