Anderson's wins NFP's 'Savory Summer' milkshake contest

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Readers have chosen Anderson’s Frozen Custard as the very first winner of NFP’s “Savory Summer” contest in the “WNY’s Best Milkshake” category.

There are a couple of firsts in this story. It’s Anderson’s first year of operation in its site at 2352 Grand Island Blvd. And it’s NFP’s first time offering a milkshake category in its “Savory Summer” food contest.

And although it won a summer food contest, Anderson’s is open year-round and serves milkshakes year-round.

Anderson’s Director of Marketing Lisa Sorrentino said management and team staff were very excited to learn about the win.

“We’re very grateful to the community that they’ve embraced us and recognized us for that. We think our milkshakes are great, but the point is to hope that the public likes them!” she said.

Anderson’s offers plenty of flavors in its milkshake choices. Just a sample – there are the traditional vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but there are also the more adventurous flavors, such as latte, sponge candy, graham cracker crunch, cinnamon and pistachio.

Sorrentino said customers can pick their own flavor of ice cream and create a unique milkshake based on their own favorites.

“It’s really fun to see the creativity,” she said.

Sorrentino noted frozen custard is usually the base for the milkshakes made with traditional flavors; but the hard, handmade ice cream is also a popular choice for traditional or a wide variety of flavors. Pumpkin cheesecake is quite popular now, she added.

A table of Grand Island neighbors and kids who were dining at Anderson’s on Monday night got a chance to sample three milkshake flavors in an impromptu taste test, with Sorrentino as their guide.

The diners were Matilde, Ameilia and Neev Sanchez, and Fiona Mehra and Yuri Piedrahita. The tasting was followed by an informal poll of the three milkshakes, presented in smaller, sample containers.

There were exclamations of delight and comments – “Cheers!” as they began, and “This is good!” after tasting.

When all the sampling was done, the favorites were: No. 1: vanilla, made with frozen custard; No. 2, chocolate brownie Oreo yogurt; and No. 3, pumpkin.

Sorrentino said that, recently, Anderson’s has done even more to introduce flavors that have either natural food color – or no food color at all.

“We’ve actually tried to streamline and make sure that we’re providing a product that is more healthful and getting away from the red dyes and things like that,” making a switch to natural alternatives, she said. “We were already working on this before that became a federal guideline.”

The Food and Drug Administration says it's taking steps to phase out artificial food dyes by the end of 2026.

Currently, Anderson’s has a limited-time, indoor-only special, “Shake it Up at Happy Hour,” offering a discount on shakes and malts – medium or large – from 3-5 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Anderson’s purchased the former Adrian’s Custard & Beef in February.

“We did a lot of remodeling and opened July 16 of this past summer,” Sorrentino said. “We’re open all year-round. We are continuing working on our drive-thru, so we’re hoping that will be open by the end of next month. You can get your shakes through there. We traditionally put our entire menu at the drive-thru.”