The upper Northwest cafe Little Red Fox’s sweet little sister, Sugar Fox, opened Saturday, offering housemade ice cream, milkshakes, malts, sheet cakes, and cupcakes.
The brightly colored dessert destination may look frothy and cute, but Sugar Fox was born out of necessity. “Our bakery needed more space to work, and our landlord let us know that one of the spots on our block was up for lease,” says Matt Carr, who owns the cafe and bakery along with his wife and business partner, Jena Carr. “When this opportunity came up, we thought about what we could add that would complement the other businesses on our block, Comet [Ping-Pong], Politics & Prose. This is a neighborhood filled with young families and little kids. When I was a little kid going to the ice cream shop after dinner or on the weekend was really fun. We’re hoping to be that spot.”
Sugar Fox has the same from-scratch, locally-sourced ethos as its sister restaurants (including The Den inside Politics & Prose, and Fox Loves Taco in Brookland), with dairy from Maryland’s South Mountain Creamery and Little Red Fox baker Lauren Parlato behind the flavor combinations and cake offerings. You can walk in for vanilla with strawberry buttercream and chocolate with vanilla buttercream sheet cake by the slice (“by the hunk” is more fitting) or for a mini-sheet cake that serves four to six. Full-size, customizable sheet cakes are available with 72 hours’ notice, and the online store for orders will be up this week.
“Pie is our speciality at Little Red Fox, and people have always asked us for custom orders, but you’re limited with how many characters you can put on top of a pie crust,” Carr says. “We knew that that was something missing in the neighborhood—Safeway was really the only option for a custom cake.”
Cupcakes are also available, in such flavors as lemon with raspberry filling, chocolate, vanilla, and carrot cake. Both the cupcake and ice cream flavors will change with whims and seasons.
Fret not, vegan or lactose intolerant sweets lovers, as there are vegan friendly ice cream options—currently a lemon hibiscus sorbet and a dark chocolate variety so rich yet light that I may have made some sounds alarming to passersby. “That was a recipe I did at Tosca that started out as hot chocolate and [became a] mocha sauce at Little Red Fox,” Parlato says.
Craving a milkshake but fearful of gastrointestinal fallout? There’s oat milk at the ready for a vegan … oatshake? That doesn’t sound right, but it tastes right. “We operate a coffee shop and a ton of our customers and staff are dairy free, so we wanted to have something for everyone,” Carr says.
When creating flavors, “it started with the brownies and the pie crust. We wanted to take what’s really popular at Little Red Fox and incorporate it at Sugar Fox,” Parlato says. Her favorite flavor is the crème fraîche with strawberry jam, which is Carr’s son’s favorite, too, “He calls it the jelly ice cream.”
Carr’s personal favorite is the coffee flavor. “Most coffee ice creams use cold brew or a coffee extract, but we use freshly ground espresso with vanilla ice cream,” he says.
The ice cream case will be stocked with eight flavors at once, including crunchy PB&J, mint with real mint leaves, milk and brownie, and peach pie made with house-made pie crust. Flavors will rotate seasonally and as customers show preference. There will always be two sorbets available as well as classic chocolate and vanilla ideal for malts.
Decorative touches like the gargantuan candy-striped paper straws, tables with holes for holstering cones, old school sprinkles dispensers, and a Godzilla action figure with a sugar rush peering down on patrons from above give the small shop a playful feel that veers just shy of kitschy. Be sure to look up above the window seating to admire the wood block light fixtures that rival the sprinkles in their vibrancy. Keep an eye out for the fox decal on the north facing window, just waiting to be Instagrammed with your face peering through with the treat of your choosing.
Seating is limited, but there’s promise of outdoor seating and extended hours come summertime. Also coming soon: pints of your favorite foxy flavor for at-home enjoyment, ice cream sandwiches, and ice cream cakes. Carr says, “We want to be the little neighborhood meeting spot for a special treat.”
Sugar Fox is located at 5027 Connecticut Ave., NW. Open Thursday-Sunday, 12 p.m.-9 p.m.
