Tizzy K’s Brings Cereal Ice Cream to Locals

Lucky Charms cereal ice cream from Tizzy K’s in Warren. Photo by Jamie Coelho.

If you were anything like me as a kid, you would slurp the remaining bowl of milk left after scarfing down cereal like Cocoa Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops. Tizzy K’s is capitalizing on that breakfast bonus. Co-owners Tess “Tizzy” Sullivan and her boyfriend, Kelly Ireland, and team steep everyone’s favorite sugary cereals into an ice cream base, then strain it all out. Once it’s smooth, the creamy mixture is churned into ice cream, scooped in a blue-hued waffle cone or cup and topped with a mini rice krispie treat. The Rhode Island Monthly Best of Rhode Island 2023 Editors’ Pick winner for “Ice Cream Pop Up,” gives you an excuse to eat breakfast for dessert, or dessert for breakfast, however you want to phrase it. Stop by the former-cargo-container-turned-pop-up-ice-cream shop on the eastern side of the Providence River Pedestrian Bridge, or travel to Warren along the East Bay Bike Path to sample these creative icy sweets.

1. How did you come up with the idea for cereal milk ice cream flavors?

It was about seven years ago now that we saw the Netflix documentary series “Chef’s Table,” highlighting chef Christina Tosi of Milk Bar. She had made a cereal milk panna cotta, which later became a soft serve ice cream flavor, and we were so moved by the concept, we literally drove to NYC the following week to try cereal milk ice cream! Except when we got there, they only had one flavor, corn flakes, and I couldn’t help but wonder where all the other flavors were, where were all my childhood favorite cereals? No Golden Grahams, no Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Fruity Pebbles? We drove home from that trip daydreaming of all the cereal milk flavored ice cream we’d love to try, and by the next day I had researched enough about ice cream to make my own base. I did just that, steeped my base in my forever favorite cereal, Golden Grahams, strained it all through as to not mess with the texture, and left our Golden river to chill until the morning. Except we couldn’t leave it alone, every time my partner Kelly and I passed the fridge, we’d sneak a sip of it, until there was barely enough to churn into ice cream the following day. I worried that we didn’t have enough left over to know if it was “any good” and my boyfriend reassured me that we’d just drank liquid ice cream all night, and there was no way it wasn’t going to be even better once we churned it! And so that’s where we began.

The menu at Tizzy K’s changes frequently.

2. What sets your ice cream business apart from others?

At Tizzy K’s, we pride ourselves on providing the best customer service you’ll find, while working incredibly hard to make the best ice cream in the world, using fresh,  Rhode Island-sourced dairy.  We also happen to change our menu every single day! So there are always new flavors in rotation and always something new to try.

3. How long are you open in Providence, and what made you decide to expand to Warren? 

We’ll be open in Providence until Halloween, as always. And as long as the weather is nice enough, we usually fling the windows back open for one last hurrah during  WaterFire on the first Saturday of November! Our expansion to Warren felt right for us, since we’ve been making our ice cream there for nearly the past five years out of Hope & Main. When the opportunity to collaborate with Matthew King from the Box East Bay presented itself, we jumped at it! We feel incredibly lucky to have a home on the East Bay Bike Path and along the Providence River!

4. What is your most popular flavor?

It’s a toss up, since we change flavors every day, and encourage sampling and taking the full “tour de tizzy’s,” most people find a new favorite every time they come! That said, the world seems to agree Fruity Pebbles is the forever favorite cereal! 

5. Why do you offer a secret flavor?

The concept of our secret flavor came from wanting to play around with mix-ins and to trial small batches of flavors we think people will love! We like to let our ice cream speak for itself, not always throwing in gobs of this or that, we want it to be cereal milk ice cream. But sometimes you really just want some thin mint cookies in your cocoa pebbles, ya know? And that’s what our secret flavor is all about! You’ve gotta come to taste it!

6. What’s next for Tizzy K’s?

We’ve got lots of hopes and dreams and plans for the future of Tizzy K’s. At some point we’ll be looking to build out our own manufacturing facility, where we don’t rent space by the hour, which is a costly endeavor. We also can’t wait for a true “flagship” location, complete with a competitive game for patrons to play and milkshakes whipping and pup cups galore for all our four-legged friends! We’re excited to keep growing and improving and to keep making memories with each and every person who comes to support Tizzy K’s! 

365 S. Water St., Providence; 747 Main St., Warren, tizzyks.com

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