Ice Cream News
Chef takes soft-serve to gourmet heights at new ice cream shop in McKinney
UPDATE 11-29-2021: Miruku Creamery is now open.
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There's gourmet soft-serve in the works for Dallas with the arrival of Miruku Creamery, a new ice cream shop opening in McKinney, at 207 N. Kentucky St.
Founder Kham Phommahaxay, who's launching the shop with his wife Yim, says they're aiming for an October opening, with soft-serve ice cream, cotton candy, and a coffee/espresso program, and a goal to continue to expand their offerings after they open.
The couple are taking a culinary approach, including making their soft-serve from scratch.
Phommahaxay is a 20-year industry veteran who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago. He and Yim moved to Dallas in 2010 after Yim, a textile designer, was recruited by a Dallas company. Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Kham launched a food truck in 2014 called Yim Yam, serving Thai fusion food with dishes such as chicken satay, lemongrass beef, and jasmine rice.
"We sold the truck and Yim was laid off after COVID-19, so we decided to do something of our own that wouldn't be affected by the COVID situation," Kham says. "We've always loved ice cream and thought we could bring something unique to the area."
That includes making their soft-serve from scratch. Most soft-serves are made from a mix.
"A few companies sent me the powdered mix where you add milk or water," he says. "But I'm going to try and make everything from scratch. I don't want to add stabilizers which thicken the texture but they weren't up to our standards. Our soft-serve will melt quickly if you don't eat it."
Kham is from Laos and Yim is Thai, but the ice cream that inspired them was a famous one from Japan.
"We fell in love with this ice cream we had in Japan, from a maker called Cremia," Kham says. "It's soft-serve on a whole other level — the creamiest, milkiest. That's how we came up with our name. 'Miruku' means milk in Japanese."
They just took receipt of two machines, each of which has the capacity for two flavors, so they'll open with a selection of four flavors which will include one non-dairy, and the selection of which they'll rotate.
They'll have an espresso machine and maybe add panini sandwiches once they get rolling.
They'll offer cotton candy, which can be ordered on its own or as a halo to surround their waffle cones.
"We'll be doing different rotating flavors, with the classics for kids, but also flavors for adults including some with Asian influences," he says. "I have a lot of ideas, like my take on sticky rice with mango. Creating the flavors is part of the fun, and we left enough room behind the counter for a third machine down the road."
