{"id":43141,"date":"2021-12-19T01:09:21","date_gmt":"2021-12-19T08:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ice-cream-favorite-moose-and-more-moving-to-mancos\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:12:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:12:00","slug":"ice-cream-favorite-moose-and-more-moving-to-mancos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ice-cream-favorite-moose-and-more-moving-to-mancos\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice cream favorite Moose and More moving to Mancos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mancos
Mancos couple Brent and Rachel McWhirter are pictured here opening their ice cream and chocolate store in downtown Cortez.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

If the words \u201cHoney Blue Cornbread\u201d mean anything to you, then you\u2019re probably familiar with ice cream and chocolate shop Moose and More \u2013 a Main Street staple for anyone with a sweet tooth.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the parlor\u2019s most popular frozen concoction, and it\u2019s garnered a dedicated following.<\/p>\n

But after almost seven years, owners Rachel and Brent McWhirter are closing their Cortez space, planning instead to incorporate their treats into their Mancos restaurant, the Columbine Bar and Grill.<\/p>\n

Thursday is the last day to pick up Moose and More creations in Cortez \u2013 including the treasured Honey Blue Cornbread ice cream, which sprang from a dare, Rachel said.<\/p>\n

\"Moose
Moose and More photographed on Aug. 12, 2020.<\/span>Terry Dunlap<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The late Yogi Whiteman, who supplied the shop with cornbread from the Bow and Arrow Brand, dared the McWhirters to make something with the blue cornbread.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive me a week,\u201d Brent had said.<\/p>\n

And so he drew from his Southern roots. His grandmother\u2019s recipe for a cereal-like breakfast of cornbread doused with honey provided the inspiration for what would become a surprisingly successful combination with the people of Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

Moose and More prioritizes the use of local and regional ingredients \u2013 for instance, the honey ice cream is mixed with honey from Bee Tree Farm.<\/p>\n

The shop has circulated 200 flavors, but about a dozen will be mainstays at the Columbine. Rachel will spend more time baking, although she\u2019ll no longer stock chocolates.<\/p>\n

The Columbine opened in April. While the couple work together, the Columbine became Brent\u2019s focus, and Rachel dedicated most of her time to Moose and More.<\/p>\n

Twelve-hour days are common for the pair, and the merger will be more sustainable for them, they said, especially considering they have a 3-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

But, with the Columbine\u2019s full liquor license, Rachel\u2019s excited to infuse her ice cream with alcohol. She\u2019s already dreaming up potential blends like espresso shakes with Bailey\u2019s Irish Cream and modified mimosas.<\/p>\n

For her, the shop\u2019s closure has stirred feelings of nostalgia \u2014 particularly about her mother, Margie, who died in 2017.<\/p>\n

Overcome with emotion, Rachel said her favorite memories of Moose and More involved her mother, who played an instrumental role in the store and in cultivating Rachel\u2019s original love for baking.<\/p>\n

Moose and More\u2019s beginning<\/div>\n

Although Rachel\u2019s a fifth-generation Mancos resident, she met Brent in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She was working a corporate job, and he was snapping photos for Jackson Hole News and Guide <\/em>after moving from Detroit, Michigan.<\/p>\n

Moose and More\u2019s origins really lie in coastal town Depoe Bay, Oregon, though.<\/p>\n

There, Rachel worked crafting chocolates, but her mother had instilled baking basics in her at a young age, and she\u2019d been designing desserts ever since.<\/p>\n

The McWhirters aspired to open their own similar business, but there were already five ice cream shops in their small tourist town in Oregon.<\/p>\n

It simply wasn\u2019t the place.<\/p>\n

So, the couple planned their move back to Rachel\u2019s hometown, where her grandmother needed living assistance.<\/p>\n

After two years of research and a loan from the Region 9 Economic Development District, the storefront at 12 E. Main St. opened its doors May 5, 2015.<\/p>\n

Moose and More has considerably evolved, in terms of both operation and appearance, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it looked like back then, and what we got it to turn into after 6\u00bd years \u2013 we laugh at how inefficient it was to begin with,\u201d Brent said.<\/p>\n

It was comforting to return to Southwest Colorado, Rachel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome knowing that if we came back here that we had this huge support system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While bittersweet, they\u2019re excited about contributing to eclectic and artful downtown Mancos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing for us is that we see that downtown\u2019s starting to thrive again here in Mancos,\u201d Brent said.<\/p>\n

The impact of the couple\u2019s culinary creations was evident when, as Brent spoke to The Journal<\/em> in the Columbine, two women stopped to say that the chocolate pie they\u2019d just devoured was the best they\u2019d ever tried.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A look back at the shop\u2019s sweet evolution <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,21,28,167,83,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85587,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43141\/revisions\/85587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43141"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}