Years after the Milwaukee Custard List website, which listed the flavors of the day at frozen custard stands around the area, went dark, a new contender has arrived on the scene.
Like its predecessor, CustardMKE.com is a flavor of the day resource covering 19 stands around the city and as far afield as Hefner’s in Cedarburg, Le Duc’s in Wales and Georgie Porgie’s in Racine.
(Another existing flavor of the day site, mkefrozentreats.com, does similar work but includes fewer stands and features.)
Though there are a few more stands in the area to add, creator Noah Huotari says he’s got more work to do on the site, which also allows site visitors to give a rating of one to five stars for each flavor.
To celebrate National Frozen Custard today, we asked Huotari about the site, why he started it and how he might expand it.
(While you're here, why not check out our Milwaukee Frozen Custard Guide?)
OnMilwaukee: Tell me a bit about your background.
Noah Huotari: I am 27 years old and originally from northern Wisconsin and moved to the Milwaukee area back in 2021. I work as an engineering services manager for HBS, based in Pewaukee, IT work. So, obviously, my work has helped me with creating the website.
Did you grow up with frozen custard?
I definitely had custard growing up, but northern Wisconsin doesn't have it like we do in the Milwaukee area. I found out very quickly that Milwaukee takes their custard very seriously. I accidentally called it Ice Cream one time...
Why did you decide to do the custard site?
I live within 10 minutes of a handful of great custard places and always found myself checking a few different websites to find the flavor of the day at these local places. So I thought if I could make a site to look at all of the flavors that would solve that “problem." I quote problem because it's really not an actual problem; I call it a first world problem.
I talked to a few friends and they thought it was an idea worth taking a step further. So that is how CustardMKE was born. I then added more locations and took it to the Milwaukee Subreddit and people told me about other locations they'd like to see and let me know that it was a great idea.
You've been adding a lot of stands recently, do you plan to add more?
I think I've got most of the local custard locations added already. The next big add that people are asking for is Culver’s. I originally wasn't planning on adding Culver’s because I wanted to keep it to local places, but there has been enough ask for it that I am working on adding it.
Due to the number of locations and the way Culver's website is designed, I am working through some issues and am hoping to have this completed within the next few weeks.
Will you add other features to the site, too?
Other features that I want to add are location reviews and flavor alerts, (but) this is far out as the amount of work needed is quite large. I would also like to automate as much as possible as right now 95 percent of the work is me manually updating a spreadsheet with 300+ lines for all of the locations flavors.
Do you have a favorite stand?
Bubba's in Pewaukee.
What's your favorite flavor and sundae?
I get the same thing every time at Bubba's: chocolate custard, M&Ms and cookie dough.
(Shameless self-promotion: If you're a frozen custard fan, you'll love "Milwaukee Frozen Custard," available everywhere, but why not support you local independent bookseller and get it from Boswell Books?)
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
