Melt Ice Creams Is Coming to Dallas

I get to Fort Worth a handful of times a year, usually to check out a performance at Bass Hall or to putz around the museums. Last summer my infrequent visits became permanently appended with a mandatory visit to Melt Ice Creams. I won't leave Fort Worth until I've had one of their freshly made cones in my hand, unless they are closed. If they are closed, I reconsider my trip to Fort Worth.

Melt is the work of Kari Crowe and her team of ice cream enthusiasts. They meet once a month or so to cook up and taste small batch flavors before making changes to the menu. The shop opened up just over a year ago and Fort Worth has fallen in love with their adventurous flavors. Visiting Dallasites have become quite smitten, too.

So it's very good news that Crowe is planning a Melt Ice Creams outpost right here in Dallas. In the next month or two, she will be setting up a mini-Melt of sorts at Urban Acres in Oak Cliff. Many of the details are still being worked out but she plans on making the cones on-site, which means Urban Acres is about to smell really, really good on the weekends.

If you're not familiar, Melt's appeal lies in its creative recipes. Crowe is willing to put just about anything in ice cream, and if it turns out to be delicious, she'll put it on the menu. Imagine your run-of-the-mill butter pecan ice cream reinvented with a kiss of fresh rosemary and packed with nuts you'd want to eat on their own. Imagine freshly churned ice cream laced with strawberries and jalapeño.

My personal favorite is pictured above. Out of this Swirl'd is a coffee ice cream made with the help of Fort Worth-based Avoca coffee with ribbons of caramel and chunks of soft chocolate ganache. The cone pictured above roughly depicts what I was handed during a recent visit, minus the artful coffee crumbles and caramel drops. The picture below is what was left a few minutes later.

Soon you'll be able to have a similar experience on the patio of Urban Acres, but I don't feel the need to wait. Melt's home base is only a 40-minute drive from Dallas according to the Google genius, and considering it takes about two minutes to down a waffle cone, I think a trip to Cowtown for a few scoops is perfectly reasonable.