:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/GADVW7ZZDVJZU4ZSUMHT3HH3SU.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/MZBL6UZAUKENPVQZOFLNY4IJCU.jpg)
Authentic Hawaiian shaved ice is hard to come by, but enthusiasts can find it at My Flavor It! Place, along with 40 homemade syrups to go crazy with.
The new store, located at 321 N. Main St., Wauconda, recently had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to introduce itself and its dizzying array of chilly treats to the community.
“It’s nice to be able to expand the downtown Main Street area. It’s one more amenity to make us a destination,” said Laura Ferris, executive director of the Wauconda Area Chamber of Commerce.
Wauconda is My Flavor It! Place’s second location in addition to its Lake Zurich store, which originally opened in 2003 as Uncle T’s before re-branding in 2009 and moving across the street to 10 E. Main St.
The popularity of the Lake Zurich store prompted owner Anna Razes to search for a second location.
“Over the years, I’ve had my eye on Wauconda,” Razes said. “The village is so friendly.”
The Wauconda location is managed by Razes’ daughter, Cally Razes, and her boyfriend, Chris Hamel. Both are graduates of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Though she studied biology and chemistry, Cally Razes said the family business is in her blood, and she wanted to continue the tradition.
“I’ve been working every summer at the [Lake Zurich] shop since I was 12-years-old," Cally Razes said. "It’s a very fun, happy environment so we thought, why not expand it.”
"We're very entrepreneurial," said Cally Razes, whose brother Bobby opened Bobbers bar and grill in Lake Zurich last December.
If you can think it, they can make it
At My Flavor It! Place, the only limit is your imagination, that’s why their motto is “If you can think it, we can make it.”
“The ingredients we have allow folks to get creative with the combinations,” Anna Razes said.
In addition to Hawaiian shaved ice, My Flavor It! Place offers real dairy ice cream, fresh from Fox Valley Farms in Elgin. Flavors include chocolate, vanilla and twist soft-serve, but customers can request vanilla ice cream mixed with any of their 40 syrups, so the combinations are virtually endless.
“I like the Brain Freeze,” Cally Razes said. “We created it ourselves. It’s half ice cream and half slushie, so it’s very creamy, then you get the icy. I like the orange because it tastes like a Dreamsicle.”
Other treats include shakes and floats, real fruit smoothies, ice-blended coffee, ice cream with candy mix-ins, sundaes, banana splits and more.
Small town feel
Being family-owned, the owners of My Flavor It! Place feel it’s important to also treat their customers like family, and get to know regulars by first name.
“We want everyone who walks in to feel like a part of the family,” Cally Razes said.
They’re also proud to employ local high school students and alumni at both store locations.
"I love it. It doesn't feel like working," said 17-year-old Samantha Surovitz, who just graduated from Wauconda High School.
If you go:
My Flavor It! Place
Where: 321 N. Main St., Wauconda or 10 E. Main St., Lake Zurich
When: Open from 12:30 to 10 p.m. daily
Cost/Info: My Flavor It! Place is also a vendor at the Wauconda Farmers Market, held 3 to 7 p.m. every Thursday on Main Street, through Oct. 8. Call 847-526-0423 or visit www.myflavoritplace.com for more information.