Letters to the Editor
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Gotta raise a hand
For Thomas Sweet's in Georgetown, DC, for their 'Blend-Ins.' Not mix-ins per se, they use a simple machine to mix your selected ice cream in with one or two normal treats, like M&Ms or Snickers. I think that's actually a big part of the reason I don't like Cold Stone because so many of their additions are strange, unnatural looking things...I like to know what my candy is (also the reason Phish Phood never really sits right).
And none of you know any of the horros of Cold Stone until you've visted the one on 42nd street in NYC - I felt like I was on the ship of the damned, with lost souls wailing for every dime dropped in their cup (shudder).
By the by - to all those people who can't stop saying how bad Salon is and how you'll never subscribe again or read another word...why do I keep seeing you pop up on the letters pages?
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Missing the point?
I think the point about Coldstone is that it is just the next in a long line of dessert fads.
To all the people calling the author pretentious, take a deep breath and realize that he is reacting to the possibly hundreds of people who have told him "Oh, coldstone is the best ice cream ever, you have to try, blah blah blah," an attitude that comes about with every new upscale chain that comes to town, whether it is clothing or food.
It's an interesting article because it takes something people take for granted (ColdStone Creamery and other upscale joints) being the be all and end all of ice cream joints. He's not saying you can't like ColdStone, or that people who do are idiots, just that it's not the greatest ice cream invention ever and stop treating it as such.
As for me, in Oklahoma there is a chain called Braum's at which I can get two large waffle cones (cookie dough for me, capp chunky chocolate froyo for the gf) for under $3. So yes, at Coldstone I do feel that I am paying more for the experience than the ice cream.
I live in Little Rock now and my options are Shakey's, TCBY, and ColdStone if I want ice cream. DQ seems to stick to smaller towns. So if I go for ice cream and keep it simple, I'm paying easily $6 minimum for the two of us, if not closer to $10, and most of the time it's just more than I even want to eat. The point is, yeah, it is good. The fancy ice cream is superb, is served by the quart it seems, but I wish I had the choice to just get a reasonably priced cone, much like the author.
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Back to Basics
Growing up in Ohio, the family business was Taggart's Ice Cream.
Dad took tremendous pride in the stock he made by hand every Monday, when the store was closed. Some 'day off'! He always said vanilla was the hardest one to get right. Coldstone pretty much turned me off. It did give me the impression they were just trying to cover something up: mediocre ice cream, perhaps?
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I Lay Down On The Altar of Yarborough's Ice Cream
For your ice cream foodies:
When passing thru Sanford, NC be sure to stop at Yarborough's Ice Cream near Depot Park. A regular old mom n' pop ice cream shop, their ice cream is to die for. Trying a new flavor is dangerous because then it's my favorite.
Strawberry cheesecake, lemon custard, raspberry sorbet, mint chocolate chip, oh really it must be banana puddin' with vanilla wafers mixed-in.
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Herell's is in Northampton
I'd hardly say that Steve Herell started doing this in the Boston area. I believe he got his start in Northampton, which is in Western Mass. The "Herell's" ice cream shop was still there recently, although he hasn't had interest in "Steve's" for ages.
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I'm surprised that nobody (including Mr. Peters) mentioned Farrell's.
Farrell's, moreso than any other chain of ice cream vendors, cornered the market not just on elaborate ice cream creations (of which mix-ins is simply one variety), but of the scary notion of ice cream as entertainment: singing AND dancing AND other bizarre choreography.
Far beyond the original sundaes, Farrell's had items like "The Trough" -- which, I think, was seven assorted scoops of ice cream, along with a raft of toppings, served in a pig trough. If you finished it, you got a button that said, "I made of pig of myself at Farrell's."
The biggest of Farrell's desserts was The Zoo. I have no clear recollection of how many scoops it was -- something tells me it was 15 -- in a huge bucket, brought out by two servers utilizing stepstools and, perhaps, a small crane. The ice cream was studded with animal crackers ("The Zoo," get it?). You ordered one and lights went off, sirens blared, confetti and streamers seemed to fall from the ceiling.
At its peak in the 70s, there were something like 130 Farrell's nationwide. I think there's only one these days, in Santa Clarita.
The whole Farrell's phenomenon was briefly satirized in an episode of the Bob Newhart Show (John Ritter, I believe, played the wisecracking waiter). When Bob harshed everyone's mellow by ordering a single scoop of something, the waiters sang out, tauntingly, "Single Scooper! Single Scooper! This man is a party pooper!"
The ice cream was nothing special -- Farrell's existed in a world before premium ice creams. But the theater and excess were original (the theater was, I suppose, the logical extension of the old soda jerk, with his flourishes and fountain slang). Seems to me it certainly deserved a mention.
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It's the smooshing which bothers me.
I'm surprised that no one else has said this - but the concept of someone taking my scoop of ice cream, spreading it out all over a slab or stone or counter and smooshing it around with couple of paddles (all the better to get that dirt and hair really integrated) is just absolutely foul. And I'm not a hand sanitising clean freak.
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Mmmm ice cream
Ice cream taste is dependant on mood, isn't it? It's what type you feel like at the time. For sitting at home in jammies, it's Ben and Jerrys New York Super Fudge Chunk. If I'm at Thrifty (now Rite Aid, ugh) drug store, it's Mint n Chip with a sugar cone. If it's DQ, it's either a chocolate dipped chocolate cone or a Buster Bar (yum!). At Baskin Robbins, it's a chocolate malt. Cold Stone is the chocolatiest chocolate thing in chocolate with chocolate syrup. The reason Cold Stone's vanilla is so bland and flavourless is because you're supposed to load it with all sorts of crap! Come on now, loosen up, take five mix ins and live a little!