1 of 2
(From left) Chase and Kendall Appich, owners of Jiji frozen custard (Photo courtesy Jiji)
2 of 2
The Jiji food truck is set for a soft opening this Thursday. (Photo courtesy Jiji)
For Kendall Appich, ditching her corporate job and selling the home she owned with her husband, Chase, for a seven-month Australian adventure wasn't necessarily what she envisioned as stepping stones to becoming first-time food truck owners.
But on Aug. 15, the husband-and-wife team will host a soft opening for Jiji, a Wisconsin-style frozen custard food truck, and both are very much invested in the effort.
“Freedom,” Kendall says without hesitation when asked why she and her husband wanted to launch their own business. "Being able to go after something you're passionate about.”
The Appiches are passionate about frozen custard.
Along the way were other entrepreneurial ideas and pursuits: a hair salon, a line of sparkling teas, a food blog and tour Kendall ran in Australia, and Nomaste, a lifestyle brand that embraces balance in regard to wellness — have your yoga and eat the doughnut, too.
One night Kendall was hit with a serious craving: Carl’s Frozen Custard. The Fredericksburg institution was her favorite, a nostalgic once-a-week family tradition located 20 minutes away from her childhood home, close enough for a weekly outing but just far enough to build anticipation during the drive over. The landmark stand opened in 1947, and its glowing cursive letters and walk-up counter have welcomed generations of patrons.
“It's my homesick food,” says Kendall of Carl’s, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. “I thought, I don’t understand why we don’t have this in Richmond.”
The Appiches set out to make the transition from custard consumers to custard purveyors.
Frozen custard is said to have originated in Coney Island, New York, but Wisconsin, specifically Milwaukee, is considered the unofficial custard capital of the country, home to the highest concentration of frozen custard shops in the world. There, the Appiches were guided by industry veterans and received a crash course in custard, learning about machinery, temperatures, air, overrun (aka the amount of air added into the product) and more than a hundred different kinds of vanilla flavoring.
“[The people who showed us the ropes] have been in the industry for 20 years, and they were a wealth of knowledge,” explains Kendall.
Although frozen custard and ice cream share similar recipes, custard is made with egg yolks that act as an emulsifier and stop ice crystals from forming as the custard freezes, providing a smoother mouthfeel.
Custard also goes through a slower churning process, resulting in a dense, creamy product with virtually no overrun. People often confuse frozen custard and soft serve ice cream because both are dispensed at 15 to 20 degrees higher than scooped ice cream, making them “soft," but custard is made in a special machine and contains egg yolks.
For Kendall and Chase, custard is king in the world of cool concoctions. "At the end of the day, the fresh aspect is a huge point. Ice cream has been sitting in a freezer for days and months; we want people to enjoy [our frozen custard] within two hours," she says. "Overall, custard is a premium, high-quality product."
Similar to the frozen idols who blazed a trail before them, Jiji's owners plan to focus on simplicity in terms of flavors, acknowledging that, in a world of innovation, sometimes tradition reigns supreme. According to Kendall, about 70 percent of all ice cream sales are vanilla.
When Jiji’s bright mobile custard operation starts rolling, guests can choose to dip — Wisconsin lingo for a scoop — in single, double or triple sizes in a cone or dish. While sprinkles and sea salt are free, toppings such as hot fudge, maple nuts, Oreos or Ukrop’s Rainbow Cookies are an additional 50 cents. Other Jiji offerings include shakes, malts and “Fundaes,” featured sundaes.
Kendall says Jiji plans to partner with other local businesses to craft additional toppings or collaborate in other ways, determining what the public wants and adapting.
The name Jiji is derived from the Hindu word jijivisha. Although there is no direct translation to English, Kendall explains it as an idea of living life fiercely, in the moment and to the fullest.
“That's what we're trying to embrace with our business; let people enjoy life through enjoying our product,” she says.
Jiji is currently operating out of Hatch Kitchen in Manchester, and the plan is for the truck to be on the road Thursday to Sunday from March through November. Follow Jiji Frozen Custard on social media to see where they're headed next.
