Stricklands Ice Cream Returns as an O.C. Mainstay

Ivy Dai
2 days ago
5 min read

Owner-operator Neil Liu reopened an Ohio favorite last year and has turned it into a Costa Mesa sanctuary of unique flavors.

Neil Liu, left, and his son Nick. Neil is the new franchisee of Stricklands in Costa Mesa. Photo by Ivy Dai, Culture OC

When his kids were young, Neil Liu would take them to Stricklands Ice Cream in Irvine and it soon became a family tradition. When the shop closed in 2018, Liu was heartbroken.

The former C-suite IT executive always joked with the former owner about selling the business to him. Opening a franchise was always a retirement dream of his. Last year, Liu brought the Strickland brand back to Orange County with a new location in Costa Mesa.

“I like that it was the total opposite of what I was doing,” said owner-operator Liu, 59, of Irvine. “My wife said, ‘Why do you want to make the ice cream? Just buy it.” And I was like, ‘That’s the fun part!’”

The Stricklands story began in 1936 when Bill and Florence Strickland opened the first shop in Akron, Ohio. Since then four more stores have opened in Ohio. The Costa Mesa store is the sole California location. It celebrated its first year in business in March, and has already become a neighborhood fixture.

In a fast-moving world, the shop is a return to old-fashioned values of community and connection. At the same time, it has adapted to modern times and reflects the cultural landscape of Southern California.

“Neil is fantastic because he has the pulse of what people like,” said longtime friend and ice cream lover Georgia Sun, who visited the shop with her husband Chien. “It’s very unique, and offers Asian and Mexican flavors.”

The store offers fusion flavors not found in Ohio, including black sesame, lychee, matcha and Thai tea. Some of Liu’s employees have also created innovative flavors like mangonada – mango ice cream swirled with chamoy and sprinkled with Tajin; and also horchata made from their abuela’s recipe.

Customer Alfred Aviles goes to the shop three times a week with his 6-year-old son Favian.

“It’s really close to our house, and it’s good,” Aviles said. “There’s something different about it … you can tell it’s homemade. Favian always gets vanilla and I get the flavor of the day.”

Stricklands publishes a monthly calendar of flavors that rotates daily. It also offers more than just ice cream – customers love the old-fashioned cream sodas, malteds, banana splits and its signature Mesa Sundae with fudge, strawberry, whipped cream and chocolate chips. Other popular items include milkshakes and Arctic Twisters with blended toppings.

Customer Jenny Cheung with a banana split from Stricklands. Photo by Ivy Dai, Culture OC

Ice cream production here is truly a small-batch, artisanal process. The proprietary machines were made in Germany and shipped to the States to keep the design top-secret, and cost about $30,000 each in today’s dollars, Liu said.

The unique open cylinder design allows Liu to make continuous batches of ice cream, with no limit on capacity. Each machine has its own compressor and chills the mixture to -22 degrees, allowing him to make one batch from start to finish in 35 minutes.

They store the finished product in 2.5 gallon tubs, and make about 10 gallons a day. Production begins around 11 a.m., but they also make ice cream throughout the day if needed.

They even make custom flavors – Neil joked one of their customers sent her husband to get ice cream when she was in the delivery room.

They are big Star Wars fans in the shop, which led to pet names for their beloved machines.

“Each one is handmade and has its own character,” Liu said. “Wookiee, Han Solo, Luke and the Princess. Luke is calm and we use him for the difficult flavors; and the Princess is sometimes high maintenance and comes out too soft … each one has its own characteristics.”

Most ice cream on the market can have between 50-100% overrun, which is the amount of air incorporated into the final product. Stricklands has an extremely low overrun of 10-15% because of the special design of the machine, which lends a dense, creamy product with a texture closer to gelato. Surprisingly, most of the flavors do not contain egg, with the exception of chocolate, which contains egg yolk.

Stricklands began as a frozen custard company, but the high costs of eggs and shelf life led them to remove eggs from its original product, Liu said.

The original founders didn’t want to franchise, and it wasn’t until the third generation that the family decided to partner with other owner-operators in 2002.

The selection process is quite rigorous – they look for owners who will manage day-to-day logistics and be involved in every step of the process.

Strickland's storefront in Costa Mesa. Photo by Ivy Dai, Culture OC

Once you are selected, you become like family, and the CEO is only a call away, Liu said. The company flew in to help Liu set up the shop and continuously invests back in the business.

Despite the drastic change in vocation and 14-hour days, bringing the Strickland experience back to the community and the artisanal work drives Liu. Walking into the shop on a weekday afternoon, Liu was on his back fixing one of the freezers.

“I worked in manufacturing and a lot of industries as an engineer, and I respect processes and explain that to my employees,” Liu said. “I have six employees that have stayed since the beginning and love to learn the trade and craft.”

Liu’s wife Stephanie Chou is an integral part of the business, handling marketing and operational support and logistics. Their two sons Nick, 24, and Brandon, 16, also help with social media and serving customers.

Nick just finished his first year of medical school at USC, and is spending the summer working at the shop. Overall, it has been a crash course in entrepreneurship for him.

“Growing up we would always go to the old location,” Nick Liu said. “It was a good move for my dad to franchise. I’m fortunate to see everything, I got to fly to Ohio with him in the beginning and see the whole process.”

Plans for the future include possibly opening more stores, Liu said. In the meantime, he continues to dedicate himself to his craft and looks forward to delighting each new and old customer and carrying on the family tradition.