Chillin’ out: Businesses bringing cool summer treats

Published 12:06 am Sunday, June 21, 2015

Annette Beetz will be taking Mustache Mike’s Italian Ice around the Miss-Lou throughout the summer. (Sam Gause/The Natchez Democrat)

Annette Beetz will be taking Mustache Mike’s Italian Ice around the Miss-Lou throughout the summer. (Sam Gause/The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — Natchez is no stranger to calliope music.

At least one day a week for most of the year, the sounds of whistle-based music float up the bluff from Natchez Under-the-Hill as riverboats dock there or across the Mississippi River in Vidalia.

Now, however, the music is moving inland, into places no steamboat has ever traveled, places like the Montebello or The Hills neighborhoods.

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But that’s because it’s not traveling by water — it’s on wheels, and those wheels are carrying frozen novelty treats.

Trisha Armstrong is bringing to Natchez this summer a little piece of the American summer experience with the launch of the RC’s Frozen Treats ice cream truck. The name was taken from the nickname her son Ransey’s grandfather gave him.

Inside, customers can find 20 different flavors of ice cream, fudge- and dreamcicles, snow cones, ice cream sandwiches and branded novelties — Spider-man, Minions and Madagascar, to name a few — that you won’t find other places.

“These are items you will not find anywhere else,” Armstrong said. “They will only sell these to an ice cream vendor.”

RC’s also carries soft drinks, water, pickles and pickle juice, among other things. Prices range from $1 to $3.

The truck is a 1979 Chevrolet P30 box van, which Armstrong said would remind anyone who remembers  the ice cream trucks that traveled the streets in the 1970s.

Armstrong started doing test runs in a few neighborhoods two weeks ago, and will soon begin regular routes.

Ramsey Armstrong, 9, serves Dagan Brumfield, 6, and Bodi Brumfield, 8, while running the ice cream truck for RC’s Frozen Treats.  (Sam Gause/The Natchez Democrat)

Ramsey Armstrong, 9, serves Dagan Brumfield, 6, and Bodi Brumfield, 8, while running the ice cream truck for RC’s Frozen Treats. (Sam Gause/The Natchez Democrat)

“Since I did those few runs, I have had so many texts and phone calls, emails and Facebook requests,” Armstrong said. “All these kids are so excited about this truck.

“I have seen little boys pedaling as fast as they could to catch us. It was almost comical to see how important it is to kids to get the ice cream truck.”

But it’s not just children who love the idea of ice cream delivered directly into their neighborhoods.

“We turned into this one neighborhood, and you could see two to three blocks ahead of us, swarms of people waiting for us to get there,” Armstrong said.

“We had a 93-year-old lady come waving at us, waved us down and got two ice cream sandwiches and said, ‘Grannies need ice cream, too.’”

Armstrong isn’t alone in bringing cool summer treats to the Miss-Lou

For those who are looking for a non-dairy treat in the Vidalia and Ferriday areas, Annette Beetz will be taking Mustache Mike’s Italian Ice on the road, setting up at locations in the two towns during the week.

Beetz is resurrecting the frozen treat trailer after shutting it down for a couple of years. She’s been taking it to local festivals, but now Beetz said she’ll be giving residents a chance to buy her offerings on weekdays.

“Italian ice is like ice cream without the milk,” she said. “It is cholesterol free, fat free, gluten and dairy free.

“It is not like a snow cone because you can suck all the juice out of a snow cone, but this stays flavored all the way through.”

Mustache Mike’s offers 30 flavors of Italian ice, including — among others — orange vanilla, watermelon, strawberry, cotton candy, sour apple and raspberry.

“When people have tried it, they love it,” she said.

Beetz said she is still working on finding a location in Vidalia, but will be setting up across from Big John’s on E.E. Wallace Boulevard on the days she’s in Ferriday.

Mustache Mike’s can be reached by phone at 601-807-1775.