Photo Friday: Ted Drewes on Route 66

Our last stop in St. Louis before heading back home: the iconic Ted Drewes on Route 66 for frozen custard. A Heath concrete for me and Atticus to share, Reese's for Paul and a chocolate sundae for Edith. A great way to end our trip.

Dessert at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory

Visitors and New York residents alike gather underneath the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge for many reasons.

There's the view of Lower Manhattan, of course, and just short walks away are the popular (and expensive) River Cafe and the popular (and cheap) Grimaldi's pizzeria.

But the only place under the Brooklyn Bridge whose line rivals that of Grimaldi's is the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

Located in a distinctive fireboat house at the Fulton Ferry Pier, the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is difficult to miss. But, in fact, it's not difficult to miss out on the long line. If all you want is a cone -- and not a sundae, shake or banana split --place your order at the factory's ice cream cart just steps away from the store's entrance.

Same ice cream, same taste and a fraction of the wait for a peaches-and-cream waffle cone, or one of the seven other flavors. And you get to enjoy the Brooklyn Bridge view all the sooner.

Big Gay Ice Cream Shop: Not Your Average Dessert

Bea Arthur and Salty Pimp cones

New Yorkers love their food trucks, and one of the city's most beloved is the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.

Sure, it looks like your normal ice cream truck, but if the image of the cone beside the order window has rainbow stripes where the soft serve should be, you're in for a treat. Your options are no longer merely sprinkles and dips. No, indeed. You've entered the Big Gay Ice Cream world of sea salt and wasabi pea dust, dulce de leche and olive oil.

And so it is that the name grabs your attention, but the menu convinces you to grab your wallet. And while Paul and I haven't yet ordered ice cream from the coolest truck in town, we did recently shed our Big Gay Ice Cream virgin status with a trip to the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, which just opened in the East Village in September.

Follow the unicorn to place your order.

Paul ordered the popular Salty Pimp -- vanilla soft serve, with dulce de leche and sea salt, covered in a chocolate dip. I got the Bea Arthur -- vanilla soft serve covered in a layer of dulce de leche and crushed Nilla Wafers. 

Truly this was ice cream heaven, not fit for mere mortals. Smooth and creamy and delicious. We barely even minded the bite in the air as we took our cones to go. The chill was worth the treat.

The Ice Creams of Ohio

I've written time and again about how I miss Ohio food and restaurants you simply can't find in New York.

As spring heats up and summer is right around the corner, at the top of that list is Ohio ice cream shops. Or, in Ohio, perhaps that should be "shoppes."

To my delight, my sweet tooth was satisfied with ice cream twice during our trip to Ohio last month, and in two very different ways.

First, Graeter's. This ice creamery was founded in Cincinnati more than 140 years ago and now has locations throughout southeast Ohio, Columbus, Louisville and Indiana. I was introduced to Graeter's shortly before starting at Ohio State and I soon fell in love with the black raspberry chip, with chocolate chunks nearly as big as my thumb.

There's a Grater's in Worthington, right at the farmer's market we attended that Saturday. So I was a bad girl and skipped all the homemade, surely organic treats and went straight to the food I've been craving for almost four years.

It was worth it.

Second, the Town Trolley. This small outpost is in the tiny town of Huntsville, an hour outside of Columbus just off Route 33. I think it sells Hershey's ice cream, and I tend to get black cherry, but the brand or flavor hardly matters. See, the Town Trolley is directly on the route between my parents' house and Paul's, and we would always stop at least once each time we'd visit Defiance in the spring and summer.

That's a tradition you just can't break.

On the Search for an Ice Cream Truck

With New York temperatures well into the 80s, 90s and even the 100s this month, it's not surprising I've been so obsessed with ice cream recently. Normally I'll go months without a scoop. Last week alone, however, I bought two cones and ate at least half a pint of the Ben & Jerry's stash I've been hiding in the freezer.

But back to those two cones. One was in Mystic, Conn., the subject of Monday's post. The other? My very first purchase from a neighborhood ice cream truck.

It was surprisingly difficult.

Normally the ice cream trucks are annoyingly omnipresent. The jingles just won't stop. Even worse, is the occasional smell. Paul and I both thought something was on fire one day last week, but it was just the exhaust from an ice cream truck parked below our open window.

I decided I wanted soft serve, however, at 10 p.m., just when the trucks start to disappear. After supper at a neighborhood Polish restaurant, we detoured to 86th Street, where the trucks inevitably park outside the popular stores. But the shops were closed and the trucks had moved on.

Two blocks from home, I stopped.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Paul, feeling a bit like I was listening for the Pied Piper.

He strained his ears while I looked down the street. Yup, it was Bay Ridge's only remaining ice cream truck on a hot Saturday night.

We hurried to the other side of the street and Paul flagged down the truck like we were hailing a taxi. Good man.

I chose a chocolate dip, and Paul got a cherry dip. Of course I ate too slow, and the ice cream seeped through the cracks of the chocolate shell. I had sticky fingers but a happy stomach.

Weekend in Rhode Island ... and Mystic, Conn.

Ice cream and a view ... is there any better way to end a weekend getaway?

We had seen everything we wanted to see in Providence and done everything we wanted to do, but we certainly couldn't waste our holiday by going straight home. Instead, we decided on an impromptu stop in Mystic, Conn.

Everything I knew about the village comes from the movie "Mystic Pizza," which was actually filmed in the area. Truth be told, I still don't know too much more. It was so hot that we mostly saw Mystic from the comfort of our air conditioned car.

We did make two stops, however. The first was for some so-so seafood -- clam fritters and clam chowder, neither of which seemed to have much of the namesake ingredient. We had counted on exploring the town by foot, but neither of us felt up to it. Instead, we decided to drive down the main street and make our way back to the interstate.

But then Paul spotted Drawbridge Ice Cream.

All weekend I had been saying I wanted to stop at a "real" ice cream parlor. Then, just as we were crossing a drawbridge over the Mystic River, this one appeared.

And just as we saw it, the car parked closest to the parlor pulled away. Obviously, a higher power was telling Paul to pull over and get me ice cream. And by a "higher power," I mean me.

We took our single-scoop waffle cones (blueberry ice cream for me, mint chocolate chip for Paul) to the shaded deck on the river and watched the afternoon pass us by.

We never did see the drawbridge go up.

But our sojourn to Mystic wasn't quite over. Can you really say you've been there without seeing the Mystic Pizza? Who knows if it really is "a slice of heaven," but it probably would have been better than those clam fritters.

Family and Ferrara and a Visit to Little Italy

What would a visit to Little Italy be without a big scoop (or three) of gelato?

At least, that's what my cousin thought last weekend, and I have to say that I agree.

My Aunt Annette, Uncle Dave and two cousins from Indiana visited New York last weekend, and I was excited to play tour guide. Dave had been to New York before -- I believe as a teenager -- but the city was new to Annette, David (a student at Ball State) and Emily (an entering high school freshman). They arrived in Bay Ridge at 10 a.m. Saturday morning on the dot, and it wasn't long before we checked the first item off their to-do list: a visit to Little Italy.

I was happy not only to see my family, but also to take in some typical New York experiences that I hadn't done since we first moved here, or even since our honeymoon in New York almost seven years ago. Their visit gave me an excuse to do something I'm usually leery of nowadays -- be a tourist. It was an eye-opening -- and fun -- experience.

But back to Little Italy. The neighborhood is surrounded by Chinatown, so of course we couldn't see one without the other. The weather was sweltering, which made the fish markets smellier and the crowds sweatier. The black-market purse and watch dealers were out in full-force. We managed to make our way down the street without succumbing to the lures of a "Rolox" (unlike one of Paul's friends a few months back).


Little Italy is what they really wanted to see anyway, and Emily preferred not to leave with gelato -- and who are we to let her eat alone?! Of course, none of us could resist the air conditioned allure of Ferrara, perhaps the neighborhood's most well-known bakery and cafe (and just one of the places where I've searched for the city's best cannoli). Founded in 1892, it also bills itself as America's first espresso bar.


From about 15 or so flavors of gelati and sorbet, Paul and I settled for a scoop each of strawberry and raspberry gelato and blackberry sorbet. Paul didn't even put up a fuss when I nixed his suggestion of vanilla gelato. As if I'd waste one of my scoops on something so plain. Ha!

It was a good start to a pleasantly tiring weekend. More to come!

Ben & Jerry's Made Me the Most Popular Girl at Work

Photo courtesy of Katherine R.

This is the story of a girl who loves ice cream. And free stuff. And especially free ice cream.

The story starts last week, when I read about Ben & Jerry's goal to bless New York City with 50,000 samples of ice cream by the end of June, all from its roaming scoop truck. That, I thought, is a goal I can get behind.

I immediately began to follow the scoop truck on Twitter, and it wasn't long before I realized the truck takes suggestions on Tuesday for businesses to visit on Wednesday. I nominated my place of work, and when the fine folks of Ben & Jerry's said they'd be visiting, my co-workers' excitement was outdone only by my own.

Yes, I am exactly that easy to please.

When the truck pulled up to the office it was a bit like Christmas morning, except it was June and 80 degrees. But Michael from Ben & Jerry's made a superb Santa, passing out samples of the Cookie Dough and Peanut Brittle flavors. He and sidekick/driver Terrence snapped a few pictures (like this great photo on twitpic), and they were off.


The rest of the afternoon was more like the day after Christmas, but at least I had a belly full of ice cream.

So Wednesday was a good day. I scored free ice cream for the office and something of a marketing coup for the company since Ben & Jerry's mentioned us a few times on Twitter. And who knew a bit of ice cream could garner such goodwill in the office? I should have thought of this in high school.



UPDATE (6/9/10):
My Other Ben & Jerry's Adventures --
2010 Free Cone Day
Me at Ben & Jerry's in Vermont (scroll down)

I Scream, You Scream for Free Ice Cream

At 48 degrees, Tuesday wasn't exactly ice cream weather. But the weather's always perfect for free food.

So even though the afternoon was gray and drizzly, after work I hopped a few stops north to the nearest Ben & Jerry's for Free Cone Day. I knew the line would be long, but I didn't expect this:


The scoop shop is on the far left of the photo. The line wrapped around the building to the NYU flags on the right. I estimated about 200 people in front of me, but these guys were pros. In 15 minutes I had my very first taste ever of Cherry Garcia.


It was too cold to linger, so I broke an unwritten rule and took the cone on the train. It was gone by the time I transferred lines at Canal Street.

Ben and Jerry's got me right where they wanted me when Paul and I visited the factory last year during our weekend in Vermont. I'd never had their ice cream before, but now the very thought of it makes my mouth water.

Even still, I'm a Ben and Jerry's novice. This was only the third time I'd ever had it. I tried strawberry cheesecake during the factory tour, and a few weeks later Paul and I got a carton of something else, although I can't remember the name. One of the ingredients was chocolate dinosaurs, and can you ever go wrong with chocolate dinosaurs?

My Second Favorite Neon Sign in Bay Ridge

Hinsch's is a Bay Ridge institution-- an old-timey soda fountain with surly waitresses (no waiters that I saw) of a certain age.

The food is about average -- Paul's had a hamburger and I once ordered a waffle -- but the ice cream is the star of the show. One sweltering afternoon we sprung for the $10 sundae -- three scoops of our choosing topped upon sliced bananas and a layer of some kind of pound cake, smothered with whip cream, sprinkles and cherries. Yum.