Taking the bite out of summer

RANDOLPH - The forecast is sunny with a chance of ice cream sprinkles.

Hot, sunny days get everyone in the mood for frozen treats judging from the line forming outside Randolph’s summer staple, The Frozen Cow.

Local children not only count down the days until school lets out for the summer but also until the Frozen Cow opens, spending their allowance on the frozen concoctions dreamed up and scooped up by Owners Tara Strathman and Sarah Billerbeck and their team of five employees.

To be fair, more than a few grown-ups salivate in anticipation, too.

The walk-up fast-food restaurant’s menu ranges from wraps, salads and sandwiches, to all kinds of frozen treats, from shakes, sundaes and cones, to mixers, malts and boba drinks, and so much more.

Strathman and Billerbeck purchased their current location downtown in 2014.

“I asked her, ‘What do you think about this? She didn’t even ask questions. We were both like, ‘Let’s try it,’ “ Strathman said.

A complete renovation was needed of the space that formerly housed the city office, a beauty parlor, and insurance agency.

“It was not ready for any kind of restaurant or kitchen. There was basically no electricity. We upgraded that several times,” Strathman said.

The business uses the entire structure for production, filling orders and storage, with some customer seating available outside on the east side.

The name Frozen Cow was the brainchild of a competition among high school students.

“We put together a little competition,” Strathman said. “We were going to narrow it down to our top three to five but Frozen Cow was one that we had separately put on our list and made the decision easiest.”

The business has grown considerably from those humble beginnings “We used to think doing 25 sandwiches a day was busy and now we have that done before 1 o’clock.” Billerbeck said.

Strathman said equipment and inventory has been upgraded and doubled since the business’ start, too.

New sandwiches are added to the Cow’s lineup each season. Ice cream has been a mainstay from the beginning but those offerings keep growing year after year as well, especially a rotation of homemade flavor combinations.

“We know what people like. You can put a brownie or cheesecake in anything, people will eat it. There are ones we know we’re going to sell,” Strathman said. “And there’s ones we do because we want to try it. We still want to be creative.”

Some of that creativity has churned out sweet corn strawberry swirl and the mouthful salted caramel bourbon bacon brittle - even most recently, rootbeer potato chip.

Employees help come up with different flavor combinations.

“It’s a little out of people’s comfort zones but it’s nice to try some of the more random ones,” Strathman said. “It’s fun, it’s different. We’re willing to try pretty much anything.”

The Frozen Cow also makes custom cakes or cupcakes, too, as a pre-order.

What makes the fast-food restaurant so successful is that all of the food is homemade.

“Everything that’s not a candy bar, we pretty much make here,” Billerbeck said. “The prep work is extensive. Even beyond ice cream, all of the meat we always do ourselves. Right now, we’re smoking pork butts. There’s always something to do.”

When the business started in 2014, the duo were looking for something to keep busy with over the summer months. Now, it can be overwhelming but Strathman and Billerbeck still find it fun.

The feedback they get from locals and those coming from miles around fuels them to keep going.

“The Randolph support is great and we love the people that come from far and wide that say, ‘We’ve heard about this.’ The feedback we get from people is awesome,” Strathman said.