The walk-up window at Scooter’s Frozen Custard–where dog walkers and moms with strollers order treats to go–is a far cry from the world of software sales. Yet if it weren’t for the dot-com bust of the late 90s, Chicago’s only custard stand wouldn’t exist at all. Just two years ago, Scooter’s owners Denny Moore and his wife, Mardi, were both out-of-work telecom sales executives who shared a taste for the frozen treat.
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The couple met at Ameritech in the mid-90s. In 1998, Mardi left for a telecom start-up based in Boston. By 1999 Denny was working from home for a small Houston-based firm. But in 2001 Mardi left her company over a compensation dispute, and later that year Denny was let go after his was acquired.
Meanwhile they became regular customers at Dillon’s, a frozen custard shop at 1157 N. State that closed last fall after barely a year in business. “There weren’t a lot of young families there, parking was impossible, and the sidewalks were too narrow,” says Denny. With those factors in mind, he and Mardi started scouting locations–in Bucktown, in Lincoln Park, on Michigan Avenue. When they found a spot at the corner of Belmont and Paulina, says Denny, “we staked it out closely to see the traffic patterns.”
The final difference between hard ice cream and frozen custard is freshness. Most custard shops–Kopp’s in Milwaukee, Michael’s in Madison, Ted Drewes in Saint Louis–make custard fresh all day long. The same holds true at Scooter’s, where new batches pour out of the machine every two hours. The legendary Ted Drewes stand on Route 66 is known for its “concretes”–milk shakes handed to customers upside down to prove their thickness. Scooter’s also offers concretes, with mix-ins like chunks of Snickers, Reese’s, Oreos, or fruit. “The Saint Louis people are really defensive about their custard,” Denny says. “They’ll accuse me of ripping off the name”–which, he points out, is not copyrighted and is widely used in the industry. “Wisconsin people are more likely to say our custard is as good, if not better, than the stuff back home.”
