A new frozen custard shop is taking shape in Yulee, with Whit's Frozen Custard confirmed to be moving into 464073 State Road 200, inside the Eagle's Crossing shopping center at the signalized intersection of SR 200 and Blackrock Road. The company's own website already lists the address as coming soon, and job postings for shift leads and assistant managers went up in August, signaling that hiring and staffing are actively underway even though no opening date has been announced.
The Yulee shop will mark the seventh active Whit's location in the Jacksonville area, joining stores in Jacksonville Beach, Kernan Square, Mandarin, South Jacksonville, Avondale and Oakleaf, according to WhatNow. Northeast Florida's relationship with the brand dates back to May 2014, when franchisees Michael and Jessica McKinley opened the first Florida Whit's in Atlantic Beach, according to Whit's Frozen Custard. The McKinleys were family friends of company founders Chuck and Lisa Whitman and served as original investors in the brand's expansion beyond Ohio.
Whit's was founded on March 3, 2003, in Granville, Ohio, after Chuck Whitman spent 21 years working in Midwestern foodservice and dairy manufacturing and developed his own custard recipe, as detailed by Folio Weekly. More than two decades later, the chain has grown into a national franchise operation with more than 100 locations spread across 11 states, built on a model of fresh daily preparation at each store.
What Sets Frozen Custard Apart From Ice Cream
The Yulee menu is expected to mirror what other Whit's shops serve: Whitsers blending custard with mix-in toppings, scoopable custard in flavors like vanilla and chocolate plus a rotating flavor of the week, shakes made with custard and milk, Whitties that sandwich custard between two cookies, sundaes piled with toppings, and classic root beer floats, per the seed reporting from WhatNow.
The dense texture that separates frozen custard from standard ice cream comes down to federal law and manufacturing technique. Under 21 CFR 135.110, a frozen dessert must contain at least 10% milkfat and 1.4% egg yolk solids by weight to legally carry the frozen custard label, according to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations; anything below that egg yolk threshold has to be sold as ice cream instead. Frozen custard production also limits how much air gets churned into the mix, known as overrun, to roughly 15% to 30%, compared with soft-serve ice cream that can run as high as 100% air. That lower overrun, combined with the butterfat and egg yolk content, is what gives frozen custard its noticeably denser mouthfeel.
A Retail Corridor Built for Growth
Eagle's Crossing is a 33,854-square-foot neighborhood shopping center built in 2009 that already hosts local dining and service tenants, according to a LoopNet listing for the property. The site sees an estimated 36,268 vehicles pass by daily, making it one of the busier retail stretches in Nassau County.
That traffic is only expected to grow. The nearby Wildlight master-planned development is slated for 24,000 residential units and 11 million square feet of commercial space in Nassau County, per the JLL Investor Center. Hoodline previously reported that Wildlight added 200 more home lots as the area's residential boom continues.
To keep pace with that growth along State Road 200, Nassau County commissioners voted in June to seek $11.68 million in federal funding for a County Road 108 extension aimed at relieving congestion on the corridor, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. SR 200 functions as both a primary commuter artery and a designated hurricane evacuation route for the region, underscoring why local officials are watching traffic patterns closely as more retail arrives.
Whit's Won't Have the Frozen Treat Market to Itself
Whit's is entering a Yulee confections scene that's already getting more crowded. Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard opened its own Yulee location on William Burgess Boulevard in April, complete with a ribbon-cutting supported by the local chamber of commerce. The Yulee store adds to a chain that has also been on the move elsewhere, with Hoodline previously covering Whit's expansion into the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and a new store opening in a Central Ohio Kroger strip.
For now, the biggest open questions are when the Yulee doors will actually open and how the roadway improvements along SR 200 will keep pace with the added commercial traffic. The company has not announced a firm opening date, but the August hiring push for shift leads and assistant managers suggests the countdown to a grand opening has already begun.
