Serving up smiles, homemade frozen treats

ALEXANDRIA, Minn. — Seeing customers, especially children, enjoy homemade ice cream is Joel Endres’s favorite part of owning an ice cream shop, even if half of the ice cream ends up melting all over the child’s hand and face.

“I love it when kids walk in with their parents and seeing them light up knowing that they are in for a treat,” Endres said. “Ice cream is one of those things that you need to treat yourself with every now and then.”

Endres opened Up North Ice Cream Company in Alexandria in May 2024. Since then, he has been experimenting to create new flavor combinations and menu items.

“We have tweaked a lot of the recipes the last two years,” Endres said, “We feel we have a great system and are just really looking forward to what this season has in store.”

Up North Ice Cream always has 32 flavors of homemade ice cream available at the counter and they make their own waffle cones and waffle bowls. Flavors include everything from staples such as strawberry and chocolate chip to more unusual flavors like dill pickle, sweet corn and jalapeno. They rotate through flavors from the time they open in March until November, when they close for the season.

When possible, Endres sources local ingredients, such as strawberries and haskap berries and works with a local baker to get real cinnamon rolls for their cinnamon roll ice cream.

“Ice cream can be made from anything and that is what is fun,” Endres said. “If people order ahead of time, I can make any flavor that they want.”

The ice cream at Endres’s shop is homemade from a 14% butterfat cream that is processed in Minnesota and made from all natural ingredients. For example, the strawberry ice cream has strawberries, which provide the flavor, but it also has beet juice, which provides the color instead of using artificial coloring, Endres said.

The ice cream machine at Up North Ice Cream is cranking out 5 gallons of ice cream every eight minutes, eight hours a day. During the height of summer, it can barely keep up with demand, Endres said. While Endres is the only one who knows the recipes for each of his creations, he employs 15 part-time employees to make the waffle cones and assist the steady flow of customers.

Other menu items include ice cream sandwiches, ice cream nachos, root beer floats with 1919 Root Beer, Italian ice, Up North Pops and ice cream cakes and cupcakes, which are ice cream, real cake with flavors and toppings of choice. The Up North Pops are balls of ice cream dipped in chocolate with optional toppings sprinkled on top.

“Our most popular item is called stackers, a build your own flavor with sauce, toppings, ice cream, sauce, toppings, ice cream, sauce and more toppings,” Endres said. “We call them stackers because it is goodness stacked on top of goodness. We tease people when they come in here that as soon as they walk in, calories don’t count.”

Prior to moving and opening his own shop in Alexandria, Endres managed Dairy Queen restaurants near the Twin Cities and his interest in the ice cream led to opening his own shop.

“I did my research and nobody was making homemade ice cream in the area, which surprised me, so I decided that’s what this area needs,” Endres said. “I couldn’t believe this location was available when I was looking to open my shop.”

In 2024 and 2025, Up North Ice Cream Company was awarded the Alexandria Echo Press Best of the Best for dessert in the Alexandria area.

“My employees are dedicated and we have a lot of regulars that come in too,” Endres said. “We have had great local support.”

The biggest surprise about starting his own business was the demand for homemade ice cream, Endres said. Last year, Up North Ice Cream sold 18,283 ice creams between kid scoop, single and double sizes and 7,421 waffle cones.

“It is non-stop from when we open until closing time,” Endres said. “It can get a little crazy. We also didn’t realize how many people want ice cream at their wedding. We already have several orders for this summer.”

While this is only Endres’s third season with Up North Ice Cream, he is already exploring options for the future.

“I would love to get another ice cream machine but it is cost prohibitive,” Endres said. “We are also looking to cater to weddings and add a wholesale option in the future too. The options are endless in the ice cream business. It’s just so fun.”

In the meantime, Endres said he is content to run his seasonal ice cream shop.

“What is so nice about a seasonal ice cream shop is that we are closed for a few months but when we open in the spring, our customers are just so excited that spring is here and that we are open again,” Endres said. “We are just so pleased that everything is going so well. There are so many options we are looking at for the future, and that is the best feeling.”