Kramarczuk’s Sausage Co. is selling ice cream to continue a tradition of its founder

Kramarczuk’s Sausage Co., the long-running northeast Minneapolis deli and restaurant, is creating a specialty line of ice cream inspired by the experiences of its founder 80 years ago.

At the end of World War II, Ukrainian native Wasyl Kramarczuk left his war-torn country and made his way to a refugee camp in southern Germany.

The area was occupied by American soldiers following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945.

Before the war, Kramarczuk ran a candy and confection shop in Ukraine, and he knew how to make ice cream. The refugee approached the Americans and asked them if he could make ice cream for the G.I.s.

The Army gave him access to the commissary and supplies of milk, cream, vanilla, ice and salt. Kramarczuk improvised an ice cream maker using trash cans and a butter churn. He recruited other refugees to help.

He wanted to make some money, but he also wanted to thank the Americans for liberating Europe.

His ice cream got a good review in the form of a typewritten slip of paper dated July 19, 1945, and signed by a Capt. H.L. Prichard and Staff Sgt. Stephen Coco from the headquarters of the U.S. Army’s 112th AAA Group: “This man Bazilus Kramarczuk has made ice cream for this group on seven or eight different occasions. On all occasions, the ice cream was very satisfactory.” (Kramarczuk’s grandson Nick Kramarczuk said his grandfather’s first name on the note apparently got misspelled.)

Kramarczuk held onto that slip of paper when he crossed the ocean to come to America, landing first in Louisiana, and then in Minneapolis, where he started what would become the Kramarczuk Sausage Co. located at 215 E. Hennepin Av.

“Ice cream is kind of big in our family,” said Kramarczuk’s son, Orest. “This was always part of our history.”

Wasyl Kramarczuk died in 1991. Over the decades, his deli and restaurant has offered cakes, tortes, cheesecakes and sweet breads along with their sausages, pierogis and cabbage rolls. But they really haven’t featured ice cream in their menu.

“I had the idea of doing ice cream for a while, but we were so busy with our regular stuff,” said Orest Kramarczuk, the current owner.

That changed after Kramarczuk’s was contacted last year by Phil Farzanegan, owner of a small-batch creamery called Minnesota Dairy Lab which is also located in northeast Minneapolis.

Farzanegan wanted to order some Kramarczuk hot dogs to do research for another business venture, a chef-driven hot dog concept.

When Farzanegan told the Kramarczuks that he’s a boutique ice cream maker, they decided to collaborate.

The three flavors they came up with were inspired by some of the most popular Eastern European sweet treats sold at Kramarczuk’s.

The black forest cheesecake combines cheesecake ice cream with black forest cake crumbles and sour cherry jam.

The poppyseed ice cream is inspired by the deli’s poppyseed bread featuring in-house ground poppyseed.

The walnut waltz ice cream is inspired by potica, a Slovenian holiday bread with a walnut filling. Farzanegan created a walnut butter ice cream with candied walnut swirls. To capture the yeasty flavor of the bread, he soaked diced pieces of potica in milk and used the milk to make the ice cream.

“It was a very specific flavor profile,” he said. “I liked the opportunity to do something new and create a flavor I’ve not done before.”

Farzanegan said he made about 120 pints in each flavor, which became available for preorders online for $15 a pint.

Sales have been strong, Farzanegan said. He expects to be making more batches for sale at the store or online over the summer.

“The response was overwhelmingly positive,” he said.