When Bruce and Pam Block first came to Grand Marais they noticed something was missing: a small town ice cream shop. Hailing from Chicago, one of the couples’ hobbies was to drive to small, country towns and check out all the unique spots to stop for a cold treat.

Then, seven years ago the Blocks opened their own ice cream shop in Grand Marais (well, it’s actually a frozen custard shop, but we’ll get into technicalities later)—Sydney’s near Artists’ Point.

Named after the Blocks’ fourth daughter, Sydney’s is the quintessential family-run shop. It’s a perfect (and picturesque) place to grab a scoop of custard, a day-old pint, or a quick and inexpensive meal. You can always get your standard cone, but Sydney’s also offers an assortment of frozen custard creations, including sundaes and Sydnamais (custard mixed with candy or fruit). For a more substantial meal Chicago dogs, pita sandwiches and gyros are on the menu, and new, this summer (perfect for the ice cream at breakfast crowd) will be liege waffles, a Belgian delicacy.

As the menu expands this summer, so will the building. Recent visitors may notice that the stairs to the rooftop seating area have moved. This change makes way for a three-season porch, which will help keep Sydney’s open into the shoulder seasons. (Although the view is fantastic, the rooftop seating can get a bit chilly when the wind kicks up off the lake).

When they first considered opening their own shop, the Block’s original plan was to make batch ice cream. With research they realized that with batch ice cream inconsistent demand results in lots of waste, so the Blocks decided on creamy, rich frozen custard instead.

The folks at Sydney’s make their custard onsite in small batches throughout the day, with a new batch being churned out every 20 minutes. And custard, Bruce said, is really something special. Frozen custard is very similar to ice cream in terms of ingredients, he explained, but custard has a much smoother texture because it is frozen faster. The shorter freezing time makes for smaller ice crystals, and smaller crystals mean less interference between the custard’s butter fat and your taste buds. Premium ice cream is 16 to 22 percent butter fat (the stuff that makes it taste so good), Bruce said, while custard has only 10 percent.

“With custard you’re getting more bang for your fat,” he quipped.

Sydney’s frozen custard comes in two flavors: vanilla and chocolate. The vanilla custard gets its flavor from real vanilla beans, and the chocolate flavoring was their own creation.

“We tried different chocolate flavorings, but we couldn’t find anything that tasted quality,” Bruce said.

With the help of chef friend Kevin Bader, Bruce and Pam developed a unique mixture of cream beaten with melted Dutch cocoa. This mixture is then added to the custard giving it a rich but subtle flavor filled with flecks of bittersweet chocolate.

The goal was to make a frozen custard as similar to the old-time, “real thing” as possible. Bruce said they knew they had succeeded when older folks began telling them that at Sydney’s they had finally found what they’d been looking for since they were kids.

“We had one woman actually tear up,” Bruce said. “She said it was just like the custard she used to have with her dad out East when she was a kid.”