Gwen’s Frozen brings a father’s dream to life

It’s a malt shop from an American dad for his Singaporean daughter.

Erin Nash left his corporate job and started Gwen’s Frozen so he could share his American heritage with his daughter and the people of Singapore.

Nash, a Hollywood visual effects supervisor working remotely from Singapore, had been thinking about a career change for a while now.

He met his wife in Singapore and lived in New York for a time, where he became involved in projects such as The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Westworld. The couple later moved back to Singapore in 2020 to be closer to his wife’s family.

When his wife got pregnant, he realised that he could no longer continue working at such odd hours and still spend meaningful hours with his family.

Nash had been toying with the idea of starting his own business based on classic American food, which he sorely missed. Growing up, his happiest memories were of the summer holidays he spent as a short-order cook at diners.

This was the idea behind Gwen’s Frozen, a takeaway American dessert shop named after Nash’s daughter.

“I really felt that I wanted my daughter, and Singaporeans as well, to have access to this dessert,” he told QSR Media. 

Launched in April, Gwen’s Frozen is a concept whose core menu is Italian or “water ice,” a childhood treat for Nash.

Water ice is a smooth, fruit-flavoured frozen dessert made from water, sugar, and natural or artificial flavourings. It has a soft texture similar to sorbet, but is entirely dairy-free.

Unlike shaved ice or snow cones, where syrup is poured over ice, water ice is blended so that the flavour is evenly distributed.
The iced treat is especially popular in the US, particularly in Philadelphia and parts of the East Coast. The restaurant also serves hot food items such as Philly Cheesesteaks and New York Cheeseburgers, all made from scratch, and all from Nash’s childhood favourites. 

It took Nash eight months to a year to conceptualise and develop Gwen’s Frozen, from looking for authentic ingredients to finding the perfect location. Balancing his vision for quality with the realities of Singapore’s fast-paced takeaway market proved to be a challenge.

“The initial challenge in Singapore is finding a place to do it,” he said via Zoom. “I think we looked at over 50 locations to find something that had the right crowd, structure, and neighbourhood vibe.”

He ended up choosing Joo Chiat Road, a prominent street in the city-state’s Katong area, for the site.

‘The old-fashioned way’

Nash's vision for the brand is to have a comfortable place to hang out, where people can get food that uses quality and fresh ingredients—something that he would not budge on even if it means losing a bit of profit.

Gwen’s Frozen uses whole ingredients without any preservatives and does not use powders and other instant ingredients. Its water ices are also handmade with real fruit and natural flavours. Still, the prices are relatively affordable.

As a startup, Gwen’s Frozen faced some operational challenges.

Aside from water ice, Gwen’s Frozen also serves Cyclones—frozen custards with toppings like cookies, candies, or fruits, resulting in a gravity-defying texture that doesn't spill when the cup is turned upside down, similar to Dairy Queen’s ice cream or McDonald’s Blizzards.

Nash said he wanted to get a US-made machine to make the dessert, but the delivery could not make it in time for the cafe’s April opening. “So I bought one from China, and on the third day, it exploded.”

He said the mini-explosion blew half the shop’s circuit breakers, and smoke came out of the machine. 

“We had to continue serving,” Nash said. “So I decided to do it the old-fashioned way, where you get a frozen metal bowl, put the custard in there, drop the mix in, and you just mix it in front of the customers.”

The mishap presented an opportunity to connect with their customers, allowing them to give them a little fun show. They did get some replacement parts to fix the machine, but they might still continue to do it this way, he added.

“What’s going to be important moving forward is maintaining what we are doing,” Nash said. “Even if we had to scale it to someplace where we need to create a central kitchen to distribute, it’s still going to be fresh.”

“I will never ever freeze my food and reheat it for customers,” he added.