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The time is right for ice cream. Hot weather, kids out of school, and who doesn’t want ice cream? Yet there are a minority of folks who only reach for it when the temperature reads over 100 or it’s their birthday. To top it off, National Ice Cream Day is July 21.
I recently launched a quest for ice cream. This was a highly unusual move for me. According to NationalToday.com, the central clearinghouse of national days that tracts their dates and what they commemorate, I am one of the 10-percent of the population who don’t consider ice cream a special treat, unless maybe it’s their birthday. In our home freezer, the lone dessert is a half-gallon of nonfat, frozen chocolate yogurt for my healthy husband.
Several factors influenced my newfound creamy craving. I traveled to Italy in June for a wine event and arrived during a heat wave. I wanted something cold and creamy rather than a hot dish of pasta. With limited time, I didn’t taste even a small cup of gelato, my rarely eaten but favorite frozen dessert.
The temperature hovered over 100 degrees when I got home. I was ready for two scoops of something cold. After a friend spoke about a planned trip to a Hawaii beach, I went to the store and bought a small container of Mauna Loa Kona coffee, macadamia milk “non-dairy dessert” on sale. This did not satisfy the craving.
I tapped friends and their young, ice cream-loving family to join me at Loard’s Ice Cream, a Livermore institution since 1965.
There is no Mr. or Mrs. Loard associated with the company. The two founders combined parts of their last names and opened their first Loard’s in Oakland in 1950. There are now 11 independently owned franchise shops. The factory and headquarter offices in San Leandro also host what is called the “HQ Parlor” where you can buy a cone of chocolate mint and watch the production of ice cream through a window.
Russ Salyards was the operating partner who developed the base ice cream recipe and set the standard for sauces and toppings. I asked Brian Tam, manager of the Loard’s factory and franchise coordinator, about the secret to the company’s longevity.
“Our recipes are identical to what was used in 1950. We use more butterfat than most others, 15 percent, for a creamier, more decadent ice cream, and we make it daily in small batches,” said Tam.
According to Tam, the top flavors are vanilla, chocolate mint, cookies and cream, chocolate, and strawberry, and the seasonal specials: eggnog (winter), blueberry cheesecake (summer), pumpkin (autumn), and pistachio (spring).
While Loard’s continues to produce what Tam called “old fashioned” flavors such as Burgundy cherry, butter brickle, and mocha almond fudge, the company does add new global flavors periodically such as ube, a sweet, purple root vegetable popular in Filipino cuisine and horchata, a Mexican rice drink
Lily Pheng has owned the Livermore Second Street location since 2004. For a decade, she had a second shop on First Street which closed in 2022.
She now serves the children and grandchildren of original customers and continues to work at the shop on weekends. What, in her opinion, is the secret to Loard’s success?
“It’s the toppings that draw people here. Russ Salyards, one of the founders, trained me. He only purchased the best ingredients for the ice cream, hot fudge and the sauces which have remained constant over the years. We have the new flavors, but I miss the peach and mocha fudge they don’t make anymore,” said Pheng.
Deciding what to order is a challenge. What ice cream or one of the five sherbert flavors, what size, and what carrier, a cup, sugar or waffle cone? Don’t forget the many combos which made my head spin.
I thought I was ordering a modest “Saturdae,” with Burgundy cherry and pecan praline. But I didn’t realize you could only select one topping for a saturdae. When asked about adding whipped cream, nuts, and caramel or chocolate sauce, I said, “Sure,” and my order morphed into a Super Sundae.
Popular Super Sundaes have names. The Peter Pan features chocolate ice cream with creamy marshmallow, whipped cream, toasted nuts and a cherry. The Fudge-Ana, like a Baskin-Robbins Banana Royale Sundae, starts with hot fudge, bananas, vanilla ice cream, and then more hot fudge and bananas and the usual sundae toppers.
My friend Connie selected raspberry sherbert. Her husband Kevin knew immediately what he wanted. I learned he has somewhat of an obsession with cookie dough ice cream. The kids chimed in to say he also likes actual cookie and cake dough.
Young Jake tried raspberry sherbert for the first time, perhaps hearing Connie choose it. “I like it. It looked good today. I usually get rainbow sherbert or chocolate.” His younger brother Bennett made his usual call for chocolate. I thought Jake’s choice looked especially enticing with a heavy-handed sprinkle of mini marshmallows on top which he downed quickly.
Since each Loard’s is independently owned, they sell other treats in addition to the ice cream. Pheng offers hand blended, “old fashioned” sodas with ice cream and soda water, fruit smoothies and several types of boba drinks.
Ice cream cakes are sold at some Loard’s such as the Castro Valley shop. Standard varieties may be available in the shop and special flavor combinations can be pre-ordered.
The kids’ mom Erika was busy at home with her travel agent work. When we got to their house, we interrupted her and sampled more ice cream with the family.
Before our foray to Loard’s, I had dropped off two ice cream drumsticks for their freezer. I had received a press release about 7-Eleven’s collaboration with Nestlé drumstick ice cream cones. The limited-edition summer selection is called the Drumstick Slurpee® Blue Raspberry Vanilla Cone
The drumsticks were drippy-slurpy and ideal on a 105-degree day. Bennett promptly pronounced that it was way too sweet. Jake and I gave it a thumbs up. I targeted the dark blue streaks of Slurpee which satisfied my minor craving for the drink on a 105-degree day. Jake extolled the ice cream with its blue ice cream and gold-toned cone, the colors of the budding basketball player’s favorite team, the Golden State Warriors.
After the Loard’s sundae, I thought my craving was satisfied. Yet I still yearned for gelato. Another friend took me out for a belated birthday lunch at Market Tavern where they offered a free dessert for my late celebration. I gravitated to the strawberry almond cake with vanilla gelato. I requested salted caramel gelato instead, and it was delicious. I like the creamier, softer texture of gelato and the fact that it has less fat than ice cream due to a higher milk to cream ratio.
Later, as I poked around the Visit Tri-Valley website looking for a restaurant, I saw a link prominently displayed for the Tri-Valley Ice Cream Trail. If you sign up for a mobile pass and check in at five of the 12 shops on the trail, you can redeem a Tri-Valley ice cream scooper.
The mobile pass sounds like a summertime thing to do, but I don’t need more ice cream or another scooper. But if the heat wave keeps up, you may meet friends and possibly me, cone in hand, along the trail.
