Friendswood Scoop Shop earned a spot in Coast Monthly's roundup of eight ice cream shops along the upper Texas coast, published Friday, Aug. 28. Owner Katie Chandler built the small-batch parlor inside a restored 1926 home at 901 S. Friendswood Drive.

Chandler told the magazine she credits the shop's growth to community partnerships. The shop collaborates with Wayside Coffee, Rise Cupcakes and Froberg's strawberries on flavors.

"For the Friendswood High School Band, we created a special carnival food flavor," Chandler told Coast Monthly. "Parents and students had to guess the flavor at an event to reveal the theme of this year's show."

The building was originally owned by Eddie and Zue Bales, two of the city's earliest prominent residents, the Houston Chronicle reported ahead of the shop's July 30, 2024, opening. Chandler purchased the roughly 1,000-square-foot structure in 2023.

She invested an estimated $378,240 in renovations, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) project record. The work included new electrical, plumbing, HVAC and insulation systems, plus a wheelchair ramp.

Inside, the home's original flooring and shiplap walls remain, the Chronicle reported. Wooden booths, an old-fashioned counter and a child's vintage horse ride fill the space. Music from the 1940s and '50s plays through retrofitted radios.

Beyond cups and cones, the shop sells ice cream tacos, freeze-dried ice cream and customizable nachos with waffle cone chips for dipping, according to Coast Monthly. Chandler rotates 16 flavors, introducing two new ones weekly and pulling from local vendors for cookie, coffee, toffee and pecan varieties, the Chronicle reported. A fig flavor honors Friendswood's agricultural roots.

Each holiday season, staff creates Christmas flavors and customers vote on which ones make the "12 Scoops of Christmas" pack, Coast Monthly reported.

Seabrook's Space City Cow, owned by U.S. Coast Guard veteran Dylan Lirette at 4628 E. NASA Parkway, also appeared in the roundup. Lirette opened the shop in late 2024, Community Impact reported Aug. 12, and has crafted more than 90 flavors for monthly rotations.

Chandler is also expanding. Community Impact reported in May that League City Scoop Shop would open at 610 E. Main St. in a conjoined space with Wayside Coffee Co., marking that coffee company's first brick-and-mortar location. The shop's website now lists the League City address as an active location.