J.P. Licks – Jamaica Plain MA

The elements didn’t stop this National Ice Cream Day quest. Between flooded streets and other traffic impairments, and getting home to a power outage, they certainly tried. I made it over to the Milky Way where my band was playing, thankfully they had power. Joe and I walked down Centre Street until I found the last cone of the day. He had two scoops – one Vanilla, the other Chocolate – I went for Myer’s Rum Raisin.

J.P. Licks is a Boston area institution. No matter which shop of theirs you go to, there are lines. There are eight stores around town from West Roxbury to Davis Square, and a brand new shop in Harvard Square. But the J.P. is for Jamaica Plain, and the store here is the center of it all and where they make all of the ice cream.

An out-sized cow head mounted to the side of a renovated fire station makes this location a difficult one to miss. The store has been here since 1981 and has made its imprint on the city by making consistently great ice cream. Even if it isn’t a T friendly location.

After a long day of ice cream eating, it seemed as though there was a proper way to end the evening. There aren’t really any flavors that are particularly Massachusettsian unless someone is making a corn ice cream (I’m sure there actually is and shouldn’t talk too loud since there was fresh cucumber ice cream on the menu). Joe offered up black raspberry as a suggestion – that’s the sort that is typically worth heeding, but instead I found something that fit the nocturnal mood: Myer’s rum raisin.

The raisins in here outnumbered the chocolate chips that I have found in some more chincy cones, and all of them were moist without being overly plump. The ice cream that they were in was an interesting take on rum. They use Myer’s and actually want some of that in there, and this ice cream has the alcoholic aftertaste of the rum, but what it lacks is the flavor really embedded in the ice cream. It acts grown up, but then forgets the simple pleasure of the ice cream in exchange for the tease that there is enough liquor to effect any change.

The line here was ridiculous. Had it not taken Joe and I so long to get here on foot, we may have given up and turned around without a cone. Thankfully we stuck it out since it was worth it all. I think all of this ice cream fueled our great show that night. I was certainly in the right mood. It didn’t start raining again until it was time for us to load out.

Return Engagement: October 24, 2008

Cone – kiddie $2.99 small $3.70 regular $4.39 large $4.89

Sundae – small $5.45 medium $6.09 large $6.59

Frappe $5.35 xtra thick $5.65 (add malt $.59)

J.P. Licks

659 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain MA 02130

617 524-6740

Open year round

Daily 6a – midnight

http://www.jplicks.com/

Annabelle’s – Portsmouth NH

Nature seemed out to doom celebrations of National Ice Cream Day. As I made my last stop on my way out of Portand, the deluge began. Most of the trip south on 95 I was battling torrential rains. I would bet most ice cream shops fare poorly once a drizzle is even forecast. By the time I made it to New Hampshire, it had cleared up and I was ready for a New Hampshire Maple Walnut cone.

Since 1982, Lewis E. Palosky has been making ice cream in Portsmouth that makes everyone happy. From the families walking along the water’s edge to the socialites poking their head into all of the downtown shops, everyone seems to enjoy Annabelle’s and Portsmouth. The town is like the gateway to Southern Maine, with the added benefit of being tax-free.

This is where the residents go for a scoop. The spot that is now Izzy’s marks the top of the street you need to walk down to find Annabelle’s. Lots of people get sidetracked by that first glimpse of ice cream and then only notice the giant ice cream cone on the wall later. With that icon and the ease of a Take Out window that opens onto the street, it’s likely that people who notice it will come back and give it a try instead next time.

After opting for something truly Maine just hours before, I wasn’t sure what option was going to stand out here and compel me to eat it. Once I read over the menu, the local option of New Hampshire maple walnut seemed glaringly obvious. Certainly most folks more associate maple with Vermont, but you can get it from the trees of both the Green and White mountains.

First things first, there were great walnuts in here, fresh pieces and you were apt to get a few in every bite, enough to forgive the fact they were from California. After relishing in the joy of great walnuts, I realized that the maple flavor was not overpowering. Instead of covering the tongue as it is prone to, the maple came in as an aftertaste with a subtle lingering punch. Tasting for the maple in the front, it was there, but it was as though maple wasn’t so much used as as flavor as it was used in lieu of granulated sugar at its base. The results were great.

You can get to Annabelle’s from an old stone staircase that leads down from Market Street. It’s the setting of this spot that is special, as it’s easy to imagine this as the saloon where the sailors who were doing the grunt work would come in at the end of a shift. The other side of the street isn’t full of shops, it’s boats moored on the docks (some permanently and now serving as restaurants).

Return visit: http://weallscreamforicecream.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/return-engagement-annabelles-portsmouth-nh/

Cone – regular $2.95 large $3.75

Sundae – regular $5.25 super $6.25

Frappe $4.95 extra thick $5.50

Annabelle’s Natural Ice Cream

49 Ceres Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801

603 436-3400

Open year round

Daily 11a-10p

http://www.annabellesicecream.com/

Beals – Portland ME

Somehow there are few things that seem more right than to start off this National Ice Cream Day with a cone. Thanks to a party after my friends’ band had their CD release concert, this whole Sunday started a little later than usual. So it made the noontime Wild Maine Blueberry cone that constituted my breakfast seem as though it could have been a post-lunch treat. Tim and his cousin Nick were having similar issues with the late night, so they opted for Coffee in a cup.

Located at the intersection of a cobblestone street and a cobblestone alley that traffic isn’t allowed on, Beals is a highlight of the Old Port section of Portland. It’s a place for the family to gather in the middle of the day before meeting up again at their lobster dinner. It’s New England to the core.

Run by the Malia family for nearly the past 20 years, Beals now has a few locations across the state. The ice cream is actually made in the Scarborough headquarters, where Roy Beal served his first scoops, and is delivered as far as Windham.  It’s interesting the way that Maine has created these local business empires that extend statewide – like the Bull Moose Records chain which seems to be the only record store chain in the country that is successful.

I’ve been to this spot before and generally I opt for their teaberry. It’s a great mint ice cream that use the teaberry for its flavor as opposed to the far more common peppermint and/or spearmint blends that dominate. If you’ve ever had Clark’s gum or teaberry bushes growing in your back yard, you know the taste. However, something compelled me in a different direction. The spirit of the day seemed to steer me to something more local. Ergo, Maine wild blueberry.

In addition to being a blueberry ice cream with a great mix of fruit flavors that integrated itself with the cream, the scoop was full of actual blueberries. Usually the blue berries used in ice cream are California ones that grow to the size of grapes, but Beals stayed local for real as the tiny blueberries in the mix that stay whole make this a fantastic berry ice cream. Here I was thinking all they were good at was teaberry. (A friend who’d been here two days earlier had such an aversion to the red raspberry ripple that it wound up in the trash bin after two bites).

The most common gripe about Beals is one of the most absurd. The claim is that the shop is too cold, and that people who sit at the tables – or bar counter – want to eat ice cream in a warmer setting. While it’s not as much an issue in the summer, when people who want it hot and melting down their fingers can just go outside, it’s silly anytime. If this ever becomes a real problem, I’ll wear my sweatshirt when I go in.

Cone – 1scoop $2.99 2scoop $3.46 3scoop $3.83

Sundae $4.30

Frappe – regular $4.02 thick $4.49 (malt +$.47)

Beals Gourmet Ice Cream

12 Moulton St, Portland, ME 04101

207 883-1160

Open year round

Daily 11a-10p

http://www.bealsicecream.com/

Today is National Ice Cream Day

Back in 1984, President Reagan declared that July was to be National Ice Cream Month, and the centerpiece of these festivities comes today, the third Sunday of July, National Ice Cream Day.

I will be attempting to eat cones in three different states today and bring you reports. You ought to go get a cone

Maple’s Organics – Portland ME

The more I write about ice cream, the more I discover people who can’t indulge in it. Some are vegan, others lactose intolerant or diabetic. I’m still not certain what options really work for a friend who was recently diagnosed as a celiac. Organic gelato isn’t the answer, but it is a sign that even ice cream is paying attention to America’s diet needs. Hazelnut gelato was my test cone.

Housed in an actual house on Forest Ave in Portland, Maple’s isn’t the sort of place you expect to find an ice cream shop. However, they’ve been at this location for a few years now. This is where they make their ice cream and baked goods and whatever else happens to be scrawled on the dry erase board on any given day. Last summer they also added a gelateria on Middle Street in the Old Port.

Maple’s has got a USDA Organic logo emblazoned on their stuff and all of their raw materials are certified by MOFGA (the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association). Despite only having been around for a couple years, it has already been named the best ice cream in Portland. And at least one of the picnic tables that are alongside the house are actually under the arms of the maple tree that seems to be the source of the name.

When I had been here last summer the chocolate sorbetto that I ate was truly divine. Today it wasn’t an option, as Maple’s only keeps eight different flavors on hand at any point in time. While the Turkish fig – orange and the cardamom ginger, both seemed enticing, the idea of a pure hazelnet gelato overruled.

Often hazelut gets sucked into some chocolate combo in an attempt to ape Nutella, or a coffee blend like I recall from the scent of nearly every trip to a Bruegger’s for bagels. Maple’s instead let the hazelnut succeed on its own merits. The gelato has the subtle hues of the nut flavoring things, but not dominating the cream. There are large chunks of nuts integrated throughout the mix, and they are what carries the hazelnut when you need an exclamation point of flavor. The only flaw was that the gelato itself is a bit icy in consistency, acting in a way more like a sorbet in its texture.

This is the first gelato place that has actual cones. Sure it costs an extra quarter to get one, but that expense is more than offset by the fact that these are fresh rolled waffle cones and not merely something from a box. An airy cone with a crisp texture and vanilla overtones, it makes me want to try out more of their bakery products.

Cone – small $3.25 large $3.75 (add a cone $.25)

Sundae $4.50

Milkshake $4.50

Maple’s Organics Ice Cream & Good Food Bakery

796 Forest Avenue Portland, ME 04103

207 210-6051

Open seasonally

Monday-Thursday 11a-9p, Friday & Saturday 11a-10p, Sunday noon-7p

http://www.maplesorganics.com/

Hodgie’s – Amesbury MA

Friendly advice is always a good thing to get. I asked my friend Dylan for a scoop when I was driving to Maine only to find that he’s on an island off the coast and not in his Newburyport home. He did recommend that the place to stop was at Hodgie’s. I opted for a Bumbleberry cone.

I had stopped at the gas station after I had cleared the snafu that is 110 between 95 and 495. When I first looked for an address for Hodgie’s I didn’t have a street number, so I couldn’t even fathom a guess as to how long a trip this could be. I feared it might be all the way to the Haverhill line. The ladies working the counter said it was only about three minutes up the road, and were all mad that I was going, they each wanted me to bring them back something.

When the locals get animated about ice cream, you know it’s the good sort. Hodgie’s seems like it has been an institution here since the 1950s. With roof shingles that make out a crude stars and stripes, there is something classically American about this spot. A rollover image on their web page seems to imply that this was once a clam shack, and there is still a window for ordering items from the grill.

What makes Hodgie’s is very obviously the ice cream. I was told to get a 1/4 kiddie, which I sort of scoffed at when I was told. Somehow, Hodgie’s has 5 sizes and this was second on the scale. It was enormous to the degree that I am frightened just how much ice cream I might get if I were to order a kiddie, nevermind a large. I already needed to knock a scoop off of my cone and drop it into a cup to have after since there was such a massive volume to deal with and the noontime sun was on the verge of winning the battle.

The bumbleberry was an impressive cone, and not merely due to it’s actual mass. It purported to be a combination of raspberry and strawberry and loganberry and Maine blueberry. The prospect was tantalizing, but the results weren’t quite perfect. Instead of getting tastes of each of the berries individually, it tasted like a berry punch, a generic swirl of berry flavor. There was no batch of seeds from the raspberry and strawberry so it was likely that it was a filtered juice that was used rather than all fresh berries. Despite all the berry, this was still dominated by the creamy texture and taste. A great strong classic ice cream. I just need to find the right flavor.

In addition to seeming like an old-style car hop, there are a fleet of picnic benches strewn through the trees behind Hodgie’s. There’s enough privacy that a family can sit at one and be in their own universe. At the same time enough space to be a local gathering place. I even watched a man say grace above his lunch while sitting at one of the picnic tables. I don’t know about the food, but the ice cream was worth that sort of blessing.

Cone – 1scoop $2.75 1/4kiddie $3.50 kiddie $4.25 small $5 large $5.75

Sundae – kiddie $5.25 small $6 large $6.75

Frappe $4.50 thick frappe $5

Hodgie’s Ice Cream

71 Haverhill Rd, Amesbury, MA 01913

978 388-1211

Open seasonally

Daily 11a-10p

http://www.hodgies.com/

Angelato – Belmont MA

Questions. Lately, I’ve been asking everybody questions about their favorite ice cream, where to get it and what makes it special. My handyman only goes to the soft serve place near his house since his kids can eat it more easily with less mess, and he has better portion control. Even when I was on the same block as Angelato, no one seemed to even acknowledge it. I stepped inside and got a cup of Chocolate gelato.

Angelato’s is a bit posh for its neighborhood. It shares a block with three pizza places (including the fantastic Belmont Pizza), and is right next to the single screen Belmont Theater. Everything else is composed of weary brick and granite, until you get to Angelato. The brickwork is modern, and even the font on the sign follows suit. There’s even a friendly bench on the sidewalk.

Inside, it’s a strikingly clean space with open area. The store also operates as a Boar’s Head delicatessen so days are more spent building sandwiches rather than scooping gelato. But owner Angelo Firenze is devoted to the gelato, modifying his first name for the store, and his surname for the artisan gelato itself. Firenze gelato is sold at a few other regional shops including KnowFat Lifestyle Grill in Bedford and Farfalle Italian Market in Concord.

The wildest part about the range of options at Angelato was the fact that five of the flavors had no name card, so I had to guess what they were amongst a range of light brown options. The berry gelato options were all low and I figured they had been made a while ago and weren’t the most fresh. When one of the employees commented that he had just finished making the chocolate less than two hours ago, my mind was made up.

Maybe the freshness prophecy tainted my expectations, but if I didn’t have the facts straight from the horse’s mouth, I would never have guessed that this was new. There were large icy crystals as though this were refrozen, and the chocolate had an almost powdery texture. I expect chocolate to be fantastic at a gelato place and this was merely good. It’s interesting searching for what it is that makes an ice cream good, or great. Since ice cream is inherently pretty great, it’s often the lack of anything to detract from the experience that puts something over the top.

The lack of cones at gelato places always strikes me odd, but I dismiss it since the gelato has such issues. While these guys don’t offer sundaes or frappes made from their gelato, you can get it formed into a cold cannoli or as a gelato sandwich between two pizzelles. Classicists can opt for the gelato as fodder for a root beer float. Yuppies can go for the espresso float.

Cup – small $3.25 medium $4 large $5

Angelato

374 Trapelo Rd, Belmont, MA 02478

617 484 0025

Open year round

Monday-Saturday 10a-10p Sunday 10a-7p

http://www.angelatofoods.com

White Mountain Creamery – Wellesley MA

This place also has a shop closer to the city, right by the BC stop on the Green Line. When I went past that one and judged it by its size, I realized that it probably wasn’t where the ice cream was made. A little research revealed that the place is based in Wellesley (and is open to franchising if you want your own). It seemed like that was where to go to get a Honey Maple Grapenut cone.

Stepping inside White Mountain Creamery, I realized that I had been here before, but trying to determine when made me realize how long this place has been around. I had a friend that ran the Boston Marathon, and a few months before the race, he ran the course. I picked him up at the end of the run and drove him back to his car in Hopkinton, and this was where we stopped en route.

Wellesley’s shopping district is pretty posh, but by the time dusk hits, even the Starbuck’s is closing up. For me all that means is more parking spots near this vintage, wood-paneled store.  There are tables inside and benches outside. The water fountain in the back corner has low water pressure and not very cold water. In other words it seems like it has been here for generations, just like the shop itself.

The ice cream seems very freshly homemade in here, someone was working on a batch of coffee while I was ordering and that scent was pervasive inside. The menu board behind the counter has yellow diamond-shaped magnets that tell people what “Today’s Flavors” are and what are the “Special Flavors.” The latter are often a combination of other options and that’s what drew me to the honey maple grapenut scoop.

This was a really rich cone, with the honey and maple flavors locked in battle over which flavor was going to dominate the cone. The results were a war that continued into the mouth. With either of them serving individually as a base, this would be a better flavor, instead of winding up as the Maypo of ice cream. Grapenuts are a tough addition to most cones as they have a knack for losing their crunch. Sometimes that can be good as in a grapenut pudding, but here it seemed as though they were added late to the ice cream in an attempt to keep them crunchy, but recent temperatures had caused some melting and refreezing which made them taste a bit stale. That may seem a bit critical of this cone, and it is, the scent left on my fingers makes me want to go back and get more.

White Mountain Creamery offers something that you’d have to pull teeth at most other places to get them to allow. Do you want to host an ice cream sundae social? For $4.50/person they can supply all you need to satisfy groups of up to 5000 people. If you’ve got 4999 friends, please invite us too!

other review: White Mountain Creamery – Newton

Cone – child $2.55 small $3.45 large $4.35

Sundae – small $5.25 large $6.45

Frappe $5.25 malt frappe $5.70 extra-thick frappe $6.25

White Mountain Creamery

552 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA 02482

781 239-0676

Open year round

Daily 11a-11p

http://www.wmcicecream.com/

Truly Yogurt – Wellesley MA

If you’re in New England and itching to get some ice cream in the evening, it can be really easy. All you need to do is hop in the car and drive. If you select a major secondary road and just drive, odds are good that within ten miles you’ll stumble across an informal gathering of people clustered around a lit storefront. That’s how I found this place and got a Totally Turtle cone.

It took until the third sign that was up at this place that I could even figure out what the name of this place. The sign above the door says The Grove Street Sandwich And Yogurt Shop. The sign between the doors says Annabelle’s Natural Ice Cream. It’s the sandwich board inside that says Truly Yogurt (although the logo actually shares a Y). Only looking back at the photo did I realize that the front sign does have Truly Yogurt in an outline font. Enough typography.

This place started in Wellesley back in 1992 during that wave of health consciousness that had TCBY popping up in every mall all across the country. But while TCBY holds fast to the yogurt principle, Truly Yogurt offers more ice cream options – both soft-serve and hard pack – than frozen yogurt choices. I don’t know that anyone I overheard at the counter got anything other than actual ice cream. Most people figure that if you’re going for it, there’s no reason to not just go for it and get ice cream.

I probably should have opted for yogurt at a place with this name, but even when it is great, I always feel as though I should have had ice cream. Knowing that I’d find a way to regret whatever choice I made, I tried to satisfy my most immediate cravings and thus today I felt totally turtle. With a name like this, I would have assumed that the shop was started in 1982 by a bunch of valley girls.

While warm nights do lead to fast melting cones – I was given a styrofoam cup “just in case” – the soft texture of the ice cream actually complemented the tastes. An innocuously creamy vanilla ice cream served as the base while the ample swirl of runny caramel carried lots of chocolate candies and a few pieces of cashew with it. While I could have done with more nuts in the mix, the results were very nice, and this was the right cone to find with nothing in mind.

One thing that Truly Yogurt does that I haven’t seen at other places is that they have a flavor of the day. That sandwich board used dry erase markers to reveal today’s flavor and what tomorrow’s will be. However, if you go online, their website tells you what the flavor of the day was all last month and all of this. There doesn’t seem to be any system to it all, but it’s a fun way to keep people interested in your menu.

Cone – kiddie $2 small $2.50 medium $3.25 large $3.75

Sundae – small $4 medium $4.50 large $5

Frappe $4.25

Truly Yogurt

35 Grove Street, Wellesley, MA 02482

781 239-1356

Open year round

Daily noon-9:30p

http://trulyyogurt.com

Sebastian & Alexander’s – Waltham MA

Nothing is as disappointing as going someplace that sounds interesting only to find a changed storefront and new contents. RIP Festive Flavors. After regrouping with a turkey sub, we set off in another direction going somewhere we were more certain still existed. After a taste of the mango ice cream, I opted for Mint Chocolate Chip in a sugar cone and Tom went for the Cherry Chocolate Chip.

For some reason, searching online for this place as Sebastian & Alexander’s turns up no results that use that name, even though it is boldly printed on the front glass of the store. Even a Globe West piece about it opening in 2006 only ever refers to it as Sebastian’s. It came into being with the expansion of the Cafe On The Common space that is adjacent. It’s actually the same employees that man the counters with an open doorway between them.

In the heart of Waltham center (right at the corner of Main St and Moody St), This place is so posh that you want to clean up the spots where ice cream drips from the hole in the bottom of the cone onto the granite floor. There are tall ceilings as well and there’s sort of a sterile, highbrow attitude that makes me wish we had opted for the table outside, but the chance to sit right above an air conditioning vent was too alluring.

The only moderate bustle of Sebastian’s was highlighted by the fact that only one of the coolers was full of ice cream, and the buckets were smaller, maybe only 2 gallons. That meant we had 13 choices, including the sorbet. While Kimball’s would probably burn through this supply of ice cream in about 10 minutes, Sebastian’s makes small batches by hand as is necessary, and everything is very fresh.

The mint chocolate chip cone wasn’t tainted by faux green mint coloring, and was a strong peppermint ice cream with classic rectangular chips. Ice cream was inside the cone until the last inch with a decently sized scoop atop it. The cream was light, not rich and dense, and relatively airy. It’s a flavor that can be tough to do wrong, but when it’s actually done right, like this, you can taste it.

TOM: “I’m not generally drawn to cherry ice cream, but I could tell at the counter that this was good stuff. The cherries were sliced into rectangular pieces that paired well alongside the chocolate chips. The cream itself held its own, but the cherries definitely provided the bulk of the character — which is how good cherry ice cream should be made.”

The lack of a division between the cafe and the ice cream shop brings about a  weird situation most when it comes the hours of operation. No other ice cream shop is open so early or closes so early. At 6p, the employees are already getting everything closed up, and most people haven’t even sat down to dinner, never mind contemplated dessert.

Cone – 1scoop $2.50 2scoops $3.75 3scoops $4.75

Sundae – small $3.75 large $4.75

Shake – small $4.75 large $5.25

Sebastian & Alexander’s Homemade Real Fruit Ice Cream and Sorbet

677 Main St, Waltham, MA 02452

781 647-2456

Open year round

Daily 7a-6p

S&A’s on the internet