Sweet and savory hankerings satisfied in one stop
Secretly opening last June but already gaining a loyal customer base is the ice cream parlor and Mexican paleteria hybrid, Chill Zero.
Located at 1620 North Highway 77 in the Waxahachie Marketplace Shopping Mall, Chill Zero is making its mark on the city with its in-house made popsicles, coffee shakes, banana splits and sundaes along with a savory offering of Mexican style snack foods like elote, nachos and duro preparados.
Owned by Waxahachie resident Daisy Moosa and family, Chill Zero is a modern take on the old-fashioned ice cream parlor, forgoing the black-and-white checkered floor and ornate wrought iron furniture for what Nazir Moosa describes as a funky, 1970s atmosphere.
“Somebody came in and said this is like a ’70s disco. It’s that kind of vibe,” Moosa says. “It’s almost like a Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, with the cutting edge designs and everything that we put in there with the traditional offerings of ice cream, sundaes and milkshakes and things like that.”
Moosa says it’s too early to tell what the shop’s best-sellers are, but if he has to put his finger on a few, he says the mango-on-a-stick and mango slushies are a hit as is a pina colada dessert drink that consists of a slushy made of real pineapple served in a cored pineapple and topped with whipped cream and coconut shavings, garnished with a mini, paper umbrella.
“If I have to pick, the mangonada is our number one seller for the popsicles,” Moosa says. “And for our ice cream, we have the banana split and our Peanut Butter Explosion Sundae.”
Coming to the retail venture from a background as a wholesaler of produce, Moosa says he and his family favor locally-sourced ingredients: peaches from East Texas, ice cream from Henry’s Homemade Ice Cream in Plano, and in-season fruits and berries when they’re available.
Another specialty of Chill Zero is the wide variety of gourmet popsicles made in-house. The flavor and color palette cover the basics such as orange and strawberry and venture into lavender lemonade and passion fruit for the fruit-based line, which also happens to be vegan. For the cream-based offerings Moosa names a few of the most popular: cookies and cream, s’mores, peaches and cream and coffee and cream popsicles made with a brew locally sourced from Three Rivers Coffee.
Chill Zero is from beginning to end a family affair. Each day from noon to 10:00 p.m., or noon to 11:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, the shop is staffed by either daughter Daisy, Nazir himself, wife Rosa, or family members Armando, Adrian and Thomas. The family also takes the flavors of the shop offsite with its catering offerings too.
“There was a need for a local ice cream paleteria — like a neighborhood type place,” Moosa says. “You have Brahms, which is great. You have Dairy Queen, which is great. But, they’re national chains. We wanted to do something that was local to the community — local here. So that’s why we opened up Chill Zero.”
