Handcrafted ice cream shop opens in Waxahachie

Georgie Boy’s Ice Cream, located at 1107 Ferris Ave., Suite 102, offers unique and fun handcrafted ice cream to Waxahachie.

Owner Justin Kee had a background in operations and opened a cleaning company in 2020, which he operated for 18 months before deciding to open a business centered around experiences.

As a father of a 7-year-old, he enjoyed experiences he could do with his friends and family. After brainstorming several ideas, Kee decided to open an ice cream shop and began experimenting with flavors at home.

“I didn’t have anything then,” Kee said. “I had a little at home machine that I bought and started messing around with, but that was it.”

In April 2022, he attended an ice cream school in Florida, where he learned hands-on how to make ice cream. Through that school, he joined a Facebook group and met someone from Idaho, who also taught classes on ice cream but delved into the entire business model and has since become Kee’s mentor.

After going through online classes, Kee found a space to lease, which used to be a comic book store, and began turning it into an ice cream shop, taking out racks and repainting the walls. Georgie Boy’s Ice Cream held a grand opening in June 2023.

“We tried to design a space that is at the same level as if you drove to Dallas or Fort Worth,” Kee said. “We wanted you to have that same experience here in Waxahachie that way you don’t have to drive all the way to Dallas for something fun.”

There is a photo wall, with the shop’s logo, and merchandise available for purchase. To add a personal touch, there’s a bookshelf with items that are important to Kee. He’s also creating a cutout ice cream truck for kids to take pictures in.

Kee makes all the ice cream at a commercial kitchen off-site. He said all ice cream starts with a base, then he adds in the ingredients to make a specific flavor.

Georgie Boy’s Ice Cream menu is always changing, Kee said. While they do have some flavors that are always available, like vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, cookies and cream, he likes to include a variety of flavors. With the cookies and cream, he often has two or three variations with different types of cookies like animal crackers or Chips Ahoy.

The two most popular flavors are banana cream pie with Biscoff chunks and a hot fudge swirl and butterflies and zebras, which is strawberry Nesquik with golden Oreos.

“Ice cream’s fun, so it’s easy to come up with good ideas when it already starts from a fun place,” Kee said.

Every month, he makes one bucket of a “one hit wonder,” which is often something strange or weird. This month’s one hit wonder is Lays Limon Chips – Kee’s favorite chips. He said the ice cream tastes like a potato chip.

“I spend a lot of time thinking about ice cream, and these random ideas come to mind,” Kee said. “I just write them down if I think they’ll be fun, and we try them and see if people like them.”

While Kee is a fan of all the flavors at the shop, his favorite is the chocolate.

“I’m not even a chocolate ice cream person, but I like ours a lot because I spend a ton of time making it,” Kee said. “I really like our chocolate ice cream because I melt down high end chocolate and add it into the base.”

Kee explained that chocolate ice cream in America is typically made with a chocolate powder, but European ice cream melts the chocolate, which is what he does.

The shop also has a few dairy-free ice cream flavors and gluten-free ice cream cones.

Soon, Kee will have a form available for customers to share what flavors they think he should make. He also hopes to sell homemade bread and pastries in the shop one day.

Along with ice cream, Kee wants to sell items that are focused on families and one’s relationships with others, like card sets with different questions to ask friends and family or books about making a plan for your life.

“I wanted to subtly have little things like that to encourage people to go after building stuff like this and go after having good relationships with their family and friends,” Kee said. “I think our relationships have the largest effects on our lives overall.

“I want us to promote having great ice cream and great team members that work here, but I do want to encourage people to think about that side of their life,” he said. “That’s important to me because, I grew up with a great family, but we never really talked a ton about what do you want for your long-term life and making that plan and accomplishing those things, so it’s taken me a lot longer in life to get around to having a good system for that for myself personally.”

Next to the register is a goal card where one can write their goal and carry it with them every day – something Kee has done for years.

For more information, follow @georgieboysicecream on Instagram and Facebook.

Originally published online July 17, 2023 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/business/handcrafted-ice-cream-shop-opens-in-waxahachie/article_1d0d7a8a-24da-11ee-8370-8f7f2d4038cd.html