Catch a buzz!
Celebrate sudsy, creamy, caffeinated — or all three — for National Ice Cream Day
Beer and ice cream. To some, it seems natural — why not, after all, try pairing an already-chocolatey stout or porter with a creamy, decadent French vanilla? But a Gose or sour?
To Jenna Foor, whose culinary background (she is a Le Cordon Bleu grad and food pop-up veteran) had her incorporating beer into dishes long before she’d become the brewery manager at the Ravenous Pig Brewing Co., it made a lot of sense.
“I believe everything tastes better with a little salt and acid, which are the two core components to the Gose style of beer,” she explains.
So, when Orlando ice cream empress Kelly Seidl wondered whether Gose would work for a float, Foor didn’t balk.
“I said, ‘Hell, yeah! Let’s try it!’ “Foor says. Indeed, let’s! Orlando Sentinel photographer Stephen Dowell and I enjoyed this and a few selections at Foxtail Coffee’s new outpost off Howell Branch Road in Winter Park (across the street from Donut King and Rainbow Sno-Cones, fans of each should note), but it’s more than a Foxtail Coffee. It’s a Foxtail Coffee with a Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream in it, one that also serves local goodness from the Ravenous Pig Brewing Co. And then Frankensteins all of it together in combos like Of the Earth Gose — a salty, citrusy refresher — with Kelly’s juuuuust-sweetenough blackberry sorbet.
But how did this power trio form?
“Alex (Tchekmeian, co-founder of Foxtail) approached us in 2019 about a project in Maitland,” says Seidl, but it was shelved during the pandemic. Early in 2021, they reconnected, and an ongoing conversation prompted collaboration. “We’ve always loved Foxtail’s style and coffee, and the opportunity to expand with them made a lot of sense.”
As for Ravenous Pig Brewing Co., their Coffee Blonde Ale was already the product of a successful union with Foxtail.
“I feel like with business partnerships, it’s the same evolution as any relationship,” says Foor. “When you know — you know.”
Tchekmeian, a Ravenous
Pig regular, “has the same ethos when it comes to coffee as we have for our food and beer,” Foor says. “And my husband (head brewer Larry Foor) and I were already huge fans of Kelly’s, so when we heard they were on board it was just kismet.”
So, too, are the explosively good pairings of Kelly’s Mexican chocolate — my absolute favorite Kelly’s flavor — with the Ravenous Pig Brewing’s Working Man Porter and as an affogato alongside Foxtail’s Oaxaca Mexican coffee. Either of these could easily suck me in with the gravity of a spicy-roasted mocha-chocolate quantum singularity.
For traditionalists unconvinced (and those less into sci-fi), an espresso milkshake should fit the bill nicely.
For all her current confidence, Seidl admits she was skeptical about beer and ice cream pairings until her first go-round with Audubon Park neighbor Redlight, Redlight a while back.
“People loved them!” she says. “So, when this partnership came together it just made sense.”
So much, in fact, that today, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer will be issuing a proclamation declaring July 18 — in the rest of the country National Ice Cream Day and, as it happens, Kelly’s sixth anniversary — as Kelly’s Homemade Ice Cream Day here in Orlando. To celebrate, all Kelly’s shops and counter locations will be doing BOGOs on ice cream cups and cones (sugar and cake only) 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
If you go: Foxtail Coffee Co., 2451 Howell Market Lane in Winter Park; foxtailcoffee.com/howellbranch
Want to reach out? Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For more fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group or follow @fun. things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.