best of branson

After our Gulf Coast plans were ruined by oil and a sick grandpa, we decided we would head down to Matt's favorite place in the world -- Branson. Yes, we have already gone once, but we figured another trip down wouldn't hurt! (We typically go 3-4 times a year... we have already made it down 4 times, and will go at least 2 more time this year!)

On our quest to discover new frozen custard places, we did our research ahead of time and discovered there was another frozen custard "stand" besides Andy's on the Strip. You would really never know that Glenn's was there unless you noticed the ice cream cone out front OR wanted to see the world's largest banjo (whether you can actually consider this a banjo is debatable).


Glenn's Frozen Custard is located inside the Grand Country Inn Plaza, next to the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet (now, if they made that all-you-can-eat frozen custard, we'd be talkin'). We were a little underwhelmed by the menu -- a good choice of toppings, but nothing notable when it came to their "specialties". We each decided to create our own... Matt decided on a vanilla custard sundae with caramel + coconut, while I chose a good Fritz's standby, a vanilla custard concrete with Oreo's + caramel.

Mine was a little melty again, but held up pretty well. The custard was nice a creamy, but not too rich or vanilla-y. I also didn't get much caramel in mine, but tasted Matt's and it was mighty good! However, with the next place nearby... we will probably not be returning.

Which brings us to my ALL TIME FAVORITE to date: ANDY'S!

We compare everything we taste to Andy's. The have the absolute richest and creamiest vanilla (and chocolate) custard out there. It is AH-mazing! Why, oh why, must you be so far away!

What really drew us in this time was the Silver Dollar City Cake sundae. Silver Dollar City (Matt's Happy Place) is celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year. We actually went down in May to attend the celebration. In fact, we actually were able to try their birthday cake! Again, I am not a cake person unless it is wedding cake, but this cake was one of the most amazing cakes I have ever tasted. When it is that memorable, you know that I absolutely HAD to try this with my favorite frozen custard.

The cake is chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a raspberry cream filling. To this, Andy's adds their rich + creamy vanilla custard and hot fudge (also amazing). They were advertising this as a sundae, but as the Concrete Runner, I felt it to be my obligation to get this in a concrete. The nice guy at the register gave me a little look with my request, but they happily obliged.

Matt decided on the Key Lime Pie concrete. Andy's actually takes an entire slice of key lime pie and mixes it in with their vanilla custard.

O.M.G. I do not use that phrase lightly. These were absolutely the 2 best concretes either of us has ever had. The cake was awesome with the vanilla custard -- very rich + sweet + perfect! And Matt's was equally awesome, if not BETTER. So refreshing on a hot summer day, with huge chunks of crust blended in. Mmmmm... I'm ready to go back!

UP NEXT
Summer is quickly coming to a close. Matt goes back to school this coming week, and I will also be starting up working again (nothing permanent, unfortunately, but enough to keep me busy for the next couple of months). We are hoping some of the stands stay open late into the fall so we can continue our tour.

I will probably be posting some more running things as we get closer to the marathon! I start week #9 this week of training, which will be half way! My runs have been great, although I'm a little disappointed to have lost some speed with all this endurance training. But, I'll get to that in a later post.