Basil in your ice cream? A Utah creamery opens a brick-and-mortar location to sell its offbeat flavors

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Hello, Eaters! When I met Jeff Olpin recently, it didn’t take long for him to nerd out about the chemistry of ice cream.

“You need a chemical bond from the protein, the fat and the sucralose, the sugar,” said Olpin, explaining why the ice cream he makes at his Hidden Oak Gourmet Creamery is considered “French-style” — meaning it has more egg yolk than a standard ice cream but not so much that it’s a custard.

“The protein in the eggs makes it so the fat and the sugar bond together more effectively, so you get a creamier mouth-feel,” Olpin said. Also, his ice cream has a butterfat content of 18%, high enough to put it in the “super-premium” category. That amount of butterfat, he said, results in even more creaminess.

Olpin launched Hidden Oak three years ago, selling mostly at pop-ups and farmers markets around the Wasatch Front and the Park City area. In mid-October, Hidden Oak opened its first brick-and-mortar location, a 9-foot-by-14-foot booth in Church & State, the business incubator and gathering place at 370 S. 300 East, near downtown Salt Lake City.

Olpin’s interest in ice cream was triggered when he and his family took a trip to Europe 15 years ago. “I came back, and all the ice cream was just so boring at the grocery store,” he said. So he bought a Cuisinart ice cream maker, he said, “and I just started making and experimenting.”

One of his first experiments was a strawberry-and-basil ice cream — an accident, he said, because he meant to add spinach to a strawberry smoothie, and grabbed the wrong leaves. He tinkered with the combination, and it became an instant hit with his friends. Now it’s become Hidden Oak’s signature flavor. (Read my thoughts on the strawberry-and-basil farther down in the “Dish of the Week” section.)

Seasonal flavors rotate in and out of the menu, Olpin said. For fall, he’s been making flavors like autumn kettle corn and pumpkin pie. In January, he’s going to produce an ice cream with a bourbon cherry jam he makes — and he’s partnering with Hallowed Grounds coffee, another Church & State business, to make a bourbon-cherry coffee.

Some experiments aren’t what people expect from ice cream. Olpin once made an ice cream inspired by bruschetta — a basil ice cream with a balsamic vinegar caramel, a ribbon of candied tomato and a drizzle of olive oil. “You’re eating it and you’re, like, ‘This is bruschetta,’ but it’s sweet, and it’s cold,” he said. “But it all kind of comes together.”

In addition to the ice cream ($6 for a single scoop in a cup or a sugar cone; $9 for a scoop in a waffle cone; $9 for a double scoop in a cup), Hidden Oak offers French ice cream floats for $8 or $11, baklava ($6, or $9 for a la mode) and an apple cider doughnut ($3, or $6 a la mode).

Hidden Oak Gourmet Creamery is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays through Thursdays, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. (Closed Sundays and Mondays.) Hours may vary if there’s an event at Church & State. Check the “hours update” story on the store’s Instagram page.

Live deliciously,

Sean

Food News

Openings:

• Rosati’s, a Chicago pizza chain, is opening its first Utah location at 775 E. University Parkway, Orem, at the corner of the University Place mall’s parking area. The restaurant is in the midst of a “soft opening,” with a grand opening celebration scheduled for Monday. In a release, the restaurant boasts that it is “the first authentic Chicago pizza in the state” — an assertion I will let you Eaters check for accuracy.

• Layne’s Chicken Fingers, a Texas-based chicken-tender chain, is launching its second Utah location, with a soft opening Monday at 5402 W. 13400 South, Herriman. The grand opening is set for Saturday, Nov. 22. Franchise owner Scott Davis plans to open 15 Layne’s locations in Utah over the next five years; he opened the first in Clearfield in January.

• Raising Cane’s, a Louisiana-based chicken-tender chain, is opening its latest Utah location on Tuesday, at 5682 S. Redwood Road, Taylorsville, the industry publication QSR reported. It will be the 12th of the company’s franchises in Utah, all between Logan and Provo. (The Midvale location is best known for its decor, designed by adopted Utah son Post Malone.)

Closings:

• Las Botellas, a Mexican restaurant in Riverton that pointed to its “modern Latin cuisine,” permanently closed “effective immediately,” the restaurant posted Friday on its Instagram account. “We are endlessly grateful,” the owners wrote, “for every guest, every shared meal, and every moment that made Las Botellas feel like home.”

Booze (and Drink!) News

• Flanker Kitchen + Sporting Club, at 6 N. Rio Grande St., Salt Lake City (in The Gateway), is bringing back its annual holiday pop-up, A Christmas Parlor, inside the bar’s hidden speakeasy. Flanker describes it in a news release as “a nostalgic, Western-themed holiday pop-up,” featuring over-the-top decor, seasonal cocktails inspired by Christmas movies, and a small-plates menu. The pop-up was scheduled to open Thursday, and run through Jan. 5, nightly starting at 6 p.m. Make reservations via flankerslc.com.

Dish of the Week

Jeff Olpin insisted I try a few flavors at Hidden Oak Creamery, and who can refuse an offer like that? The lavender lemon was, as you’d expect, nicely tangy with floral notes. The pumpkin pie was a smooth bite, with bits of graham cracker to simulate the full pie-eating experience. And the dairy-free cinnamon hit that “Goldilocks zone” between a cinnamon roll and a cinnamon red hot candy quite well.

Ultimately, though, I couldn’t resist the strawberry and basil. Too often, strawberry ice cream can be cloyingly sweet — but here, the fruitiness brings a little bit of tartness in with the sugar, and the basil cuts through the sweetness without overpowering the berry flavor.

Olpin said he gets his basil from a supplier in Sandy. He added that he uses a sous vide machine, putting the ice cream mix in sealed plastic bags that sit in 140-degree water for four hours, allowing the basil to infuse into the strawberry. The results are an unexpected and delicious blend of sweet and herbaceous.