For the 10th straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee, presented by the restaurants of Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, dining guides, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as voting for your "Best of Dining 2016."
With so many flavors of day out there in the Milwaukee frozen custard landscape – did I mention the frozen custard book I co-wrote with Kathleen McCann arrives in shops Monday? – it’s hard to believe there are any untapped ideas anymore.
Heck, just Kopp’s and Georgie Porgie’s alone dish up more daily flavors each month than the mind – much less the GI tract – can process.
But, in fact, it seems to be the case. I’ve had a flavor idea for a while that’s anything but radical and still it appears no one has done one like it.
I decided, in the spirit of OnMilwaukee’s annual dining month, and that book I linked to up top, to ask my co-workers for the custard flavors they’d like to try, but that they’ve never seen.
Disclaimer: there are and have been soooooo many daily flavors, that I can’t promise some of these (or something similar) haven’t already been offered, but I know you guys well enough to know that you’ll definitely tell me if you’ve seen them before.
And, hey, take a moment, once you’ve finished your cone, to share you dream flavors using the Talkback feature or Facebook comments below.
Chocolate hazelnut: Chocolate custard with ribbons of Nutella and crumbled hazelnuts. How can this not have happened yet? –Bobby Tanzilo
Wisconsin old fashioned: Vanilla ice cream with chopped maraschino cherries and orange zest. A riff on the Purple Door ice cream flavor, but with eggs and no booze. –Bobby Tanzilo
Arnold Palmer: Rishi Tea and real lemon juice. And, launch it as a tribute flavor to help promote next year’s U.S. Open that will be played at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. And, of course, mix it up as a tribute to the man himself, who recently passed away. –Jeff Sherman
Coffee and donuts: OK, I’m stealing this one from the amazing people at Pete’s Pops. It’s great, and Kopp’s or whomever could totally localize it with a Milwaukee roaster and local donut maker. Take your pick. Yum. –Jeff Sherman
Caramel corn: Browned butter custard with caramel popcorn. –Lori Fredrich
Tone on tone: White chocolate custard with white chocolate fudge swirl and white chocolate covered pretzels. –Lori Fredrich
Toasted almond with marzipan swirl. –Lori Fredrich
Sriracha: Tangy! –Molly Snyder
Pop Rocks: No one over the age of 15 would buy this, but hey, it's the same with bubblegum ice cream and that's been around forever. –Molly Snyder
Avocado and salty cashew: Please?! Someone?! I want it right now! –Molly Snyder
Carrot cake: With walnuts and cream cheese frosting in it. –Carolynn Buser
Buttered popcorn: (We haven’t worked out exactly how to make this one yet. -ed.) –Matt Mueller
Cinnamon red hots: Just like it sounds. Cinnamon custard with Red-Hots as an inclusion. –Dave Begel
Watermelon. –Andy Tarnoff
Baked Alaska: Vanilla custard with bits of merengie and cake pieces. –Andy Tarnoff
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.
