Give It A Swirl: Supreme Soft Serve's Truck Parks In Hudson

Supreme Soft Serve is giving the ice cream truck a professional makeover. After a career of crafting flavors for regional icon SoCo Creamery, Megan Kitsock is bringing her sweet treat expertise to weddings and locations across the area. You can catch her mixing up unique creations most Friday nights at Cooper’s Daughter Spirits at Old York Farm, in Claverack, New York and in Hudson (more on that later). But be sure to check the schedule on Instagram or online before heading out for a sweet treat.

From the Hudson River to the Berkshires, there’s no shortage of innovative hard ice cream parlors using local high-quality ingredients, but no one is really doing soft serve. Kitsock says it's because you can't put mix-ins directly in the soft serve machine; turning soft serve gourmet takes a different approach and a little more work. Her specialty is making unique flavors for the ice cream and adding elegant versions of nostalgic add-ons.

Topping a Supreme twist, Kitsock sprinkles things like homemade pepita brittle (an inspired topping for pumpkin ice cream), cookie and brownie bits from her own oven, natural sprinkles, homemade hot fudge, smoked maple bourbon (Cooper's Daughter Spirits) caramel sauce, handmade marshmallows and more sweetness.

When Supreme Soft Serve is hired for a wedding (booking details available through the website), Kitsock custom tailors flavor combos based on the couple’s favorite things. Kitsock said she recently got excited to work with a bride on crafting a Vietnamese iced coffee flavor to mimic her lifelong favorite drink. It will also twist up well with the husband’s more conventional double chocolate request.

“What’s appealing for a wedding is that they can have exactly what they want,” Kitsock said. “Dairy, non-dairy, classic, crazy. We can do anything.” 

At SoCo she helped craft some of the flavors that have set the company apart over the years. She created the blueberry honey lavender flavor as well as the shockingly successful goat cheese, habanero, marionberry offering called “The Goat.”

During her current weekly gig at Cooper’s Daughter she is churning up variations of chocolate and vanilla to keep everybody happy, but gets experimental with toppings to let customers get a taste of what she’s capable of. A cone is also a pretty inspired accompaniment to the distillery’s lineup of flavored spirits.

“I’m ready for spring, to get out to farmers markets to get ideas,” Kitsock said. “I’m thinking about ramps and fiddle heads but I haven’t figured out how to make it work yet. Raspberry rhubarb was a hit this past weekend."

Originally from Hillsdale, Kitsock started scooping ice cream for SoCo at 15 years old. The Great Barrington shop was connected to the ice cream making facility and Kitsock fell in love with the production side of the business. She got her first degree in business and then another in fashion merchandise management from FIT.

After graduation, from 2015-18, she owned a lingerie shop in Pittsfield called Black & Blush. But the allure of ice cream kept calling her back. And through it all she worked off and on at SoCo. By 2020 Kitsock had worked her way from scooper to plant manager of operations.

Then the pandemic hit. SoCo scaled back expansion plans and Kitsock had her first child. All of a sudden there was time for her to plan something new.

“Starting my own brand of ice cream had always been a thought,” she said. “I knew there was demand, and food trucks at weddings are pretty trendy right now. I saw the opportunity.” That opportunity has panned out: she rolled into 14 weddings year one, 18 year two, and has over 40 on the books this year.

Kitsock’s deep knowledge of the alchemy of ice cream, mixed with her business acumen and placement in an unfilled niche, has set her little truck up for big success. In fact, Supreme Soft Serve has opened its second soft serve truck stationed at Upper Depot Brewing Co. in Hudson. This new location has regularly scheduled hours (Friday 5-9 p.m., Saturday noon-8 p.m. and Sunday noon-6 p.m.).