“The Champ – Grace Lloyd” eating only her 100th scoop. She maxed out at 201. Photos by Linda Jones
By Linda Jones
July is designated National Ice Cream Month and on Sunday, July 17, Crook’s Palace made history by serving 1,001 flavors of homemade ice cream in an audacious attempt to put Black Hawk in the Guinness Book of World Records. The current record is a mere 500 flavors so our local restaurant should soon be certified the world-record holder when the final paperwork is completed in Black Hawk.
The parking area beside the restaurant was alive that fateful day as hundreds of ice cream lovers circled the serving areas. Canopies covered the three serving stations; each station served two flavors at a time and although there were always lines in front of every station, they all moved quickly. As more people arrived, they were encouraged by those already in line to “just get in any line. You never know what flavor you’ll get. Get as many samples as you can eat.”
Mike and Matt Casarez, co-owners of Crook’s Palace, estimate that between 500-600 people stopped by and the family scooped about 5,000 scoops. The entire Casarez family – parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins – drove up from Pueblo to help scoop. One uncle, a bass player, brought his mariachi band to add to the celebration. After all, world records are not broken every day.
The brothers began planning this daring attempt more than a year ago and were actively soliciting unusual flavors to add to their inventory. On Jan. 1, they began the arduous task of creating 1,001 quarts of different flavors.
Mike Casarez is wearing the World Record tee as he talks to his uncle, who plays bass in the mariachi band.
Our group of three gave our all to the valiant effort by consuming a wide variety of flavors: white chocolate cherry, peanut butter & marmalade, strawberry/banana cheesecake, sweet potato, chocolate-covered popcorn, peanut butter coconut, monkeys uncle, super ginger and mango/avocado. We came nowhere close to the champion ice-cream eater that day. Grace Lloyd ate 201 scoops.
Some of the more imaginative flavors were potent peach with habanera pepper in it; the king, which mimicked Elvis’ favorite sandwich – banana, peanut butter and bacon; saffron, mint toothpick, asparagus, potpourri and olive-oil asparagus.
Three representatives from the American Culinary Federation arrived in Black Hawk on Sunday morning to sample and count the quarts. Matt Casarez said the priority of the judges was verifying that there really were 1,001 flavors and that each flavor was distinct and tasted like its name. They would look down the long list of numbered flavors, call for one and taste-test it when it was brought to them. The cedar plank fascinated them and they tried to wheedle out the secret process the brothers used in making it taste like cedar while also making it creamy and smooth with no bits of wood. The brothers’ secret stays safe in Black Hawk. Another mystifying flavor to the judges was the garden. Without any bits of frozen veggies in it, it has the definite taste of carrots, celery, green pepper and onion in it. The judges asked, “How do you do that?” They did not get an answer.
Several – well actually, a lot – of the 1,001 quarts were not opened at the celebration and the brothers plan to add a free ice cream dip to diners’ orders at Crook’s Palace. However, diners cannot request a flavor; they’ll be served whatever comes out of the freezer that day.
The Casarez brothers are to be commended for their hundreds of hours of work to put Black Hawk in the Guinness Book of World Records. It should be many years before any other restaurant dares to challenge their record.
