Ice Cream News

Dallas dish of the week: Cado avocado non-dairy ice cream

Cado ice cream is made with avocado.

Photo courtesy of Cado

Editor's note: Every week, we'll spotlight a culinary treat found around Dallas-Fort Worth — whether it's a new opening, a dish at a restaurant, or a grocery find.

Dish: Cado avocado ice cream
Location: Grocery stores

Dairy-free ice cream is a hugely growing category, with cool new innovations advancing the experience practically every day. This is good news not only for those who observe a vegan eating plan but also for the increasing number of people who eschew dairy.

Soy ice cream was the first, and for a long time the only nondairy ice cream (and for a long time, chalky and awful).

But in the past few years, companies have introduced all kinds of alternative ice cream options, each better than the last: from coconut milk whose creamy richness approximates Haagen Dazs-premium butterfat levels, to the amazing almond-milk line introduced by Ben & Jerry's in 2017.

Cado Avocado Ice Cream is next-level. It's an ice cream that uses pureed avocado as a base, but manages not to taste like avocado.

Cado's avocado base is made from pureed avocado; flavorings; and gums, which enhance the texture. It's currently available in three flavors: chocolate, mint chocolate chip, and lemon sorbet. Within the next few months, they'll be adding four more flavors: cherry amaretto, java chip, vanilla, and salted caramel.

Chefs have been using avocados as a base for vegan desserts such as puddings and brownies for years, so it's clever to take it to ice cream.

Founded in Iowa by Meghan Dowd, her brother Jack, and her mother Deb, Cado has been around since 2015. But in the past few months, the line has achieved wider distribution. In Texas, you can find it at Natural Grocers stores in DFW, Austin, and San Antonio, and at $6.09 a pint, it ain't cheap.

According to Dowd, the avocado-base:

offers more nutrition and a superior fat
doesn't compete with the flavor
has a really creamy quality, just like ice cream.

It really is all the things she says. The chocolate was profoundly chocolatey and buttery creamy. The lemon was creamy and refreshing, very lemon chiffon.

As a decadent dessert ice cream, it's amazingly "healthy," not that such a thing matters when you want ice cream.

The ingredients for the lemon flavor are as follows: avocado puree, avocado oil, cane sugar, tapioca starch, lemon juice concentrate, sea salt, guar gum, gum acacia, and lemon oil. Everything is organic.

A serving is 170 calories which is on the low side. It has 12 grams of fat.

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PIZZA PROBLEMS

Plano-based Pizza Hut to close 250 restaurants as U.S. sales plummet

Pizza Hut/Facebook

Pizza Hut will close 250 restaurants by mid-2026.

By the middle of the year, the country will have fewer Pizza Huts. Yum! Brands, the parent company of the almost 70-year-old chain, announced it plans to close an estimated 250 restaurants — about 4 percent of Pizza Hut's massive global footprint.

The closures were revealed during Yum's fourth quarter earnings call on February 4. While Yum! Brands is based in Louisville, Kentucky, Pizza Hut is headquartered in Plano.

Yum! representatives said that U.S. Pizza Hut store sales slid 3 percent as value initiatives, like the $5 Crafted Flatzz personal pizza, have failed to take hold with customers, who are increasingly spending their pizza budget at rival Domino’s.

In November 2025, Yum! Brands announced that it would launch a “formal review of strategic options,” a program called “Hut Forward,” which officials said could result in a global reduction in the number of Pizza Hut outlets or an eventual sale of the concept.

“The Pizza Hut team has been working hard to address business and category challenges; however, Pizza Hut’s performance indicates the need to take additional action to help the brand realize its full value, which may be better executed outside of Yum! Brands,” said Chris Turner, CEO of Yum! Brands, in a previous press release.

It’s unclear how any such sale would affect the franchise’s Plano headquarters. The corporation is currently in the process of moving KFC, which has been experiencing its own financial struggles, from Kentucky to its Plano home base.

In recent years, the overall pizza landscape has been rocky for national chains. Concepts like Papa John’s, Blaze Pizza, and Mod Pizza have closed units as dining shifts increasingly to favor more “interesting” concepts like Nashville-style hot chicken. In early January, the Wall Street Journal reported that pizzerias are no longer the second most popular chain format in the U.S., plummeting below Mexican restaurants and coffee shops to sixth place.

Although Pizza Hut has not disclosed exactly which locations would be shuttering, it did say it expects to wrap up the closure round by the middle of 2026.

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