The best ice cream I’ve ever had — and you’ll have to hurry to get it at this Raleigh shop
America’s “chess pie” origin story, as is the case with many foods, is complicated and imprecise.
But my chess pie origin story is simply ... chocolate.
My mother started making chocolate chess pies when I was a kid — and no, it’s not the same recipe as the one made famous at the Angus Barn steakhouse in Raleigh. And for what it’s worth, my mom’s is better.
It’s probably my favorite pie, not just because it’s chocolate but because it’s very chocolate. It’s that dark, rich chocolate that, along with my Aunt Dot’s chocolate cake, has become my life’s chocolate standard. (I don’t care much for milk chocolate and stay away from me with “white chocolate,” which isn’t a thing.)
So when I saw Chocolate Chess Pie on the Guest Flavor board at the Lake Boone Trail Two Rooster’s Ice Cream shop over the weekend, I thought there was no way it could live up to the name.
I was wrong.
I asked for a sample. It was just as dark, rich and creamy as I would dare to hope, and then there was a little bite of crunchy pie crust.
That’s the one, I told the scooper.
I got a kid’s size scoop (I was fresh off a Pete Burger with slaw and onion rings from The Player’s Retreat, so you know, restraint), snapped a photo, then dug in. With each bite, I was more and more in love.
“This might be the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten,” I told my mom as I munched away. She was enjoying her vanilla cone (don’t judge), turned off from the Chocolate Chess Pie ice cream by the scooper’s inaccurate (in my opinion) description of “it’s like brownie batter” (to me, it’s not that sweet).
I posted the photo and my “best ice cream I’ve ever had” declaration on Instagram and Facebook — my apologies to the Butter Almond ice cream at Howling Cow — and a chorus of I Want Thats flooded in. My photo even prompted one News & Observer editor to leave his house in the dead of night (well, 8 p.m.) and drive to Two Roosters for a scoop. And a pint to take home.
‘We knew we had to make it’
I reached out to Two Roosters owner Jared Plummer, and he told me the Chocolate Chess Pie Ice Cream origin story, which started with home chef Annie Wright.
Wright submitted the idea last year as part of the Two Roosters Home Chef series, a monthly themed menu the shop does once a year. People submit flavor ideas and the Two Roosters team picks six to make, market and showcase in their shops for the whole month.
When they got the idea from Wright, Plummer said “we knew we had to make it.”
The execution is deceptively simple: “So we make all the chess pies in house, chop them up and toss into chocolate ice cream,” Plummer said.
It’s genius. And it feels like the perfect time of year for it. Although, there’s really no bad time of year for it.
“I think of chocolate chess pie as a Thanksgiving pie for sure,” Plummer said. “But I also think it’s a great dessert year round, especially when you go to Angus Barn for dinner.” (Or to my mom’s house.)
But whether it’s a seasonal or year-round dessert, the ice cream version is a guest flavor, so you’ll have to hurry to get it. This will only be around for the month of November.
I asked Plummer the chances that Chocolate Chess Pie Ice Cream could get on the year-round board, and he let me down gently.
“It now has a bit of a ‘cultish’ following with people asking us all the time to bring it back,” he told us. “Those same folks would surely petition for the flavor to be on the menu all year round. But our philosophy is a bit of ‘theater’ in the sense that it’s only running for a window of time and when the last curtain closes, we move on to the next show.”
Two Roosters November flavors
- Chocolate Chess Pie
- Bourbon Caramel Cookie
- Brown Butter Snickerdoodle
- Caramel Latte
- Irish Cream Cookie
- Non-dairy Cookie Butter
Chocolate lover’s pro tip: If you go there craving a dark, rich chocolate ice cream and the Chocolate Chess Pie is off the board, opt for the Non-Dairy Chocolate ice cream. It’s extra dark and creamy, but made with coconut milk, so it gives Mounds Bar vibes, but without the coconut texture that some pickier eaters dislike.
If you want it
Two Roosters Ice Cream locations:
- Person Street: 215 E Franklin St. Raleigh
- Lake Boone Trail: 4025 Lake Boone Trail Raleigh
- Greystone Village: 7713 Lead Mine Rd. Raleigh
- Golden Belt: 800 Taylor St., Durham
- Wake Forest / The Factory: 1839 S Main St., Wake Forest
More info: tworoosters.com
Or ... get a pie inside an ice cream inside a pie
If you want what Plummer describes as a “meta or inception type of experience,” you can order a Two Roosters Chocolate Chess Pie Ice Cream Pie.
They make pies, turn the pies into ice cream, then turn that ice cream into a pie. Can I once again call these folks genius?
“It’s a crazy good pie made from pie,” Plummer said.
To order: Go to the Two Roosters site (tworoosters.com) and click Order Online. Or call 919-229-0491. You can order now to pick the pie up next week, just in time for Thanksgiving.
This story was originally published November 14, 2023 at 3:03 PM.
