Return Engagement: Athan’s

My bandmate Joe, lives right around the corner from Washington Square in Brookline, so we’d been talking about going to Athan’s ever since I made my first stop there months ago. He apparently had always been sidetracked by the Emack and Bolio’s and never made it all the way here when he was in the mood for frozen confections (and it is tougher to convince his teenage sons to go for gelato than ice cream).

I wasn’t sure just what mood I was in, so I wound up with a cup of the Green Tea gelato while Joe went for the Chocolate. The flavors were bold and strong in both and the gelato was dense and fresh. I can’t say that I’ve ever actually brewed a cup of green tea that has this flavor, but everything that claims to be green tea-flavored has this same approach to my palate, but that’s probably because I rarely add cream or sugar. It was wonderfully refreshing and made me rethink the possibilities for how to approach tea time.

Original review: http://weallscreamforicecream.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/athans-european-bakery-brookline-ma/

J.P. Licks – Cambridge MA

It’s scary to realize that these September days are when many ice cream shops around start putting up a countdown for how many more days they are open. Some will be boarded up before the baseball season ends, while others hold out until the snow starts to accumulate. Some will be here all year round. Seasonal flavors everywhere make things fun, and I had an Apple Crisp cone.

This location has hosted a slew of other coffee shop / ice cream shoppes, but this Summer, J.P. Licks decided to have a presence in Harvard Square. If the reason other businesses hadn’t pulled out of the space was more than just where it is, here’s hoping these guys stick.

This is the eighth store in the J.P. Licks universe. Their home base is in Jamaica Plain, and they have scoop shops in Brookline, Newton, West Roxbury, Davis Square, Newbury Street, and Mission Hill. This shop is small, but there are some tables on the sidewalk in front as well. Not that it matters, you’re in Harvard Square, there’s bound to be something to see if you walk around with your cone for a few minutes.

The cow motif and hand drawn blackboards keep the regular J.P. Licks aesthetic consistent within their stores. There’s not much different from store to store, but what changes are the flavors, at least the seasonal ones. While the sample i tried was of their chocolate sorbet, I went with the apple crisp since it seemed the only flavor that really is most redolent of September to me.

While I enjoyed the apple cinnamon flavor of the ice cream itself, I was really hoping that the crisp might actually be crispy. Instead the oatmeal mash that made up the crisp seemed more like mush that was just chewy in the ice cream. The thing that most surprised me was the lack of any actual pieces of apple within the ice cream. This by no means a bad ice cream, but probably not something I’ll be back for before it’s off the menu in October.

This was the worst example of the glue that holds those paper wrappers on my sugar cone being stuck to the cone itself. I think it was actually the first time I sent the tip of the cone into the trash can rather than trying to eat around it. I’ve been trying to figure out an alternative. I’m looking at developing an organic edible sugar-based glue… I just need to get myself into a laboratory.

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

1312 Mass Ave, Cambridge 02139

617 492-1001

Open year round

Daily 6a – midnight

http://www.jplicks.com/

Dairy King – Everett MA

Despite the fact that Massachusetts eats the most ice cream per capita in the USA, sometimes you can drive around relentlessly without finding any frozen salvation. The best part is that whenever you feel most despondant, a cone can appear right in front of your eyes. I scored a Snickers cone, Jess had soft serve Chocolate in a cup, and Thom made the jump to a Root Beer Float.

My friends had made the move up here from the Virginia/Maryland/DC region earlier this summer and I made my way to Somerville to check out their new pad. It’s a nice little spot in an apartment building right near the Somerville library, and a cool (and affordable) first place here in town. We set out on a quest for food and ice cream in an area that they’d never been.

After my recent failures in finding spots, I opted for a place with a high concentration of possibilites. Unfortunately, even a map with 4 flagged entries on it wasn’t helpful, when two of them proved to be factories and the others had nothing resembling ice cream shoppes near the listed addresses. With spirits drooping I aimed us toward a slush stand, and just as I was thinking we may have failed, I looked up and right in front of us was a giant sign for ice cream.

The name Dairy King only appears on the large sign at the intersection of 16 and Everett Ave (we thought we were still in Chelsea until we looked at maps later). The name of the store is actually Flowers Etc… as the only cash register inside the building is behind the flower counter, not the ice cream one. Until recently the awning called this Stadium Fruit and Flowers despite not having had fruit in a longer period of time then anyone recalled. The ice cream takes up an odd section inside the building and has a window to the street. They serve Richardson’s ice cream along with soft serve and slush.

With a limited set of options, I decided to give the Snickers a try. The results were better than I expected, as they tried to replicate the candy bar from it’s component parts rather than just throw pieces into the vanilla ice cream. There are pieces of peanuts and chocolate chips distributed throughout the cone. A thick swirl of heady caramel looped through the cone carrying with it a peanutty aftertaste. Another solid option that comes from Richardson’s… we’ve had our big trip to their primary site for cones and mini-golf delayed all Summer long.

Neither Thom nor I had eaten much during the day before this, so our first stop was at the fabulous Mike’s Roast Beef and Seafood on 99 in Everett. Mike’s is open late every night (2a, 3a on Friday and Saturday) and has my favorite roast beef sandwiches in the Boston area. Though I didn’t get any, they make real nice fries and use those vats for seafood even better. A great place for food, not only to fill a late night drink-induced craving but even during the day.

Cone – small $3 medium $3.50

Sundae – medium $5.50 large $6

Frappe $5

Dairy King

21 Everett Ave, Everett, MA 02149

617 389-4412

Open year round

Hours #a-#p??

Dairy King online

Return Engagement: Erikson’s

There are so many nagging problems with an ear infection. Firstly, our body just shuts down in an effort to fight it off and you can enter a fevered state. Second, since it’s an ear issue there can be those damn dizzy spells. Thirdly, everything around there hurts, including your jaw which impairs chewing. Thus, I went for a Black Raspberry extra thick frappe when I stopped on my way back to my apartment.

An infusion of sweetness helped restore my equilibrium, the power of ice cream can never be discounted in any form. As a frappe this wasn’t as consistent as I may have hoped – there were lots of small pieces and flecks infused throughout the beverage in a way that made me question whether my request for an extra thick shake had actually been relayed properly from the girl at the counter to whoever was making shakes at the back of the shoppe.

I was initially going to go for wintergreen chip, as it’s one of my favorite flavors here, but chips in a frappe can be problematic, even if they all merely settle to the bottom of the cup. Sometimes it can be a great treat at the end, but since I wasn’t in the mood for chewing it seemed counterintuitive. Instead the black raspberry was the approach taken and it was wonderful, even if it was chosen because it was at the top of the second column on the menu more than any other reason.

Erikson’s will be closing for the season before the month of September is out. No one is sure of the date, but usually the dairy’s last weekend coincides with the Bolton Fair so I’d suspect that September 28 marks the end of the line here. Make it out while you can.

Original review: http://weallscreamforicecream.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/eriksons-dairy-maynard-ma/