The Pastry Project's soft serve window delivers delicious nostalgia

EVERY SUMMER, SEATTLEITES look forward to a few things: That first post-9 p.m. sunset. Marionberry season. And, for the past five years, the soft serve window at The Pastry Project in Pioneer Square.

The window swings open on Main Street, kitty-corner from Occidental Square, serving up towering cones of muted purple vanilla and chocolate swirled together in a constant stream. That's the thing about a soft serve cone - the shape, the creamy smoothness, even the toppings are things that have long remained the same.

"We dial into that nostalgia with rainbow sprinkles, hot fudge and hard shells," says Molly Rautenstrauch, soft serve window manager and Pastry Project instructor.

The Pastry Project began operating its soft serve window out of its bake shop in 2021 and today offers cones, cups and cookie sandwiches. Cups can be ladled with malty hot fudge or sticky toffee sauce, cones dipped in dark chocolate, butterscotch or strawberry passion fruit. Additional toppings - such as coconut cake crumbles, rainbow or chocolate sprinkles, Newman O's cookie crumbles and a housemade rainbow peanut crunch - will bring you back to the summers of your childhood.

"There's a whimsy to soft serve that we lean into," Rautenstrauch says.

It's that whimsy specifically that led Pastry Project owners Emily Kim and Heather Hodge to open the window in the first place. It's not that Seattle didn't have shops serving gelato and ice cream by the scoop, but at the time, soft serve was a bit of a novelty.

Soft serve's rise to power began in the 1930s when Carvel and Dairy Queen began selling the frozen concoction, pumped up with enough air that it never fully froze like other ice creams. With just three flavors - chocolate, vanilla or swirl - soft serve was simple. It was affordable. And, it was delicious.

"You can get ice cream at the grocery store but not soft serve, and it still feels so different," Kim says. "Nobody gets tired of getting handed a tall, swirled cone."

That first summer of Pastry Project soft serve, Kim and Hodges worked the window mostly by themselves, selling just two flavors and all the toppings. The next year, they expanded to ice cream cookie sandwiches, quakes (a shake with toppings blended in) and slices of ice cream cake.

The Pastry Project's flagship offering is its 12-week pastry program that provides training to small cohorts of students who are unable to access traditional culinary school. It teaches everything from the basic creaming method to how to bake elaborate desserts as well as the basics of working in a kitchen and how to write a business plan.

The program launched in 2019 after Kim and Hodges secured a grant from the Alliance for Pioneer Square and the Pioneer Square Business Improvement Area board's Inspiration Fund. Their first product available to the public was a pastry subscription box called a Goody Box, filled with nonperishable ingredients for a featured recipe. The first student cohort (which included Hana Johannes of Shikorina Bakeshop and Café) dutifully packed those early boxes amid the training program. In May, the ninth cohort graduated from the program.

Looking for more ways to support the training program, the duo added the soft serve window and started offering classes to the public, too. In October 2025, they opened a bakery window that sells pastries. Goody Boxes - now called Pastry Kits - are still sold to monthly subscribers and have grown to feature special recipes in collaboration with small businesses, cookbook authors and even social media food influencers.

Kim says this is the first summer she's the "backup to the backup," on the soft serve window, as they've been able to hire five full-time employees, plus extra support staff to keep up with demand.

"We've watched families grow up and kids grow up," Kim says. The shop recently hired a daughter of a customer who's been a Goody Box customer from the beginning. "She's back from college and we've been able to give her her first job."

Lines often form down Main Street when the soft serve window is open - especially on special collab days. This summer, special days will feature collaborations with Toasted bagel shop, Maddy's Bake Shop, Saint Bread, Ben's Bread and Cake Picnic; each of the collaborators is coming up with a special sauce or crumble, available for a limited time. (The window will also have a new passion fruit curd topping all summer long.)

Full details for this summer's collabs are under wraps, but Kim says she knows the Cake Picnic one will involve chocolate cake chunks and a potato chip streusel, mirroring recipes in its founder Elisa Sunga's new cookbook, "Cake Picnic," named for the global events she hosts where strangers bring cake to a scheduled event.

"Soft serve has made me a summer person," Kim says. "It makes me so happy, and to see everyone else so excited is just so fun."

Make Your Own Sundae Bar

Soft serve is a bit more difficult to have at home, but it's easy to set up a perfect sundae bar with your favorite ice cream. Kim and Rautenstrauch offer their tips for creating the perfect setup. Here's everything you need.

Ice Cream

While the soft serve window keeps things simple with just vanilla or chocolate, Kim says home is the place to make sure your favorite flavors are everywhere - in the base and in the toppings. "We like the ice cream to stand by itself (at the Pastry Project), but at home I would have a bunch of different flavors; mint chip, cookie dough, strawberry or I love coffee ice cream."

Sauce

Include sauces with different flavor profiles. Tangy, like a sharp lemon curd, or bitter, like a dark chocolate or hot fudge. Salted caramel or a strawberry topping are also good options. Aim for contrasts: chocolate or caramel plus a fruity option, and possibly even a creamy one, like whipped cream.

Crumbles

"You need different textures," to offset all that smooth creaminess from the ice cream, Kim says. This could mean sprinkles but also nuts, crumbled cookies or pieces of pie. Graham crackers or animal crackers, a magic shell sauce that hardens, or even breakfast cereal.

Fruit

Fresh berries and bananas are both good, but Kim and Rautenstrauch agree maraschino cherries are a must. "There's something visual about plopping a cherry on top where to not have it feels wrong," Rautenstrauch says.

Of course, these aren't hard and fast rules. Add in chocolate chips or gummy worms and above all, "whatever brings you joy," Rautenstrauch says.

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This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 4:50 PM.