One time I had a dream that coffee and ice cream would one day walk hand in hand. One day I woke up, read the Baylor Lariat and slapped a cow sideways while yelling yeehaw when I saw it was coming into reality.
After reading the Dec. 5 article “Common Grounds Owner Plans to Open Organic Creamery Next Door to Coffee Shop,” I have come to the conclusion that Blake Batson may or may not be (but most likely is) the reincarnation of Einstein paired with an uncanny ability to be intuitive to the food cravings of a college student just trying to make it in a dog-eat-dog world. When I asked Megan Henderson, who is the executive director of Downtown Waco Development, what she thought of Batson’s idea, she agreed.
“Great businesses work well on their own, but even better in clusters,” Henderson said. “Batson’s idea to open an ice cream shop next door to Common Grounds makes sense for several reasons, but I’m most interested in its potential to increase visits to the area, increase the length of visits and make it even more practical to visit on foot or bike. Expanding into a cluster is the next step for an emerging district and this is a great sign. Even better, ice cream is something folks love and his concept to use locally-sourced ingredients makes this a strong and unique offering.”
He is a genius and my only concern is that those at Homestead Heritage, 20 minutes outside of central Waco, don’t feel like their wagon tracks are being tread on with the similar sounding name and similar style of organic, homegrown ice cream.
If I could personally give a shout-out of advice as a third-party outsider with actually a lot of interest in the matter, I would suggest this as a great opportunity to create unity with the Homestead community as a whole; where they could partner to make one heck of a timeless, home-good-ole-gourmet-comfort-rockin-chaired-grassrooted ice cream. According to a former Common Grounds employee who has the scoops, “I heard they are making a baked potato ice cream flavor.”
Another employee at CG, Tiffany, whom I talked to about the creamery earlier this year, said, “They use all-natural ingredients and the taste is very wholesome and the flavors are very unique.” Needless to say it can’t just be coincidence that I am writing this after MLK Day because it seems that my dream to see coffee and ice cream walk hand in hand is coming true oh so soon.
— Mustang, Okla., sophomore Micaela Fox
Journalism major
