"What is that abomination that looks like your kid dropped it on the garage floor?" Aside from the abomination part, I'd have a hard time disagreeing with the comment left on my Blue Bell alternatives post. The ice cream creation pictured above may have many desirable attributes, but beauty is not one of them. The freak show on a stick is no doubt delicious, though, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Luscher's Red Hots has been sold out of them every time I've visited since first publishing the list.
The Mother Lode is a storied ice cream bar. Chef-owner Brian Luscher says the dessert is based on a creation he first encountered on Newport Beach. A shop placed an ice cream bar that had been freshly dipped in molten chocolate into a bed of chopped peanuts. Then the bar promptly disappeared, leaving a trail of smiles and sticky drips in its wake. So when Sean Brockette of Lake Highlands Creamery asked Luscher for his business, the hot dog master requested something similar.
And then things got weird. The recipe quickly evolved from simple peanuts and chocolate to chocolate and everything in the pantry. Sprinkles, Rice Krispies, nuts and other ingredients were eventually added to a bar that had grown large enough to eclipse a young ice cream eater's face. Each batch is different, based both on requests from Luscher and the whim of Brockette.
The only thing that is consistent about the bars is the rate at which they sell, and Luscher says that the dessert is so popular he's been scrambling to keep them stocked. "It's a good problem to have," he says. Uh, yeah dude, as long as you're not twitching with an ice cream craving and have to settle for a 7-Eleven frozen Snickers bar instead.
Still, Luscher says the issue is being addressed, no doubt in time for summer, when you'll see kids young and old all over Deep Ellum with cardboard boats, a spoon and mess of sugary sweet barely clinging to a stick.
