Rolled ice cream: a new take on an old favorite

Two years ago, the Garden Grove couple visited Thailand and tasted something that quite literally would change their lives — rolled ice cream.

Paulina Lackey, a 26-year-old former dental hygienist, and her husband, Josh Lackey, a 34-year-old former salesman, visited the Southeast Asian country as part of a trip to 19 countries after their wedding.

While at the Thai night markets, they witnessed mixtures of cream, sugar and flavorings being poured onto refrigerated circular, pizza-size pans. Moments later, the concoction would form a flat sheet of ice cream, which was then rolled up as a tortilla would be.

Six of the rolls, each about an inch thick, would then be served to customers in a cup. The ice cream is also popular in other Asian countries.

“We thought this was so cool, and what a great experience it was to actually get to see the ice cream being made,” Paulina Lackey said. “We just thought, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s not go back to our regular jobs.’”

After trying the dessert, the couple made the bold decision to quit their careers to open the first rolled-ice-cream shop in Orange County.

Once they returned home, they ordered from Taiwan one of the big circular pans, read the instructions and learned to make the ice cream in Paulina Lackey’s parents’ living room.

The process of finding a location for a business took about a year, but they eventually found and moved into a former cupcake shop in a Fountain Valley shopping center.

Rollin’ Creamery held soft openings earlier this month and is looking to officially open in January.

Josh Lackey’s sales background was a natural fit for running a business, but how would his wife’s dental hygiene skills come into play? Cleanliness, she said.

“It’s similar in a lot of ways,” Paulina Lackey said. “With the dental field, you’re always working with not cross-contaminating, so when it comes to health and cleanliness, it really pays off here. You know when to not touch things, when to wash your hands and how to properly clean things up.”

The ice cream is made in front of customers starting with a liquid base of cream, sugar and flavor. The mix is poured onto the pan, which is kept at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit.

The mixture then forms ice cream, which is churned with paddles and then spread out really thin on the pan. The paddles are then used to cut the ice cream into sections to be rolled up.

The ice cream, which comes in 10 flavors, including matcha green tea and strawberry, can take three to four minutes to make, depending on the flavor. Each flavor is topped with cookies, candy and sweet sauces.

A cup containing six rolls of one flavor with toppings is sold for $6.

“We really put a lot of time and effort into researching our ice cream and making sure that it was as high of quality as we could possibly provide,” Josh Lackey said. “We’ve visited so many ice cream places in Orange County and Los Angeles, and we had to make sure we were just as good, if not better.”

The shop also sells teas and lemonades.

Since its soft openings, word of the shop has spread on social media, especially Instagram.

“I tell everyone that comes in here that if they look me up on the Internet, I’m pretty famous,” Josh Lackey said. “It does definitely help that this is such a unique concept, and people want to take pictures and share them with their friends.”

Paulina Lackey said the uniqueness of the ice cream has attracted regular customers, and word of mouth and social media have helped bring even more people in.

“We had people come in for their first time and come back that same night with more friends,” she said. “Everyone’s saying, ‘I’ve seen this on the Internet.’ When we brought it to Orange County, they were so excited that it was finally here.”

Rollin’ Creamery is at 17908 Magnolia St. in Fountain Valley. Soft opening hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; noon to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; and noon to 11 p.m. Fridays. For more information, call (714) 203-7021.