Milwaukee Ice Cream enthusiasts will soon be able to try the new trend in Asian sweets that has been making its way across the country.
Fro Zone, a Thai rolled ice cream shop will open at 1320 E. Brady St. on June 1.
Recent college graduate and store owner Mike Kaid, 22, watched a video of the ice cream making process on social media about eight months ago and wanted to give it a try.
Once Kaid realized there was nothing like it in Milwaukee, he and business partner, Marquette University student Ahsan Sikander Gondal, 21, decided to open their own store.
Thai rolled ice cream is just like what it sounds. Thin rolls of ice cream packed into a bowl and served with a variety of toppings. The trend started making its way to the United States from Southeast Asia in 2016.
Fro Zone will offer about seven different flavors of ice cream but several different toppings.
“Basically the customer can choose anything they want,” Kaid said. “There is nothing else like it in Wisconsin.”
There actually is another Thai rolled ice cream store in Wisconsin, Hlee Xiong opened Icy Yummy last year at the Wausau Center Mall.
“I am just glad someone is excited and wanting to go in the same ice cream business,” Xiong said.
Kaid’s ice cream will sell for $6.95 with unlimited toppings.
Kaid, who has spent years working at his father’s stores, Circle K, 130 N. Water St. and the gift shop at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, 433 W. St. Paul Ave., said he knows what it takes to run a business.
Fro Zone will employ three to four people, Kaid said. The store will be located in the former Pepi’s Place pizzeria, which closed last summer after less than one year on Brady Street. Pepi’s had relocated to Milwaukee’s East Side from South Howell Avenue.
