Tacoma’s Howdy Bagel turns into a vegan ice cream parlor every weekend

At Tacoma’s Howdy Bagel, staff swirls through the morning rolling bagels by hand, layering the freshly baked rounds with homemade cream cheeses, lox and soft scrambled eggs. As the weekend arrives, tidying the shop for tomorrow, a scooper sets up for the evening, moving a freezer on wheels from the window to behind the counter. It’s ice cream time — but make it vegan.

Frankie & Jo’s, a plant-based ice cream company that has been churning since 2016 in South Seattle, has found a permanent home in Tacoma. The Frankie & Jo’s Scoop Shop at Howdy Bagel became official in December, following a few successful pop-up weekends over the summer and fall.

For Frankie & Jo’s founder and co-owner Autumn Martin, the partnership just made sense.

“Tacoma has absolutely been on my radar,” she told TNT Diner in an April phone call, but “it’s expensive to make our ice cream,” which the company does — from scratch, including all the cookies, crumbles, cakes and other add-ins, plus pasteurization, at a facility in SoDo. Frankie & Jo’s does not use any stabilizers, a common addition to ice cream or already baked into the pre-fab bases that many shops use. “We actually have to rely on temperature and process in order to keep the consistency — that really creamy kind of luxurious mouthfeel.”

The production method is expensive, and it’s expensive to open a brick-and-mortar food business. They operate scoop shops of their own in Capitol Hill, Ballard and University District, and just last year added one in Marin County, California.

“I really just got to thinking,” recalled Martin. Coffee shops, bagel shops and various morning-focused spots are quiet by night. “Why not have it be active and lively, with another business, where there’s synergy?” she thought.

So she cold-emailed Howdy’s Daniel Blagovich. They scheduled a few events that were “so well received,” said Martin, that they proceeded down the more time-consuming path of securing necessary permits from the city and health department to set up full-time.

Every Friday and Saturday night, Frankie & Jo’s scoops 5-9 p.m. As Howdy, 5421 South Tacoma Way, is closed on Sundays, the scoop shop serves noon-6 p.m.

Frankie & Jo’s fun vegan flavors in Tacoma

I know what you might be thinking: vegan ice cream? Frankie & Jo’s will forever change your mind. Not only is this ice cream superior to various attempts at plant-based ice cream, it’s simply superior to many dairy-based versions.

Martin, a trained chocolatier and pastry chef, had been running her own dessert shop, Hot Cakes in Ballard (which she has since sold), when she developed a dairy allergy. She searched high and low for a truly creamy, high-quality vegan ice cream and just couldn’t find it.

“I just felt a really big hole in my world and assumed that there would be more people out there in my same situation who missed eating amazing, creamy, not coconut-forward ice cream,” she said, adding that health-focused eaters tend to seek out similar products.

Her recipes with dates as the sweetener “really started Frankie & Jo’s,” she said, which is named after her grandmothers. “The ice cream has to be undetectably non-dairy. We’re about making super bold and creative flavors that make you think about food in a different way.”

She found an operating partner in Kari Brunson Wright. A decade later, it seems their acute attention to detail and commitment to top-notch ingredients has worked.

Flavors are also out of the ordinary, ranging from modernized classics (Brown Sugar Vanilla, Mint Brownie, Salty Caramel Ash with activated coconut charcoal, Strawberry Milk with chia seeds) to those obviously inspired by world travels and even savory dishes. The Supercookies & Cream imbues dark chocolate maca sandwich cookies into a sweet cream base forged with coconut and oats. The Grapefruit Frangipane Tart features a homemade pie with homemade jam. The Black Sesame Banana Caramel uses eggplant in the chocolate cake pieces, and the Tom Kha blends lime leaf and lemongrass with Thai chile, macaroons and a citrusy caramel.

Martin estimates they’ve created up to 400 flavors, thanks no doubt to three new releases every month for 10 years. They have also developed exclusive flavors for select partners, including Howdy, the only place to find a “cream cheese” scoop surrounded by everything-bagel waffle cone chips.

As at their other shops, the weekly flavors at Howdy rotate.

The scooper graciously lets you try several. On my first visit, I landed on the Caramel Brookie, speckled with chewy bites of part-cookie, part-brownie, and the Saffron Love, a beautiful golden hued coconut-milk base with sugarcombs, cacao nibs and a whisper of rose water. A few weeks later, a scoop of Berries & Fermented Cream (house-cultured coconut yogurt) lent an undeniable tang, softened by strawberries and blackberries from Silva Family Farm in Oak Harbor, foraged huckleberries and saskatoon, the Pacific serviceberry similar to a blueberry. Other flavors on the board included Preserved Meyer Lemon with curd and lemon shortbread and one of the flagships: the pine-infused California Cabin with smoked vanilla and cardamom-black pepper shortbread.

After a somewhat quiet winter in Tacoma, said Martin, “We’re really excited for the summer. It just feels really good to be able to serve it to more people.”

Frankie & Jo’s at Howdy Bagel

• 5421 South Tacoma Way, Tacoma, frankieandjos.com
• Scoop Shop Hours: Friday-Saturday 5-9 p.m., Sunday noon-6 p.m.
• Details: vegan ice cream by the scoop or pint inside Howdy Bagel, follow instagram.com/frankieandjos for flavor updates