Ice Cream News

Burleson ice cream shop is doing the creamiest fruity soft-serve

Mr. Henry's Real Fruit Ice Cream

Mr. Henry's

An ice cream shop in Old Town Burleson Square is doing an ice cream unlike any other in DFW. Called Mr. Henry’s Real Fruit Ice Cream, it's a shop that opened this summer at 136 S. Wilson St., in a cute building that was most recently a beauty salon but was originally someone's home when it was built in 1955.

"Henry" is owner Henry Lazcano, a native of El Paso who worked in IT before opening the shop with his daughter Alex.

Henry's does what he describes as New Zealand-style ice cream, in which ice cream is combined with fruit, then blended using a special machine, which extrudes it as a flavored soft-serve, which you can top with cookie crumbs, sprinkles, or drizzles such as pineapple ice cream topped with coconut, graham crackers, and sweetened condensed milk.

Soft-serve is very much abuzz these days — but it's rare to find one in which ingredients are blended this way, as well as blended to order, right before your eyes.

The machine they use is a Little Gem, which is made in New Zealand; it can be seen in action here. According to the New York Times (always a questionable source), "New Zealand-style" ice cream started being a trend in summer 2023, and there are a few shops in the U.S. in cities like Portland and Denver who have their own Little Gems and are churning out fruity, creamy treats.

Building-your-own is part of the fun, and you can choose from a variety of fruits and toppings, although Mr. Henry's also offers suggested combos such as:

hokey pokey: vanilla with crunchy toffee
banana Oreo bliss: banana, Oreos, ice cream, with chocolate drizzle and rainbow sprinkles
Blueberry Bonanza: banana, blueberries, ice cream, chocolate drizzle and Graham cracker dust

Fruit options include peach, strawberry, blueberry, mixed-berry, pineapple, mango, banana, and raspberry.

They have a variety of unique syrups such as chamoy and "La Lechera" (condensed milk), and in addition to regular vanilla ice cream, they also offer a vegan version. Prices range from $4 for a one-scoop "mini" to $8 for a vegan triple-scoop, which you can get in a cup or waffle cone.

One fan described it as "like whirl-a-whip from the 90s only with fruit instead of candy."

They also serve traditional ice cream, milkshakes, floats, such as an orange soda float made with vanilla ice cream.

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Flair News

TGI Fridays files for bankruptcy but is still serving at DFW Airport

TGIF

TGI Fridays DFW Airport

Restaurant chain TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy protection on November 2, saying it is looking for ways to “ensure the long-term viability” of the casual dining brand after closing many of its branches in 2024.

The Dallas-based company's Chapter 11 filing in a Texas federal court accelerates a gradual decline for an iconic chain that was once near the center of American pop culture but has seen its customer base dwindle as tastes changed.

TGI Fridays executive chairman Rohit Manocha said in a statement that the challenges were a result of COVID-19.

"The next steps announced today are difficult but necessary actions to protect the best interests of our stakeholders, including our domestic and international franchisees and our valued team members around the world," Manocha said. "The primary driver of our financial challenges resulted from COVID-19 and our capital structure. This restructuring will allow our go-forward restaurants to proceed with an optimized corporate infrastructure that enables them to reach their full potential."

Until recently, Dallas-Fort Worth had 11 locations including five at DFW Airport. Those airport locations are now the only ones still open.

Four locations all recently closed, mostly in the Dallas area, some after being in business for a decade or more including Addison, Cedar Hill, Garland, and Mesquite.

A location in Burleson closed in 2020 and is now a Twin Peaks. Arlington had two locations: 1524 N. Collins St., which closed in 2023; and 4601 S. Cooper St., which closed in mid-2022 after being having been there for decades.

There was a location at 4646 SW Loop 820 at Hulen but that closed a while ago; and a location in Keller closed in 2017. Fort Worth has been struggling without a TGI Fridays fix for a while now.

A Plano location also closed in 2022, while the flagship in Dallas' West End at 1713 Market St. closed in 2020 after 32 years.

Privately owned by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, TGI Fridays has been a beloved dining destination since its inaugural bar opened in Manhattan in 1965. It expanded over the following decades to become a ubiquitous suburban gathering spot known for its ribs, potato skins topped with cheese and bacon, and a decor bedecked with red stripes and Tiffany-style lamps.

The company has boasted that its bartenders trained Tom Cruise for his role in the 1988 film Cocktail, while its serving staff's button-filled uniforms, meant to evoke a fun atmosphere, were later parodied in the 1999 satire Office Space, starring Jennifer Aniston.

Its empire peaked in 2008 with 601 restaurants in the U.S. and a $2 billion business, according to Kevin Schimpf, director of industry research at Technomic. Its sales in the U.S. were $728 million in 2023, down 15% from the prior year, according to Technomic.

It now counts 163 restaurants in the U.S., down from 269 last year and 213 from a week ago. It closed 36 in January and dozens more in the past week. TGI Fridays Inc. said it only owns and operates 39 restaurants in the U.S, a fraction of the 461 TGI Fridays-branded restaurants around the world.

A separate entity, TGI Fridays Franchisor, owns the intellectual property and has franchised the brand to 56 independent owners in 41 countries. Those are independently owned and not part of the Chapter 11 process, and remain open.

A United Kingdom-based franchisee, Hostmore, also sought debt protection in September and abruptly closed locations throughout that country after a failed takeover deal to acquire TGI Fridays.

During the pandemic TGI Fridays made an effort to expand into the delivery market by making itself a hub for ghost kitchens, which have no storefront and only prepare food for delivery. Among the major creditors owed money by TGI Fridays is the delivery service DoorDash, according to Saturday's bankruptcy court filings.

Sit-down chain restaurants more broadly have faced challenges in recent years as diners choose to get food delivered or visit upscale fast-food chains like Chipotle and Shake Shack. In September a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved a reorganization plan for the seafood chain Red Lobster after years of mounting losses. Italian American food chain Buca di Beppo filed for bankruptcy protection in August. PAnother iconic U.S. sit-down restaurant, Denny's, announced in October that it is closing 150 of its lowest-performing restaurants in an effort to turn around the brand’s flagging sales. Wendy’s is also closing up to 140 restaurants, according to a statement from The Wendy's Co. on October 31.
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Teresa Gubbins contributed to this story.

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