Houston’s Buttermilk Baby Brings Carvel’s Historic Soft-Serve Ice Cream to Texas With a New-School Diner Aesthetic

Houston-based restaurateur Ben Berg and Carvel, the Atlanta-based soft-serve ice cream company behind some of the country’s most iconic ice cream cakes, have teamed up to open a vintage soda fountain and ice cream shop-themed restaurant — the first of its kind in Texas.

Buttermilk Baby officially opened to the public in M-K-T Heights on Tuesday, September 4, with an array of soft-serve ice cream milkshakes and boozy drinks, diner-style food, and interactive decor meant to elicit nostalgia. Berg tells Eater Houston that he was ecstatic about creating a nostalgic hangout for both adults and kids — but don’t call it retro. “It’s not from the 1950s,” Berg says, though he hopes that it won’t be any less classic. “It’s from now, and we’ll work toward the future.”

Kirsten Gilliam

Kirsten Gilliam

The opening of Buttermilk Baby marks Carvel’s first collaboration with a restaurant in its 90-year history. Diners will find around 10 Carvel soft-serve ice cream flavors on Buttermilk’s menu, complete with customizable toppings, milkshakes, and adults-only boozy sips like its frozen Irish Coffee, a Bailey’s Oreo cookie shake, piña coladas, and the Cinnamon Toast Crunch made with vanilla ice cream, Rumchata, and Fireball. Buttermilk Baby also offers Carvel’s signature ice cream sandwiches and cakes, including one shaped like its mascot Fudgie the Whale.

Besides its many desserts, Buttermilk, which Berg describes as “cool casual,” features a full menu of Southern diner-style dishes. Breakfast will be heavy on carbs, with “soon-to-be-famous” cinnamon roll biscuits topped with vanilla frosting, pancakes, and buttermilk biscuits served several ways, including with a side of sausage gravy or stuffed with proteins like eggs, honey ham, and buttermilk-brined fried chicken. Meanwhile, lunch and dinner boast classics like chicken fingers and smash burgers, patty melts, corn dogs, and hot dogs made with Texas wagyu beef. Diners can also choose from chicken sandwiches made with chicken patties dunked in buttermilk and fried, Southern-fried, or grilled with mushroom and Swiss cheese. The restaurant also serves non-alcoholic beverages, like soda, coffee drinks, and frappes.

Brian Kennedy

Brian Kennedy

The decor adds to the vintage soda fountain-ice cream shop theme. Berg Hospitality teamed up with New York-based design firm ICrave and Gail McCleese of Houston-based Sensitori to create an interactive, pink-loaded wonderland with cheeky neon signs, pink cloud-shaped swings at the entrance, a life-size carousel horse that little ones can mount, and a giant ice cream sundae statue with a rotating cherry on top. The 50-seat dining room comprises a mix of booth, table, and bar seating, including its 10-person ice cream bar, which encases a colorful display of sprinkles.

Brian Kennedy

Brian Kennedy

The preview party on Tuesday, September 3, was filled with activities for all ages, including a glitter bar for face-painting, balloon designs, a live DJ, a dancing man on stilts decked out in silver, bubble machines, and Carvel mascots.

Buttermilk follows a slew of Berg Hospitality restaurant openings, including steakhouse Prime 131 in the Heights in April, B.B. Lemon’s Downtown Houston location in May, Soy Cowboy in Arlington, and Turner’s Cut and the Sylvie in Houston in June. Berg also took over the management of the Real Agave cocktail bar in May, adding to his restaurant roster, which also includes B&B Butcher’s, the Annie Cafe & Bar, Turner’s, NoPo Cafe, Market & Bar, Trattoria Sofia, B.B. Italia Bistro & Bar, and speakeasy Emilia’s Havana.

Buttermilk Baby is open in the M-K-T Heights development from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. 600 North Shepherd Drive, Suite B-250, the Heights, 77007.