How High Hopes reinvented the ice cream sandwich

High Hopes Ice Cream
High Hopes Ice Cream. Photography by Caleb Condit & Rebecca Norden.

Everyone has a bucket list they’d like to complete before shuffling off the ol’ mortal coil.

Most people whittle it down over a lifetime, crossing off dream destinations and checking career milestones. But there’s a special breed whose bucket list could also be titled “Things I Want to Eat,” and it tends to grow rather than shrink.

For these dedicated few, the newest entry will come from High Hopes Ice Cream (5536 Troost Ave., KCMO), a walk-up ice cream parlor that opened on September 6.

Owner Jamie Howard uses fourteen-percent butterfat cream for an ultra-luscious product in flavors like strawberry birthday cake (made with City Barrel Shortcake Bar Beer), fresh mint crunch and mango chamoy. (She’s also well-stocked on creative dairy-free options, like blackberry oat milk sherbet.)

Howard has teamed up with Blackhole Bakery to offer an obnoxiously good warm ice cream sandwich. In Howard’s hands, Blackhole’s fluffy brioche buns receive a slather of sauce (hot fudge, caramel or a seasonal offering) and a scoop of artisan ice cream before they are finished in a sandwich press. “They look like UFOs when they come out,” Howard says, “and they taste out of this world.”

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