Holler Treats Will Reopen as an Ice Cream Shop

At the end of June, Holler Treats — the Sellwood-Moreland dessert spot known for novelty frozen treats like its house-made Drumstick — will relaunch as a “scoops and treats” shop, expanding on its lineup of homemade ice creams and ice cream treats to include milkshakes and sundaes.

Holler Treats originally opened in August 2021 with a menu of cookies, pies, party cakes, and other desserts. After noticing that ice cream was a top seller for Holler Treats, even in the winter, owner Jen Quist decided to transform the dessert bar into a scoop shop. A pared down menu of baked goods — “Holler’s greatest hits” according to Quist — will still be available.

Experimenting with ice cream is familiar territory for Danielle Bailey, who serves as the pastry chef for the entire Holler Hospitality group (Holler, Bullard, Abigail Hall). During her tenure, ice cream desserts have appeared on menus across the restaurants; from an ice cream-topped cake or brownie at Bullard to the grasshopper ice cream cake at Abigail Hall, Bailey’s ice cream prowess is what first inspired the team to open Holler Treats.

At the shop, milk and cream are blended together with yolks instead of whole eggs for a creamier consistency. Bailey doesn’t add a lot of sugar to the ice cream base, which she makes in five gallon batches, since a lot of sweetness comes from mix-ins and house made sauces.

Standard flavors of chocolate and vanilla will be joined by newcomers like an oat milk-based peanut butter and raspberry, banana caramel streusel, strawberry rhubarb sorbet, and raspberry matcha. Strawberries and rhubarb play guest starring roles in the current menu, and Bailey is excited to work with stone fruit and corn later this summer.

Taking inspiration from her friends’ and family’s favorite flavors, Bailey’s menu of 16 ounce milkshakes comes in six flavors — malt chocolate banana, peanut butter brownie, and blueberry Fruity Pebble among them — but customers can also order a milkshake with any of the shop’s ice creams. A raspberry rose lemonade float made with Fentiman’s rose lemonade will also join the menu, while Bailey dreams of eventually introducing more old-school soda shop items like chocolate sodas.

“We love to focus on nostalgia for our [restaurants] in general, but for desserts, it’s such a fun way to grab the attention of kids and their parents,” Quist says. “It’s so funny listening to parents come in and talk about Drumsticks with their kids that they had during their childhood. So adding milkshakes and sundaes really rounds out the whole nostalgic piece.”

For example, the shop’s sundae menu includes standards like a banana split, as well as a more experimental cereal bowl sundae with strawberry sauce, Fruity Pebbles, marshmallows, and homemade whipped cream on top of vanilla ice cream.

Maximizing its penchant for the nostalgic, the shop will also begin selling packaged candy as a nod to the ice cream shops Quist grew up visiting — the candy selection will include things like gummy bears, peach rings, Coke bottle gummies, and Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Despite the shift in focus, the shop will keep the same name and the same whimsical, candy-colored interior, save for the addition of a new milkshake machine on the front counter where folks will be able to see their order being made. The sister spot to next door neighbor Holler will also keep the connecting door between both restaurants open, so kids can flit back and forth between Holler’s arcade area and the scoop shop.

Holler Treats’ grand reopening is set for the first day of summer, June 21.