Kansas City has a new ice cream shop. It’s pretty cheap. Here’s the scoop
Mass Street Soda, which Lucas Thompson opened in Lawrence in 2014, sits next door to Sylas and Maddy’s homemade ice cream shop.
“People will stop by for a six-pack of soda after they get their ice cream so they can make a float,” Thompson said. “Soda and ice cream, they’re complementary businesses.”
So when the space next door to Thompson’s other soda shop — KC Soda Co., in the City Market — became available, he scooped it up with the intention of starting his own ice cream shop.
As of Saturday, Fountain City Scoops and Floats is open at 419 Main St., in the space formerly occupied by Le Chronic Cafe. The two businesses are adjoined by an open doorway, allowing customers to build an ice cream float with sodas from KC Soda Co.
“Our focus is floats — I think that’s what makes us unique,” Thompson said. “There’s so much fantastic ice cream in this city, including right up the hill at Betty Rae’s. Here, we have 1,200 different sodas next door, plus several of our own sodas that we keg, along with 16 rotating flavors for ice cream. I did the math, and I think that’s more than 100,000 different possible flavor combinations.”
The ice cream is from Blue Bell. Thompson said he tried to make his own, but the space wasn’t large enough. Not going the homemade route, with its extra costs for labor and supplies, meant Thompson could keep prices lower for customers.
“Ice cream places can get expensive, so I’m trying to keep everything under $5,” he said. “I want families not to have to drop $30 when they come here.”
A single-scoop float is $3.89, a double-scoop $4.89. Cones are $2.99 for a single scoop and $3.99 for a double scoop. Specialty floats include the Boy Scout (Peach Nehi soda with vanilla ice cream, named for the specialty outside H. Roe Bartle Boy Scout camp) and the Wake Me Up (draft root beer with coffee ice cream, topped with chocolate espresso beans).
Hours for now are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 3:53 PM.
