Metro Detroit May – September · Tampa area in the winter
Ice cream truck catering, served from a stagecoach.
Rent the Howdy Doodles ice cream truck and the party comes to you: a covered stagecoach with a hand-dipping counter inside, parked at your wedding, your school's spirit night, the company picnic or the neighbourhood pool party. Premium Hershey's, dipped to order at the window — cones, waffle cones with sprinkles, floats and dairy-free Italian ice — across Tampa Bay all winter and metro Detroit all summer.
Send your date and the quote comes back — every event is priced for the day, not off a menu board.
- hand-dipped flavors on board
- 11hand-dipped flavors on board
- dairy-free Italian ice flavors
- 6dairy-free Italian ice flavors
- states, one coach, no off season
- 2states, one coach, no off season
- the Michigan half of the year
- May–Septhe Michigan half of the year
On board
Eleven flavors, subject to the season.
The candy and cookie come already folded into the flavors, and sprinkles are the one topping — the full catering menu has the rest.
- Chocolate
- Vanilla
- Strawberry
- Cookie Dough
- Cappuccino Crunch
- Moose Tracks
- Cookies & Cream
- Butter Pecan
- Roadrunner Raspberry
- Superman
- Mint Chocolate Chip
Hire the coach
Six reasons to rent an ice cream truck.
Pick the occasion and it opens on its own page. Every booking comes back with a quote, not a price list.
Weddings & receptions
The late-night snack guests remember. The coach opens when the dancing starts and dips through the send-off — and the wheels are the backdrop.
Check a wedding date →Graduation open houses
Guests drift through for four hours instead of arriving at once, which is exactly what a hand-dipped window is built for. No melting trays on a folding table.
Check a grad date →Birthdays
Eleven flavors, a shaker of sprinkles and the wheels rolling up the drive. Every kid picks their own; no two cones match.
Check a birthday →Company picnics & corporate
An ice cream social with one invoice: own power, a set window, nothing to clean up. Feed the whole shift from the car park.
Check a company date →Schools & churches
Spirit nights, field days and teacher weeks — its own power, its own line, dairy-free on board. The kids find it before the announcement.
Check a school date →Block parties & subdivisions
Food truck nights, pool parties and holiday block parties on the HOA calendar — booked once for the season, the same evening each month.
Check a street date →Travel fees may apply outside the usual service area — ask when you send the date.
What turns up
A covered stagecoach, and a window that hand dips every scoop.
It is not a wrapped van with a decal on the side. The coach is a stagecoach on two red spoked wheels, with the service windows cut into the timber and the painted boards hung either side of them. Guests photograph it before they order from it.
Behind the window it is a working ice cream counter: premium Hershey's in eleven flavors, hand dipped to order, cones and waffle cones, sprinkles, floats and Italian ice.
Every food-truck directory that carries Howdy Doodles tells the same story about the trailer — that it was built for Walt Disney World and inherited by the Howdy Doodles crew, who kept the shape and rebuilt the inside as an ice cream counter. It is the first thing anybody asks about at an event.
Out on the road
Where the coach has been parked.
Every photograph is theirs — off the coach's own Facebook page and booking listing.
The particulars
What the coach needs, and where it goes.
The season
- Metro Detroit, May through September
- Tampa area over the winter
- Summer Saturdays book first
The area
- Downriver, Detroit and the west side
- Out to Ann Arbor, up to Lake Orion
- Travel fees may apply further out
The spot
- Level ground the coach can be towed onto
- An outlet nearby if there is one
- Grass, gravel and driveways are all fine
The coach has worked Trenton, Riverview, Wayne, Sterling Heights and Lake Orion — see the Michigan season for the towns it covers.
Where the coach works
Two states, one coach, no off season.
Questions
The questions we get asked at the window
- What does the Howdy Doodles coach serve?
- Premium Hershey's ice cream, hand dipped to order: eleven flavors with the candy and cookie already folded in, in cones and waffle cones with sprinkles on top, plus floats and Italian ice. Nothing is pre-scooped and nothing sits in a tray waiting for you.
- What does it cost to book the coach?
- Every booking is quoted for the event — the occasion, the guest count, how long the window is open and where the coach has to travel all move the number, so there is no one-size price list. Send your date through the booking form and the quote comes back, usually within one business day.
- What area does the coach cover?
- Metro Detroit through the Michigan summer — based out of Southgate and booked from Downriver up to Lake Orion and west to Ann Arbor — and the Tampa area over the winter. Travel fees may apply outside the usual area; ask when you send the date.
- When is the coach in Michigan?
- May through September, then it heads south and works the Tampa area for the winter. If your date is close to either end of the season, send it anyway — the calendar decides, not the month.
- What does the coach need at the event?
- Level ground it can be towed onto — grass, gravel and driveways are all fine — and an outlet nearby if there is one. A coach parked indoors or in a hall plugs into the venue. That's the whole list.
- How far ahead should we book?
- Summer Saturdays book first, and graduation season fills fastest of all. Send the date as soon as you have it — or call (419) 283-0749 and ask about the weekend you're aiming at.
Something else on your mind?
Send your date and ask →One date at a time
Tell us when, and we'll tell you what it costs.
Or call (419) 283-0749 and talk it through.