Comfort in the Community

Ice Cream Shops Deliver Enterprising Solutions, Flavors

When bad days happen, people have a habit of turning to sources of familiarity to find comfort.

That familiarity can come in many forms, and, sometimes, it comes in the form of America’s favorite dessert: ice cream.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to close doors to schools, offices and businesses back in March, people looked for a sense of normalcy more than ever in the weeks and months that followed.

That’s why two of Houma’s most well-loved, longstanding ice cream establishments knew they had to stay open to give the community a place to which they could turn to find comfort in such uncertain times.

Staying open required some thinking outside the box, but it’s a challenge that Zack’s Frozen Yogurt and Scarlet Scoop happily accepted. Months into the pandemic now, both businesses are grateful for the opportunity to be a place of comfort and normalcy for the Houma community.

Zack’s Frozen Yogurt

“The first couple of weeks [were] a big blur,” Zack’s owner Joe Boudreaux said.

When the stay-at-home order became inevitable months ago, Boudreaux said the Zack’s team wanted to respond how they always do in situations: by being proactive instead of reactive. Right away, the business sought a plan of action for keeping its doors open while serving customers safely.

Boudreaux said the business immediately purchased plexiglass partitions to place in front of the registers, and sneeze guards were already installed over the ice cream. In addition, the shops were at an advantage by not offering self-service or table service.

The business also implemented a mask mandate to increase health protocols on top of its sanitation measures that had long been in place.

Both Zack’s locations had to operate differently, as the W. Park Ave. location features a drive thru, while the St. Charles St. location does not. The W. Park location closed the front of its store and served customers solely through the drive thru. The St. Charles location removed all of its chairs and tables, allowing for takeout only.

The company leaned heavily on its partnerships with Waitr and Grubhub to serve customers who did not feel comfortable coming to the locations themselves. At the St. Charles location in particular, options for call-ahead orders and curbside pickup were also offered.

Boudreaux said his priority from the start was to keep Zack’s open, both to serve customers and to make sure his team stayed employed. Since the pandemic began, he said the company hasn’t laid off a single employee.

“Number one was keeping the doors open. Between both stores, I’d say I’ve got 15 people employed, and I said, ‘I have to keep these people employed. I have to keep my team making money. People still have to eat,’” Boudreaux said. “It was always [about] keeping our doors open to serve our customers, to serve our team.”

General Manager Kristine Zvirzdinis said that navigating new sanitation protocols and guidelines from state and federal governments has been a challenge, but being able to continue to serve customers has been a rewarding experience.

On top of health and safety measures, Zack’s found creative ways to spread little extra joy to the community.

Its biggest seller came in the form of “family packs” that were added to the business’s lineup of offerings toward the beginning of the pandemic. The packs, which cost $20 each, include two quarts of either ice cream or frozen yogurt, two waffle cones or waffle bowls and two cups of toppings.

Zack’s also sought ways during this time to give back to the community.

Boudreaux reached out to Hershey’s, the company’s dealer, to ask for a donation of products, which Zack’s gave away to first responders. With the leftover products, Zack’s found a way to offer encouragement to other local establishments.

“I said let’s just ride around to restaurants and businesses and just drop it off to them to say, ‘Hey, hang in there,’” Boudreaux said. “My team at Zack’s, they just wrote little encouraging notes. ‘Hey, we’re in this together.’ ‘You guys are doing a great job.’ ‘We love you’…I loaded a freezer into my trailer and we just drove around town.”

Zvirzdinis, who worked at Zack’s as a teenager, knows firsthand the role that Zack’s has had in her life. She said it’s special to see that same impact on other people’s lives.

“To see how important Zack’s is to the community because of the amount of people that continue to come to Zack’s, even with everything going on, just is heartwarming. It feels good to know that you’re a part of something that people love so much,” Zvirzdinis said.

With 37 years of existence in the community, Boudreaux said that people need Zack’s to be a source of normalcy in their lives during such challenging times. At the end of the day, he believes the business has accomplished that purpose.

“When a customer comes in, they may be fighting a battle you know nothing about,” Boudreaux said. “Treat that customer like this is the highlight of their day because it very well might be. Nobody just wanders into Zack’s – Zack’s is a destination. They’re coming here for a reason, and they’re coming here because they want to feel better…We have to keep a sense of normalcy.”

Scarlet Scoop

In its 51 years of existence, Scarlet Scoop had experienced just about everything except a pandemic.

“[For] 43 years, I’ve owned the store. In that time, I have seen it all: hurricanes and oil spills and 9/11 and everything like that, so this was something totally different,” owner Bryan Nelson said. “With a hurricane, you know when the electricity goes out, eventually it will come back on…With this, none of us still really kind of know what the steps [are] to totally coming back.”

Every week since the start of the pandemic has seemed to bring something new, Nelson said.

The shop began its response to COVID-19 by removing seating from inside the shop and turning to takeout, curbside pickup, phone orders and deliveries to serve customers.

While the shop already had extensive cleaning measures in place, Nelson said the pandemic brought an added level of sanitation protocols, with the regular disinfection of counters, handles and other surfaces. In addition, employees and customers are required to wear masks at all times.

Creating specialty flavors that coincide with local events has become a beloved tradition for Scarlet Scoop and its customers. For example, the shop introduced a highly-popular “Oil Spill” flavor following the BP oil spill of 2010.

As the pandemic continued on, the business took that tradition to the next level.

“Whenever something happens, people always ask, ‘So, what ice cream are you going to make for this?’ So, of course, we had to make a ‘C-19’ for this event,” Nelson said.

The “C-19” features Butterfingers, Oreo cookies and a chocolate swirl to resemble a virus, Nelson said.

Other speciality flavors were created to pay tribute to beloved festivals that were cancelled as a result of the pandemic.

For example, the shop took popular desserts served at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and turned them into ice cream flavors, which were served on the weekends the festival was set to take place. The flavors included a Mango Freeze sorbet inspired by Jazz Fest’s famous Mango Freeze, a Beignet Praline ice cream inspired by the festival’s praline beignets and a Brennan’s Bananas Foster ice cream.

“We did the things that you couldn’t get at Jazz Fest. We made them in the store, and we played the Jazz Fest music because it was being broadcast over the radio, so it was a real hit that people got a taste of Jazz Fest those two weekends in the store,” Nelson said.

Scarlet Scoop has become a popular after-school snack location for nearby schools, like St. Matthew’s Episcopal School and St. Francis de Sales Catholic School. With schools beginning to reopen, Nelson said he’s especially excited about seeing the children back in the shop once again.

“That’ll be special to have them all back in the store after school, in their uniforms and all. They’ve all grown up…I waited on their parents when they were in those khaki uniforms, and so now they’re bringing their kids back into the store, so it is special for them all to come back in after school and get their treat.”

For Nelson, a silver lining during the last few months is that business has stayed consistent, which he attributes to the comfort that people find in ice cream.

Nelson, who started working at Scarlet Scoop at age 14 and has owned it since age 17, said it’s an honor to know that the shop is a place that is loved by so many people in the community and has been a source of comfort over the last few months. He said it has taken a long time and a great deal of hard work to get the shop to that point, but the reward has been special.

“It’s home for a lot of people. They feel comfortable there. They were brought there as a kid. Now, they bring their children, or they were brought there by their grandparents. Everybody knows the store,” Nelson said. “There’s a fear going on, and it’s natural to go to a place that makes you feel comfortable – that nothing has changed, and that’s the reason why we’ve been so busy.” •