Tongue in Cheek Ice Cream

If you’ve ever cruised down Arapaho Road following the
bends, the brightly colored signs of shops all vying for your attention start
to blur together. One sign, however, that stands out is a brazen graphic of a
tongue sticking out at you with the words “Tongue in Cheek” surrounding it. If
that sign alone doesn’t make you want to come in, then the ice cream will
probably do the trick.

When walking in, an indoor swings seating area, a gleaming
case of 24 ice cream flavors and a smiling face are the first things you’ll
see. That smiling face is likely a member of the Smith family, including Brett
Smith, Misty Smith and their two sons. Run almost entirely by the Smith family,
Tongue in Cheek is a small batch creamery that makes each flavor by hand.

The store boasts a wide range of rich, unique flavors from
banana pudding to chocolate fudge. Some of the more unusual ones include hatch
pepper butter pecan, a spicy ice cream with candied peppers and creamy butter
pecan, and jack and coke, which includes pepper to mimic the feeling that one
gets when drinking alcohol. The shop also includes some delicious dairy-free
options such as cinnamon honey and lavender, both of which are delectable
without sacrificing the creaminess that dairy ice cream has. If you’re a
chocoholic, the chocolate fudge is perfect for you. Brett makes the fudge
himself, and the creamy, gooey texture of the chocolate is reminiscent of
molten lava crunch cakes.

Although Brett has now learned the art of ice cream making,
this was not always the case. Before opening Tongue in Cheek, Brett was a
full-time firefighter, which is a job that he held after college until now.

“It was one of those times where you’re in between classes,
waiting for the next one to start,” he said. “So I was just sitting there and
there’s a booth for a Dallas recruiter for the fire department, and I went over
there and looked at the brochure. This was almost 30 years ago now. They
started out at $28,000 a year, you work 24 hours on, 48 hours off. That’s
enough time for career on the side. So that’s what pushed me in that
direction.”

In the two decades of working in the Richardson department,
Brett enjoyed his time there, but one thing that he wanted to change was the
food, he said.

“Some stations, you know, it’s just go to the store, just
buy whatever it is,” B. Smith said. “Same thing every shift. I always get tired
of the same thing. I want to create something new, different and try new
flavors and learn how to make sauces and how to make all these things.”

He started experimenting. Each meal, the firefighters would
pitch in some money, and that was his budget for the food. As time went on, he
started making more and more dishes, Brett said.

“As I got higher up in my career, or later in my career, I
started realizing that I don’t want to do the fire department thing for 30-35
years,” he said. “I would like to do something in the food industry. But I
don’t want to do a restaurant because it’s so expensive to open up, so
competitive, trends go in and out. You know, it’s just hard to survive in the
restaurant industry.”

Restaurants were off the table, but it just so happened that
another ice cream shop had approached him to make their ice cream.

“They said come in, try it out. So I did that. After about
two weeks I was like, this is it,” Brett said. “The more I did it, the more I
really started falling in love with the making side of it. The merging of
flavors you normally don’t put together: the savories with the sweets, the
spicy ice creams, the alcohol flavors and ice cream. I started working on a lot
of the flavors that you can’t find at other places.”

The shop came to life. The name and logo stemmed from the
silly face that their son made and also refers to Brett’s sarcasm, which he
shares with fellow firefighters. The building was originally an Arby’s. Brett
saw the vacancy, signed the contract and completed the construction by himself,
the only exceptions being plumbing and electrical, he said. Misty, Brett’s’s
wife, witnessed the whole rebuilding process and has been helping ever since.

“He’d spent over 1000 hours of self- education, watching
videos, reading books,” Misty said. “I’d find him at 3:00 a.m. with his book
open, reading about the molecular development of ice cream or what temperature
it freezes or how to get it to a certain level where it doesn’t ice over and
keeps it creamy. I mean, he knows anything there is to know about ice cream.”

To maintain the creation of the homemade ice cream, Brett,
who makes the ice cream mostly himself, chose to forgo some of the ingredients
that many of the chain stores typically use.

“I try to use as natural ingredients as possible,” he said.
“So, when you look at our case, everything is kind of beige. Anything that has
color, they’re from natural sources. You know, your raspberries come from real
raspberries.”

It is because of these powerful and unique flavors that are
packed into the small batches that customers come back for more. Although it
only opened this past June, it’s already grown quite a following.

“We have our banana pudding. Every time I try to take it
out, people just have a meltdown,” Brett said. “They’re like, ‘You gotta bring
that one back,’ you know, especially the pregnant ladies, it becomes their
pregnancy craving. I’m like, ‘All right,’ as soon as they say bring it back.”

In the shop, the Smiths’ passion for their customers,
product and work is evident, but their support for each other is even easier to
see.

“Every third day I’m gone, I still work as a firefighter,”
Brett said. “Luckily, because I’m doing this with my wife, she takes a huge
burden off of me … You know, the biggest struggle right now is being away from
family. (Misty’s) here, my kids work here during the summer, but during school,
they really can’t. So it’s just that separation: it’s a little greater than I’d
like it to be.”