Super Witch ice cream to open permanent soft-serve location
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Since Briggs Barrios started selling his Super Witch ice cream with limited-edition weekly releases, there hasn't been a single drop in two years that hasn't sold out.
Why it matters: With the addition of soft serve to his growing repertoire of frozen treats, Barrios is about to make Super Witch more accessible to New Orleans' dessert lovers.
The latest: Barrios is expanding his Harahan-based business with a permanent location inside Il Supremo in Metairie to open early this fall.
- Super Witch is carving out a soft-serve shop within the pizza joint with a dedicated seating area and exclusive flavors.
- Plus, the location will have a grab-and-go freezer for ice cream lovers to get their hands on pints more readily than Barrios' twice- or thrice-weekly pickups at the Harahan storefront.
The big picture: Over the past few years, New Orleans has quietly and deliciously expanded its embarrassment of ice cream riches.
- Barrios is among them.
- He spent about three years chronicling his own fascination with ice cream on social media, sampling, he estimates, more than 1,000 pints.
- Eventually, he slowed down a workout routine that made that kind of ice cream consumption possible, and he quit eating it cold turkey, he says.
Yes, but: His aha moment came during a pandemic-era vacation to Destin.
- At the Pink Coyote Dessert Co., Barrios grabbed a scoop with his brother and nephews and realized how much he'd missed it. He ordered a handful of books about how to make ice cream and has been elbows-deep in cream ever since.
Dig in: What makes Super Witch so exceptional, Barrios says, is how fresh it is — the pints are packed by hand weekly — and a focus on making sure mix-ins are layered throughout.
- "We're about the experience," he says, and every bite should deliver what's promised on the description.
- Plus, he's obsessed with perfecting the recipe.
- "The product is the best it's ever been, but also the worst it ever will be," he says.
Follow the money: The result, Barrios admits, is a premium ice cream with a price that shows it.
- At $14 each, "the product is expensive versus a grocery store pint," he says. "But the price of a Pizza Delicious pizza is different from Domino's for a reason.
Zoom in: Barrios is as meticulous about the soft serve. When Super Witch opens a dedicated shop for it this fall, he'll likely offer two flavors at first with plans to expand that to four.
- It'll have toppings, too, plus a rotating sundae option and full dips of Valrhona chocolate. "It's going to change your perspective on ice cream dip cones," he promises.
What's next: Barrios plans to keep his Harahan shop dedicated to pint pick-ups for weekly drops.
- "A lot of people love to experience ice cream in their home and can't get the same quality you get at a scoop shop in their freezer," he says. "People enjoying the things we make is the basis of what we're doing."
