Meet Me at the Rocket: Dwaun Sellers takes on the Sriracha Fire and Ice Cream Sundae
Dear State Fair,
You are the answer to my lunch and dinnertime prayers. No matter what I’m in the mood for, you’ve got it.
Corn dogs and funnel cakes? Check. Frosted Flake-coated chicken on a skewer? Check. Sriracha ice cream sundae? Check check.
It may sound like a strange combination but what I’m about to say is just as strange: it’s delicious.
Leonard Goetz and his family run the Goertzes Dairy Kone stands, two of which can be found at this year’s fair. The family has had a presence at the fair since 1994, but has been in business since 1967. Recently over dinner, Goetz and his brother created the palate-confusing dessert.
“We had this hot sauce and were putting it on whatever we were eating at the time and one of us said, ‘I wonder what this would taste like on ice cream?’” explained Goetz. “So we put some on vanilla ice cream and thought it needed something else. Tried potato chips and Doritos but they didn’t work. Crushed up some corn chips and now you have the salt with the sweet.”
Goetz knows there are a lot of flavors packed into the dish, but that seems to be the draw.
“The initial reaction is no,” he said with a laugh. “I had a daughter and mother. The daughter got one; the mother tried it and started coughing. She got back in line and said ‘I want the same thing!’ I wish I had video.”
We thought with the hot sauce we could entice a younger crowd, but to our surprise we got a lot of senior citizen ladies that were buying them. That was totally unexpected.
said Leonard Goetz of Goertzes Dairy Kone stands
“Everybody who had it loved it,” added Maggie Goetz, who was working at the stand Thursday. “This is fire, salty and sweet.”
With this being its first year at the fair, Goetz says if people like it enough, they’ll continue to make it. That’s what happened two years ago when the business brought a peanut butter and jelly milkshake and sundae to the fair that remains popular. But as far as what’s next on the family company’s creative horizon, it’s still up in the air.
“You have to think up something that’s original but not too far out in left field,” he said.
Well a Sriracha ice cream sundae sounded a little far out too, but then I warmed up to it. And for $6, you can judge it for yourself.
You may be surprised at just how comfortable left field feels after your first bite.
This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 8:39 PM with the headline "Meet Me at the Rocket: Dwaun Sellers takes on the Sriracha Fire and Ice Cream Sundae."