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Mighty Moo ice cream shop has a bittersweet history.
Plans to start an ice cream business began in 2004 when husband and wife Eric and Colleen White set out to purchase and operate a soft-serve ice cream truck. Eric and Colleen purchased the truck — and then Eric, a Phoenix police officer, was shot and killed in the line of duty.
The business was on hold for a decade, until Colleen and a longtime friend, Dean Berlin, decided to pick up where the project left off. Mighty Moo Ice Cream now serves more than 30 flavors, operating out of a food trailer as well as a storefront in Youngtown on the west side.
Flavors include creative twists like Lemon Oreo, Haboob, Frankenstein, a Reverse Root Beer Float, and Nutty Coffee. Haboob is made with butterscotch ice cream, caramel, Oreos, and chocolate chunks. The Reverse Root Beer Float is what it sounds like: root beer-flavored ice cream with vanilla creme soda.
Colleen White uses an American-style ice cream recipe to churn out flavors. "It's just heavy cream, whole milk, and cane sugar," Berlin says. All flavors are made in-house and either served in the store or on the trailer for events and parties.
Frankenstein, a popular flavor at the Youngtown shop, is ever-changing, containing three to five layers of the shop's homemade flavors.
A recent version contains Haboob, Nutty Coffee, and Mint Chip.
Flavors at the shop change a lot.
"If you come in on Friday and come in on Saturday, there will be a lot of different flavors up there that weren't there before," Berlin says.
Mighty Moo Ice Cream. 11122 West Alabama Avenue, Youngtown; 623-214-6532.
Tuesday through Saturday noon to 9 p.m., Sunday 2 to 8 p.m.
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