Leon's Frozen Custard

The clearest case in the city: an independent state historical record — not just a postal address — confirms both the 1942 founding and that the building sits in the City of Milwaukee, and the shop still runs the same family, the same building and (per the 1955-remodel record) very nearly the same building fabric it always has.

What to order
Butter pecan, named by Milwaukee Magazine as the flavor that distinguishes Leon's from its two closest rivals

What we know

Frozen custard's legal distinction from ice cream is the 1.4 percent egg-yolk-solids minimum set by 21 CFR 135.110 (FDA standard of identity, opened directly at eCFR)
A University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy plant manager, on the record, explains custard is capped at no more than 100 percent overrun (air whipped in) and served about five degrees warmer than ice cream, producing smaller ice crystals
The Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory property record documents 84 unbroken years at one building, with only a single 1955 remodel that added the canopy and neon sign now considered the shop's signature look
Founder Leon Schneider trained at rival Gilles in the 1930s, then in the 1960s began repairing and manufacturing frozen custard machines himself after national manufacturers stopped servicing them — his equipment still supplies parts to Kopp's decades later
The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee (UWM) names it one of four 'landmark custard stands' explicitly inside 'the city of Milwaukee'
Still family-run, four generations of the same family, per the shop's own site and Milwaukee Magazine's 2017 reporting on succession plans

Status: open
Address: 3131 S. 27th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Maker: Founded by Leon H. Schneider (1942, died 1991); still owned and operated by the Schneider family, with Ron Schneider named as owner as of 2017
Opened: 1942
Website: leonsfrozencustardmke.com/
Last checked: 2026-08-21

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