Introduction to history & deciding to go there:…read more
Just read an article yesterday that Crazy Mason will be closing at the end of August. I was in old town Ellicott City on Saturday, April 18 for their Springfest. The only times I end up venturing to downtown is when there's some event going on. We were meeting up with my friend & his family. My friend's brother mentioned Crazy Mason was excellent and that they were very close to the concert stage area we were. I said to my girlfriend I'd be game to try them out to split a shake. Having one by myself is a lot of sugar, so splitting is a more sensible option, not to mention less total cost.
This was originally the Ellicott Theater in the 1940's & 50's. Various performing artists, discotheque, etc. had its spot. It's cool this Crazy Mason milkshake place took over this space. Unusual for anything in the ice cream category to have such a large space. I also learned that they started in Myrtle Beach. I could see why as it's a touristy beach area, which various ice cream shops and some more unique options are more common than say in Howard County, MD. Although old town Ellicott City doesn't have the level of tourism that Myrtle Beach would, they have some and of course many locals who go here. In 2024, I had a friend in town, and we drove him up to old town Ellicott City to look around.
I just read they started in June 2020 during Covid. The Ellicott City location opened in 2022. It's unfortunate they only lasted 4 years as they were outstanding.
My experience:
The staff was friendly. We asked for recommendations. The younger guy who was taking orders & making shakes, enthusiastically made a couple of suggestions to us. We settled on the Cookie Mashup, which was a shake with chocolate chip cookie, chocolate syrup, cookie dough bites, cookies n' cream, crushed chips ahoy, crushed Oreo, vanilla buttercream, whipped icing, and [deep breath] a whole Oreo on top. We opted to get it in their souvenir Crazy Mason jar, which is in a mason jar.
We sat in the many seats on a lower level with a stage in the background. We waited maybe 10 minutes as they were pretty busy on that Saturday of Springfest.
Wow, this shake was outstanding! One of the best shakes I've ever had. It was some flavorful with a lot of great ingredients. We both loved it.
I will say it was quite messy, but it was worth it! The price was pretty expensive, but it was an experience. And I would get again, but it's quite unlikely I'll be in old town Ellicott City between today 8/11 & the end of August when they close.
We asked the older gentleman who was the cashier & giving the finished shakes if we could wrap the mess we left behind on the mason jar. He said let me give you a new clean jar, which I thought was very nice, and let us keep the used jar too wrapping both of them carefully.
In summary, I wish they were staying open for much longer than the next 3 weeks as they really were great and very nice staff/owner too!