Driven by a father’s hope to share his American heritage, as well as create healthy and wholesome American food for his Singaporean daughter, Gwen’s Frozen Custard & Ices is the first all-American retro dessert shop and grill in Singapore to serve authentic American frozen custards and ices with true-blue Philly Cheesesteaks and New York Cheeseburgers, all lovingly made from scratch.
When Erin Nash, an esteemed Hollywood visual effects supervisor became a father, he gave up his prominent career to have more time for his daughter. Erin met his wife in Singapore and after a whirlwind courtship, proposed to her. The couple moved to New York, where Erin was fully immersed in his visual effects supervisory role, overseeing teams of visual effects artists working on well-known shows such as Game of Thrones, Westworld and The Walking Dead for over a decade. When COVID hit, the couple moved back to Singapore for Erin’s Singaporean wife to be closer to her family. Erin continued working US timings for the New York visual effects studio. Everything changed when Gwen, their now 8-month-old daughter, was born. Erin knew he could not continue working US timings while his wife and daughter were on Singapore time and still spend meaningful time with them as a family.
Gwen’s Frozen is named after their daughter and a legacy for Erin to share the best parts of his American childhood with her while she grows up in Singapore. Growing up in America, Erin’s happiest memories were of the summer holidays he spent working as a short-order cook behind the flat-top griddle in diners and restaurants. Gwen’s Frozen is a recollection of those memories, presented through classic and well-known American foods such as the Philadelphia Cheesesteak (Philly Cheesesteak), New York Cheeseburger, and the Classic Grilled Cheese Sandwich, perfectly complemented by original Philadelphia ices and frozen custards. Every recipe is Erin’s own take on tried-and-true American standards, created over years of experimentation and study. With his recipes, Erin hopes to introduce good, wholesome and healthy American foods to Singaporeans, and dispel the myth of American food as being junky, fast food. Gwen’s New York Cheeseburger is modeled after a mashup between two long-standing cheeseburger joints in New York City, and the cheesesteak modeled after Erin’s favorite cheesesteak joint in Philadelphia. To get the taste ‘just right’ and just as Erin remembers, Erin spent months researching and experimenting with locally available ingredients and processes, culminating in these recipes of his own.
Gwen’s cheesesteaks are made from shaving premium ribeye, grill-chopping them with thinly sliced onions and cheese to serve on a lightly toasted but soft short roll. For hamburgers, Gwen’s uses only a special blend of custom in-house grind of high-quality beef, complemented with selected ingredients that truly reflect the American taste. True to their mission of serving healthy and wholesome American foods, all of Gwen’s food is made fresh daily with whole ingredients, and they never use any preservatives or serve pre-made items.
The same goes for their signature frozen custards and ices. For Gwen’s first outlet, they have retrofitted a charming shophouse in Joo Chiat to accommodate the necessary equipment that allows the brand to make all desserts in-house and from scratch, with fresh ingredients. Frozen custards offer a creamier, thicker, silkier texture than ice cream. Thick enough to hold upside down (if you dare!), Gwen’s frozen custards uses only fresh egg yolk and cream, and adds no preservatives, chemicals or pre-mixes, unlike others in the market, to create a truly unique, must-try treat for ice cream lovers!
Gwen’s Frozen’s Ices – Philadelphia Ice or water ice (best described as a cross between a sorbet and a slushie) – are the first-ever in Singapore and also handmade from real fruit and natural flavors, and churned perfectly to melt in your mouth with every spoonful. Overturned every hour to retain freshness, the ices come in a delectable range of American favorites of juicy peach, tangy lemonade, plump strawberry, and two tropical delights of mango and lychee to cater to the Singaporean palate. Another introduction to Singapore is Gwen’s Frozen’s Gelati – a parfait made by layering their creamy frozen custards with their refreshing Philadelphia ices, this creates a perfect blend of tangy sweetness, in a multitude of combinations – pair the chocolate frozen custard with strawberry ice for a decadent “chocolate covered strawberries” type of experience, or vanilla frozen custard with lemonade ice for a refreshingly unique treat.
To complete the authentic American experience, all of their delicious American food and dessert are served up in a whimsical, happy pink and white malt shop with throwbacks to 1950s America with hand-painted menu boards, an old-school pink telephone, and Archie comics. Indeed, Gwen’s Frozen has successfully managed to recreate a distinctly American experience not found elsewhere in sunny Singapore.
Gwen’s Frozen will be offering a grand opening promotion of Buy-One-Get-One free on all sizes of ices, until 31 May 2025. For the grand opening weekend from 25 to 27 April 2025 (Friday to Sunday), enjoy free fries and medium ices with every main ordered.
For more information, visit @gwensfrozen on Instagram or Whatsapp Erin at +65 8127 8085.