Moving MELT

For any of y'all who've been paying close attention lately, you know about MELT 2.0. You know we've been creating murals, filling up windows, and painting things yellow (along with some other less fun, less pretty jobs) in our new building for six months now. It's been a hard, complicated journey. We've learned more about permits and codes and power tools than we ever knew would be necessary, but none of that stress or frustration has been enough to dim our enthusiasm. We knew it would more than some sweat and a few bruises to make us stop believing in this little shop of ours. In fact, with every hour we put in, it just became more and more apparent how incredible this place was bound to be. 

So with all of that, you can only imagine how much joy we are experiencing RIGHT THIS SECOND about announcing that the day we've been dreaming of and working towards for so long is so, SO close. Sunday at 9 PM, our Rosedale shop served its last customer and made its last cone. Sure, that's a cause for some mourning and nostalgia. Our Rosedale shop has been nothing short of amazing, in all its quirky, fragile smallness, and we've had some epic parties there. But don't dwell on that for too long, because THE BEST IS YET TO COME. We will be closed from the 27th through the 30th. Don't be fooled into thinking the MELT team will be getting any more sleep than usual during those days. On the contrary, our closed doors will hide a joyful scurry of preparation, making sure that every little thing is set up and ready to go in the new building, before, at 12:00 PM on July first (The very first day of National Ice Cream month), we will open up our Magnolia building for its big debut. 

We hope you will all join us promptly as we open, so we can introduce MELT 2.0 to as many smiling faces as we can as quickly as possible. That night we'll be joined by The Photo Wagon  from 6pm-10pm, and on Saturday night our friends at HD Vinyl & HiFi will come hang to spin some sweet tunes from 6pm-10pm. It'll be a celebration that you won't want to miss. Please join us in our newest adventure!! It's a big day, and we can't think of anyone we'd rather share it with than all of our faithful party people.

Baby Goat Adventures

Every time we get to partner with a local business, it's one of our favorite things. We get the best and freshest ingredients for our flavors, and we also get to make new friends and watch them succeed. It's always pretty inspiring and fun, but when it features adorable baby farm animals...stuff gets even better. 

Latte Da Dairy is a local goat dairy farm in Flower Mound, which sells fresh cheese from award winning Nubian and Lamancha goats. Latte Da was founded in 2005 by Anne Jones, a strong girl boss and trained veterinarian with a passion for producing the best cheese and the happiest goats possible. Goat farming is not an easy job. It has no days off, and often requires nights as well, with mama goats going into labor and needing help in the early hours of the morning. But Anne's passion and hard work has paid off, with her herd winning numerous awards and selling cheese all over the metroplex and beyond. 

Immense care is given to the emotional well being and quality of life of Latte Da Goats. Anne believes that absolutely has an effect on the both the quantity and quality of cheese they provide.  Goats are fed and milked twice a day, and kids are fed milk from herd does who have recently given birth, so they are sure to have all the nutrients they need as babies. Rescued dogs serve as the herd's guardians, keeping away any coyotes or hawks who might prey on the goats.  

Latte Da sells cheese at all of the DFW Central Markets, as well as three local farmer's markets, and one artisan cheese shop in Houston. Fine local restaurants such as Cafe Modern and The Oceanaire use their cheese regularly, and all for good reason. No more than four days after milk is harvested from the goats, soft cheese made from that milk is already on its way to retailers. 

MELT is super excited to be using cheese from Latte Da in our Got Your Goat ice cream! This flavor, dreamed up by our amazing chef Catie, and made possible by Anne and the goats at Latte Da Dairy, consists of a house made strawberry jam, paired with the best goat cheese money can buy! We are so happy to have the opportunity to bring fresh and local ingredients right to you, in the form of delicious and creative ice creams. Got Your Goat is being sold by the scoop and by the pint in our shop right now, be sure to try this goodness and let us know what you think!!

Southside Galentine's Date

Kari here, the founder and owner of this little ice cream shop.  I'm a big fan of our corner of Fort Worth, the Southside.  It's where I live, work, and play.  I don't think that Valentine's has to just be about couples and romance, I'm all for meeting up with my gal pals for some much needed brunch and hang time.  Here's where I would go if I were planning to be hanging with my ladies for this Galentine's weekend: 

First, we would start off with lattes and chicken and waffles at Brewed,  be sure to take your time and soak in the whole atmosphere.  They have created something truly magical throughout their space and service.  If the weather is nice, be sure and check out their patio.

Next, we would walk down to Ephemera to build our own little plant treats.  I mean seriously, you can build your own mini-terrarium with air plants, purple cacti and mini dinosaurs!  How could that not make you smile? 

After building the world's most adorable plants, we would pop into Kent and Co., the neighborhood wine bar, to split a bottle of bubbly!

By the end of our sips we would be ready for a walk over to MELT to close out the night with our must-have scoops. And I highly recommend getting two scoops, because  new flavors will be out this weekend!

The Ultimate Valentine's Day Gift

Valentine's Day. It's exciting, it's intimidating, it's warm and fuzzy, it's depressing...there's kind of a lot going on emotionally here. But whatever your feelings concerning this holiday may be, we can all agree on one adjective for it: Valentine's Day is sweet. There is a blessed abundance of treats and candies around for you to share with someone special, or to eat entirely yourself, in a celebration of your independence and strength. And we all know no one does sweet quite like MELT. But if anyone can top our sugary sweet game, it's definitely our good friends over at Stir Crazy Bakery. So, for the second year in a row, the two kitchens are teaming up to make this holiday one to remember. No matter if you are celebrating a soulmate, a friendship, or just your own awesomeness this Valentine's day, we'd like to help. If you are lost on what to gift to an ice cream lovin' loved one this year, look no further. 

The MELT-&-Stir-Crazy-Unbelievably-Awesome-Valentine's-Day-Collaboration (unofficial title) includes of two of Stir Crazy's legendary brownies, a 4oz jar of either MELT's house made chocolate stout sauce or our house made salted caramel sauce, and a pint of any of our February flavors!! To make it even easier for you to get this delicious package deal, this year we are taking all orders through our online store. Your receipt may try to tell you we'll be shipping this, but don't be fooled, because we need you to come in to the shop to choose your desired pint flavor and pick up the order! You can do this on either the 13th or the 14th. This is SO perfect for any date or Galentine's celebration, and no matter how you enjoy it or who you enjoy it with, it is guaranteed to make your Valentine's Day sweeter than ever before. 

The deadline for orders is next Wednesday, the 10th, so get your order in HERE and ensure a happy, heart-filled holiday!!

2015 in Review: MELT's Top Ten

Together, we've done some pretty sweet things this year. We have grown and partied and laughed on a whole new level, and while every day was great, there were a few that were especially big to us. So, here is a list of some of the ice cream parties we will never forget: MELT's Top Ten.

1. Fort Worth Funky

In March, we had the honor of being featured on Fort Worth Funky. They took some time to sit down and listen to our story, and then made this video highlighting all everything at the core of who we are. 

2. MELT's First Birthday

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April was our birthday month, and we made sure to party all the way through. We took donations for The Birthday Party Project throughout the month, and some of our team members even got a chance to volunteer at one of their events! The weeks before our birthday brought some special celebration for staff and regulars, and day of, we threw ourselves a birthday bash to remember. We had some custom printed t-shirts made on-site by Trust Printshop, we turned our menu into a Greatest Hits playlist of our best loved flavors, we invited you all, and you all showed up. 

3. Fort Worth Magazine

May brought us the honor or being chosen by you as Fort Worth's Best Frozen treat, and being chosen by Fort Worth Magazine as their cover for the month. It was so fun to hear that you guys love what we do as much as we love doing it!

4. Oak Cliff Pop Up

We spent our summer weekends with our Dallas friends, slinging scoops out of a corner of an urban farmer's market in Oak Cliff. It may just have been a quick, few month long pop-up, but the people we met and the celebrations we had while there have absolutely stuck with us.

5. Christmas in July

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Last year, we celebrated the hallowed day of Christmas in July all on our own. And it was awesome day. But this year, our good friends over at Brewed joined in, and we got to tack on a Christmas Eve celebration as well. There were elves, special Christmas flavors, and an ugly sweater contest. The day was merry and bright and HOT and sort of the best ever.

6. Fit Worth

Remember that crazy time when the Mayor personally escorted 150 bikers to our shop? On a legendary July day, Mayor Price's Fit Worth Initiative invited people to take a ride through Fort Worth and end up on our front door for a well deserved cone.

7. Co-Owner Mark

This summer, MELT gained an awesome new full time team member in Mark Seher. He's always been a big part of MELT as our Founder Kari's husband, filling many roles and fixing many broken appliances. But, when he quit his day job to be our co-owner and CFO, we all got to find out just how great he really is. His hard work and insights have been a huge part of MELT's success this year, and we're pretty glad to have him around.

7. Elle Magazine

In October, MELT got its first national write up, in this great article by Elle Decor. We were super excited to be recognized, and just as excited to see other amazing DFW spots right there with us!

9. Tribe Alive

In November, we launched a new line of retail alongside some very passionate people. Tribe Alive works through ethically sourced fashion to provide jobs for women living in impoverished countries. The products they created for our line provided a full week's worth of work for artisans in Haiti, and as a bonus, are also completely gorgeous. We launched our online store so we could showcase these beautiful items (as well as our other great retail products) and so you could all experience them for yourselves.

10. Motor Sisters

December launched what was undoubtedly our biggest adventure of the year. Motor Sisters Ice Cream, MELT's sister shop in Dallas, served her first cone December 4th, and has been dishing out some sweet tricked-up cones, sundaes, and shakes ever since. We've loved adding this place and these people to our family.

This year has brought a lot of new, joyful experiences our way. We are so grateful for all of the love and laughter we have had, and so excited to know that this is only the beginning! 2016 will be bigger, brighter, and sweeter in every way. We hope you will join us!

Pie Pints

Pie Á La Mode. A tradition that feels as old as dessert itself. It's a pairing of destiny, a match made in heaven. But, historically, this combination has been kept to the two merely being adjacent to each other. We're taking it one step further. Our good friends over at  Emporium Pies  have provided us with some of the world's best pies, and we are using them to actually make our ice cream. We are packing up pints of three extra special flavors, made by incorporating Emporium's Lord of the Pies (Apple and Cinnamon Streusel), Drop Dead Gourdgeous (Pumpkin and Gingerbread), and The Drunken Nut (Bourbon Pecan) pies. Starting today, a limited amount of each flavor goes on sale in our shop, to be sold only in pints! They will be gone before you know it, so get in here and experience Pie Á La Mode in its true and final form. 

Fashionable And Purposeful

Earlier this week, we spent a morning with some great people shooting some great pictures to prep for a really, really great announcement. MELT believes that treats can change your day, and your day can change the world, and we love finding different ways to live out this belief, including partnering with visionary people and businesses to help them help others! Our latest partnership is with Tribe Alive. The ladies of Tribe Alive use their love of fashion to provide safe jobs for impoverished women throughout the world by creating gorgeous, ethically made products. MELT is now selling a line of Tribe Alive products that were created just for us, and which provided a full week's worth of work for artisans in Haiti. We put together a special photo shoot to get ready to share all of these beautiful items with you guys, and in the meantime, we had just a little fun. Here are some BTS sneak peeks!

Check out our line in our newly launched online store, or in the MELT shop!

Shout out to Amanda Marie, the awesome photographer for the shoot!!

Fort Worth Funky

We were so honored to be part of Fort Worth Funky's video series.  Not only are they some of the nicest guys we have ever met, but their talent is unmatched!  They tell authentic stories about Fort Worth and the people that make it special.  Be sure and watch all their videos and follow them on Facebook for their newest stories!