Until I moved to North Carolina, my experience with custard was limited to the egg custard pies my grandmother frequently baked.
I lived in Wilmington for eight years, where a family from the Midwest introduced a concoction called frozen custard in the late 1990s that soon had people lined up out the door on humid nights.
Michael O'Brien has now brought this wonderfully sweet treat to Union County. He opened Hank's Frozen Custard on Old Charlotte Highway in Indian Trail in early March, and O'Brien daily serves vanilla, chocolate and the flavor of the day.
I took my son Josh to O'Brien's weekly story time at the custard shop last week and interviewed O'Brien while I enjoyed a cup of creamy vanilla custard covered with chocolate chips.
O'Brien is from Rochester, N.Y., where he was the director of Heart Walk for the American Heart Association. I asked how he made such a drastic leap to frozen custard.
"I've always wanted to be a small-business owner, and I stumbled on to this," he said.
A former roommate had married and moved to Matthews, frequently sending O'Brien text messages about how it was 80 degrees here and 30 degrees in Rochester.
O'Brien decided to visit, and he liked what he saw.
After attending a two-week custard training school (Bob's Scoop School) in Florida, O'Brien opened Hank's, which is at the corner of Wesley Chapel Stouts Road and Old Charlotte Highway. He has done some research and has not found another frozen custard shop in Union or Mecklenburg counties.
Custard may be new to our area, but it got its start on Coney Island around 1919. Custard is denser than ice cream and was created because it would melt slower in the heat of the boardwalk, O'Brien said.
Custard is different from ice cream in that it contains about 30 percent less air and must be frozen and served fresh daily.
O'Brien said that's why he serves only three flavors each day.
The names of some are awfully tempting. On Monday, for example, Hank's served Death by Chocolate. Other daily specials include Mudd Pie, Carmel Nestle Crunch and Butter Finger.
O'Brien said he's created some flavors himself based on his customers' -- many who are children -- tastes. Those include Orangesickle, Cotton Candy and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Cream.
He got the idea for a weekly story time from Sandy Courtney, who owns Dilworth Playhouse coffee shop in Charlotte. O'Brien said as many as 20 children attend each Wednesday at 10 a.m.
O'Brien usually reads aloud two books checked out from Union West Regional Library, and then the kids are free to draw on the shop's chalkboard and enjoy some custard. Sometimes he holds "custard school" during story time and shows the kids how frozen custard is made.
Some of the little ones have become frequent customers.
"It's neat when the little kids come in and hit the counter and say, `I'll have my regular,' " O'Brien said.
O'Brien has expanded his shop now to include a full line of gourmet coffee, which is roasted by Headline Brews in Monroe. He traded Courtney $200 worth of frozen custard for several weeks of barista training.
The shop is geared toward people who may have once enjoyed relaxing at urban coffee shops but now live in the suburbs and have families.
"What I'm trying to make here is an oasis," O'Brien said. His kid-friendly shop is a place where adults can enjoy gourmet coffee and gourmet frozen custard while their children stay entertained.
And if you get hooked after your first taste of frozen custard, O'Brien provides monthly calendars listing each day's frozen custard flavor. I'll shamelessly admit that in Wilmington my friends and I sometimes planned our weeks around what flavor Kohl's Custard was serving each day.
It's not a bad way to live!