Life's pretty sweet at Millie's Homemade Ice Cream

Detours in life can have delicious consequences.

While chef Chad Townsend was scouting real estate locations to open a restaurant, he decided it would be fun to make ice cream. Reactions to his creations were so positive that he put his plans for a restaurant on hold and instead opened Millie's Homemade Ice Cream in late 2014.

The initial business plan was for the wholesale market, restaurants and grocery stores. But in March, he opened a scoop shop in Shadyside, which has been so successful it now accounts for 75 percent of his sales.

Millie's Homemade Ice Cream scoop shop is open every day from noon until the late evening. It offers a rotating variety of ice cream and sorbet flavors, all made from scratch, as are the hand-rolled waffle cones.

Most of the ingredients are from Pennsylvania, including local fruits, vegetables, herbs, milk and eggs. The spices, sugar, salt and chocolate are from out of state.

The single-scoop junior is $3; double scoop small, $5, triple scoop regular, $7. Pints are $7.50.

Millie's is named for Townsend's maternal grandmother, Mildred Trau.

“I was the youngest grandchild, so I got a little bit of extra time with her,” he says. “She always took care of me.” He especially loved watching her bake pies, which she always served a la mode.

Townsend's first work in the food business was washing dishes in a restaurant as a teenager. In time, he became a chef at a Michelin-rated restaurant in France, and at Eleven and Salt of the Earth in Pittsburgh.

Townsend feels it's an advantage to have broad-based food preparations skills, and not only because of developed standards of taste and execution. Everyone in Millie's production team has extensive restaurant experience.

“We have the advantage of understanding what different ingredients do, and in different environments,” he says. “Basically we have a frozen dessert we want to keep from being frozen. It takes some combination of fat, sugar, salt or alcohol to inhibit freezing. We understand the chemistry behind what we need to do to keep the ice cream the way we want it.”

Flavors are chosen by Townsend in collaboration with his team, always with an eye to seasonal freshness. Working closely with suppliers, Millie's is able to use fruits that have ripened to the point they're ready to eat. That means a shorter shelf life but better flavor and texture, which is especially important for sorbets.

Standard flavors, such as vanilla and chocolate, aren't taken for granted. The vanilla, using Tahitian vanilla beans, is one of Townsend's favorites. The chocolate uses 64 percent cocoa chocolate.

Less common flavors have various sources. For example, Townsend's love of Campari led him to create an ice cream of it (with nearly all its alcohol cooked off) and grapefruit. He says it has a “nice balance of tart, bitter, sweet and creamy.”

The Kulfi ice cream started as a special request from a regular customer who wanted something special for his wife's birthday.

“Kulfi is a traditional Indian frozen dessert mixing saffron, rose water, cardamom and pistachio,” he explains. “In India, it's almost like a popsicle. We took that flavor profile for our ice cream and it's become very popular.”

Millie's Homemade Ice Cream Scoop Shop, 232 S. Highland Ave., Shadyside. Hours are noon to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, noon to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Details: 412-404-8853 or millieshomemade.com.

Mark Kanny is a Tribune Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7877 or mkanny@tribweb.com.