Return Engagement: Annabelle’s – Portsmouth NH

Apparently SoundScan really does police their records. I had to wait until midnight before the guys working would turn over the Big Star box set to me. After wasting a bunch of time in there finding 10 other records to use my credit on, I wandered around downtown Portsmouth for a couple hours and stumbled into a Pumpkin Pie cone.

Appearances are proving that newspaper reports are true that Ceres Street here on the waterfront in Portsmouth is in for a major reconstruction. Eliminating a couple aluminum sided buildings and providing an unimpeded view of the waterfront could really do wonders here. As it is, this is an alley with an old world charm, and the giant ice cream cone mounted on the side of the largest brick facade is always a welcome sight.

I turned the corner and saw it still lit, unlike most of the rest of the town on this Monday night. I figured maybe it was just a switch unflipped, but then the waving of the ‘open’ flag was a tractor beam to my soul. A sign for Fall flavors brought some extra lift to my step and I had a pretty good idea that I was going to find something special. I started with a taste of the pumpkin pie and stopped there

After I ordered the cone I actually commented that I was surprised they were open extra late on a Monday night. The guy working looked down a bit when he told me that he just hadn’t shut off the lights yet. The store was empty and the busy nest of tables and chairs crowded into this small wood-floored space had all been cleaned off for the night. So I stepped outside and wandered toward the Strawberry Banke waterfront park.

As pumpkin, this was a magnificently spiced cone that mixed the pumpkin flavors with a mashup of spices ruled by cinnamon and nutmeg. The ice cream wasn’t overly milky or creamy, instead falling in that more ideal middle ground, and it was fresh and new as though only a few scoops had been dredged from the container. The only gripe here is one I always have about naming your flavor pumpkin Pie and then making no acknowledgement of the crust. A great pumpkin ice cream, but if you want to call this pumpkin pie, I need something more in here.

The fact that this was still open was even more amazing considering I had made a first sidetrack over to Gilley’s. It seems they’ve got a new menu board, but it has all of the same great favorites on it. The one addition to the menu is poutine. For those who’ve never been to Montreal, think french fries covered in cheese curd covered in gravy. I recommend a fork. Leaving here without a cheeseburger is also a felony (grilled cheese is acceptable for vegetarians).

Original review : http://weallscreamforicecream.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/annabelles-portsmouth-nh/

Cone – regular $3.20 large $3.95

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/

Golick’s – Dover NH

Sometimes you have to wonder about the nature of toll roads. Frustratingly, this ice cream cone cost me an extra $1.50 by being one exit after the toll booths. As part of a slightly greater trip to New Hampshire, it was a perfect way to kick off a fun night with a Graham Chocolate Crunch cone.

In 1986, Alan Golick and Lisa Thompson took over a soft-serve location that had been operated for years as Princess Dairy, and expanded the menu and created the original Golick’s Dairy Bar. With a stand too small to make their own ice cream, they sought out local manufacturers to provide the best assortment of flavors. For their hard pack ice cream, their supplier is Blake’s in Manchester, the same place that services the nearby UNH Dairy Bar. Golick’s has since expanded and has a second location in Barrington as well.

The stand is located in the midst of a wide parking lot, with a few picnic tables off to either side. It’s right next to the seafood restaurant the Weathervane, and I watched in horror as parents who seemed like villains in a Roald Dahl book marched their kids from the front door right into the minivan without even acknowledging the protestations of the kids who likely only agreed to seafood because of the nearby prospect of a cone.

The road sign illuminated the facts that were evident by the night’s crisp air: it was fall and their special flavors fell right in line. Pumpkin and Apple Crisp ice creams were both on the menu for this last month that Golick’s is open (they close Columbus Day weekend). I tried the apple crisp, but it is a flavor that does best when the crisp is crispy and fresh, and my sample seemed like merely apple ice cream.

What I chose was the Graham Chocolate Crunch, or Graham Central Station as it goes by elsewhere. The graham based ice cream had a rich and full flavor with a heavy cream feel that was leavened by the inclusion of chocolate covered graham crunchies. In the fall ice creams can take on odd characteristics, and this had the strange ability to seem soft and warm on the outside and yet the inside of each scoop may have been the coldest ice cream I’ve had all Summer. It just meant I had to approach it slowly, and in the time just after dusk, there were no rays of sun to battle with. This just had such a weird weird balance to it, I needed to lick furiously, but if I bit I felt as though my teeth might freeze and shatter.

Ice cream in belly, I hopped back in the car and made my way to Portsmouth with a bag of old CDs to trade in at Bull Moose so that I could get the new Big Star box set as midnight struck. The extra credit that I received there more than made up for the toll fees that increased the price of this cone fifty percent.

Cone – kids $2.50 small $3 medium $3.50 large $4

Sundae – regular $3.75 large $4.50

Frappe – regular $4.25 large $4.75

Golick’s Dairy Bar

4 Dover Point Rd, Dover, NH 03820-4687

603 742-1230

Open April-Columbus Day

Daily noon-9p

http://www.golicksdairybar.com/

Jake’s – Amherst NH

My friend invited me out for ice cream. However, since she lives in Atlanta, the place she wanted to take me has no shoppes anywhere near Boston. What she did find was a similarly named ice cream joint in the wilds of New Hampshire for me to go to while she went to the one there. My dad was looking to take a trip this way so we hopped in his air-conditioned car and aimed toward an Almond Sweet Cream / Caramel Avalanche and Lime Coconut / Black Raspberry cone.

Jake’s owner Roni Vetter was an award winning pastry chef with the Ritz Carlton before she put her efforts into this location instead. The first thing you see inside the doors are counters full of pastries and baked goods as well as a few lunch items for those who are on the go. In the main room the focus shifts to dessert with open space and a ring of freezer cases creating a grand ice cream counter. There’s a make your own sundae bar on one wall and another has a case full of confections.

Open since 1988, this location makes about thirty flavors of ice cream that they also supply to an array of area restaurants. This comfortable location also has a bunch of tables outside with umbrellas and chairs. With temperatures around 90 degrees in the middle of the afternoon, all of the activity is inside where people can sit and enjoy their ice cream without battling the melting that comes with this heat. The front of the store has a separate sunroom sort of feel making it so people can all create their own space.

It’s always fun when a shoppe makes their own ice cream and has a bunch of flavor creations that don’t show up anywhere else. We dove into the options trying samples. I started with the almond sweet cream and moved on to the caramel avalanche. My dad sampled a few as well, and when he ordered first went with a cone that was split between the black raspberry and the lime coconut. Since he was taking two scoops, I decided it wasn’t worth choosing between my options either.

The almond sweet cream was a thick ice cream that seemed harder than the rest. It reminded me of Wheeler’s vegan options as the almond was so pervasive that I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that they used an almond milk as the base instead of any dairy. While it needed a true appreciation of almonds to enjoy, the caramel avalanche was a dream that could sway the most ornery curmudgeon. Salted caramel flavors are all the rage at shops like this around the country, and this was one of the finest with light chocolate chips and just enough sea salt to keep the sweetness in check, but not some much as to leave you dry-mouthed (as the Hagen Daas version is apt to). Both were real treats, and the lime coconut may have been the tangiest marriage of key lime and pina colada that the White Mountain state (if not all New England) has ever seen.

The only detraction here was the cone itself. By the end of August, I usually expect that the teens scooping ice cream know how to make a good cone. I watched my cone crack as the girl tried to put the almond on top, and despite two scoops, there wasn’t a drop of ice cream inside the cone. All that was in my hand was a precarious holder that gave way after a few bites and forced me to rely on an auxilliary bowl and spoon. A disappointment that was almost entirely overshadowed by some great ice cream, but this was enough of a direct assault on a pet peeve that it needed to be addressed.

Cone – kiddie $2.80 small $3.65 large $4.50

Sundae – small $4.45 large $5.35

Frappe – small $3.95 large $4.95

Jake’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream & Sweet Shoppe‎

135 Route 101A, Amherst, NH 03031

603 594-2424

Open year round

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

http://www.jakesoldfashionedicecream.com/

Izzy’s – Portsmouth NH

Most of the places that I have stopped for ice cream in New Hampshire for a cone have been intermediary stops on the way to Maine. Today, I spend the most time in town waiting for a drawbridge to raise. With most of my Portsmouth friends having moved to the West Coast, this visit is no exception. Except that I didn’t get a cone, instead I had a Turtle Dizzy Izzy.

Despite the fact that many people seem to see Izzy’s as a poor man’s version of Annabelle’s, this year marks the 20th season that this shoppe has been open. Perched at the top of the street that you need to walk down to get to Annabelle’s, Izzy’s has a knack for filtering out a lot of the tourist traffic that doesn’t venture anywhere beyond those harbor-side boats that double as restaurants. With yogurt preceding ice cream in their name, Izzy’s does aim for a different niche of the frozen dessert dollar.

Beth Gilbert has been running Izzy’s over the course of its twenty years. In celebration of the anniversary last month, she organized a community cleaning project. People gathered and cleaned some city spaces, including the area around the public library, and after that people who helped congregated at the shoppe for free cones. Izzy’s tries to incorporate itself into it’s surroundings with projects like this rather than any sort of gala celebration.

On this evening, downtown was truly bustling with half-inebriated folks stumbling from every downtown door. Amazingly there was a parking spot waiting for me on the block. The couple fo tables inside were empty as the weather was ideal for strolling by the water. The menu board was covered with a bunch of “Out” notes taped onto all of the interesting flavors that I was in the mood for. It sort of limited my options, but since I was heading out on the road quickly, I diverted my attention from the cones to the other options that were available.

After eliminating a bunch of thoughts from the realm of possibility, I was drawn to the Dizzy Izzy selections. These are a milkshake-styled concoction that incorporates a few other elements depending on the combination that you’re looking for, but they don’t blend it to oblivion like some concretes do. The turtle used soft-serve chocolate ice cream with fresh whole pecans, caramel, and hot fudge. When all of the elements are going in fresh like this, there’s no reason to expect anything less than a taste delight, and that’s what I got. The only dilemma I had was that it was still too thick to eat while driving so I walked around and ate it with a spoon.

Somehow I stopped in Portsmouth without making a side trip to Gilley’s. These are the best cheeseburgers in the world. I have made trips especially here just for burgers. I have made trips here to eat these burgers before I go on other trips so I can compare and contrast. I really should have since nothing else was open anywhere north of here. I think I need to stop at Gilley’s on my way back home.

Cone – junior $1.45 small $2.85 medium $3.35 large $3.85

Sundae – one scoop $3.95 two scoops $4.70 hot brownie $4.75

Dizzy Izzy $4.95

Izzy’s Premium Frozen Yogurt & Zoe’s Ice Cream

33 Bow St, Portsmouth, NH 03801

603 431-1053

Open April-October

Sunday-Wednesday 11a-10p, Thursday-Saturday 11a-11p

Izzy’s online

Lago’s Lone Oak Ice Cream – Rye NH

After extending my stay in Portland a day longer than I’d anticipated, I found myself with no obligations until I needed to get to MIT for my radio show. Having meandered up Route 1, I made my way hastily back to New Hampshire before I detoured around the tolls. It was just south of Portsmouth that I snacked upon Cookie Monster in a sugar cone.

I can’t find much on this place as far as any sense of history goes. I think I stopped here at one point with my dad when I was in junior high and was trying to buy my first stereo. I know that we went to State Street Discount which is close to across the street, and then we had ice cream somewhere nearby. No idea about what flavor I had, and I wound up picking up all of my Technics unit at a store in the Pheasant Lane Mall.

There’s a second location for Lago’s that’s over in Rochester. Actually I’m not sure which is first and which is second, but if you check the website, the Rochester store has a way better logo as they make it look like the Man in the Mountain is licking a cone. This place is pretty prefab with a long line of windows for selling scoops through and an indoor seating area on one end.

Lago’s offers a ton of flavor options. Limiting myself to just the hard ice cream, I had to try their Indian Pudding ice cream first. They bill it as their fall flavor and without the richness offered in farm-based ice cream shoppes, it didn’t have the boldness to make it transcend seasons. I averted myself from the Chocolate Monkey as soon as I realized it was just their variation on banana and chocolate. That’s when I noticed the sign at the bottom – intended for those half my height – for Cookie Monster ice cream.

A simple vanilla base is dyed a light blue color, in an attempt to resemble the fur color of my favorite Muppet. What they add to that are Oreos, animal crackers, and chocolate chip cookies. The cookies all fight for space and bring interesting flavors to each bite, with none dominating overall, but each bite having very distinct characteristics. The blue vanilla was a very simple flavor and while this cone may have been carried better by other bases, none of them are easy to make blue.

There’s a load of picnic tables in the adjacent lot, and I tried to get them all in this shot, but got a few at least. I was hoping all of this green would bring the blue in the cone out, but this image appears far more aqua than the reality. There’s signage over here that makes it seem as though that area is used for events during the summer, or maybe they just set up an auxiliary stand for overflow.

Cone – baby $2.50 kids $3.25 small $3.75 large $4.25 triple$5.25

Sundae – small $5 large $5.75 super $6.75

Frappe $4.75 extra-thick $5.50

Lago’s Lone Oak Ice Cream

71 Lafayette Rd, Rye, NH‎

603 964-9880‎

Open year April-October

Daily noon-9p

http://lagos-lone-oak.com/

UNH Dairy Bar – Durham NH

Google got me lost again. I should have paid more attention, but they inconveniently swapped out a “Ln” for a “Rd” and I wound up miles from where I wanted to be. Thankfully I knew that this spot was on the UNH campus and at the train station, so finding it was easy. The balloons helped lead me to a Mint Explosion cone.

The balloons up on Main St because today was the Grand Opening of the UNH Dairy Bar. While it was actually more of a re-opening, this wasn’t merely a factor of the new semester, the building had just completed a nearly million dollar renovation. It’s still the same old train station that was moved from Lynn more than eighty years before.

The new facility is clean and modern and still serves as both a campus dining spot, Amtrak depot, and an ice cream parlor. There are seats and booths inside and a bar that runs parallel to the tracks and has floor to ceiling windows. There’s also extensive seating outside under an awning right by the tracks (most of those waiting had no cones), and for those interested in something more active, you can watch field hockey practice on an adjacent field.

With a new menu that proclaims itself as “Local. Sustainable. Fresh.,” it’s more than a bit odd that the source of ice cream at this place is not UNH’s own dairy. Instead of offering their own ice cream and having this be the primary outlet, the ice cream instead comes from Blake’s, a local New Hampshire company. I guess UNH has no ice cream sciences degree as I was hoping this spot would be more like UConn, Mizzou, Penn State, or Cornell, but alas.

I tasted the graham central station, but it paled in comparison to the place in Scranton, so I dove in to test out the mint explosion. The ice cream was a strong mint with a light green hue. It probably could have been a bit sweeter, but instead the mint was highlighted more. The candies inside the ice cream were chocolate covered mint, and even the chocolate swirl seemed to have minty overtones. Being the first day in operation, the cone was fresh and free from any elements of refreeze that September is so prone to bring out. If you want a mint to kick you in the pants, this should fit the bill.

For what would be the end of the season at most places, it’s always strange when you get served a cone with as precarious a sense of balance as this – there was almost no ice cream inside the cone and what was there kept trying to fall out of its own accord. It seemed like they overdelegate responsibilities as one person took my order, another took my money, and a third served me my cone. I guess this spot is run by the school’s restaurant management department. The full menu available looked both good and affordable, and it accepts UNH’s meal plan money as well. If I were a student, I can’t imagine needing to make it into a cafeteria except for the mornings when I want to binge on cereal and French toast.

Cone – regular $2.59 large $3.29

Sundae – regular $3.99 large $4.99

Frappe $3.59

UNH Dairy Bar

4 Depot Rd, Durham NH 03824

603 862-1006

Open year round

Monday-Friday 6:30a-8p Saturday & Sunday 11a-8p

http://www.unh.edu/dairy-bar/

Aloha – Hampton Beach NH

Sometimes ice cream has only one purpose, and that’s to cool folks down and bring a smile. In such cases we ignore some of the other indiscretions, because we feel better just by eating ice cream and not because the stuff is any good, just because it is there. Beachside parlors are certainly like this, and we were suckers. I went for a Butter Pecan cone, Sam had a Peppermint Stick.

If you look on the internet, this place doesn’t seem to exist. Sam and I didn’t use his GPS to steer us here either. It was all a matter of heading to the beach so we could play catch and the fact that our parking spot was right across the street from this spot. If we hadn’t been in the midst of a day of mad consumption this wouldn’t have fared so poorly, but even the sand between our toes couldn’t save it.

Red flag #1 was parked out front. While the signs declared this was Aloha Homemade Ice Cream, the Rosev (nee Hood) truck was parked right out front and was loading things in. Maybe Hood was only supplying the soft-serve as there was one of those obnoxious pink flags with 40 different flavors that took up an entire wall of the store. Even the name Aloha just seems out of place in New Hampshire.

Red flag #2 was our exquisite customer service. “I’d like butter pecan in a sugar cone.” Almost a minute later the girl looked up at me with a wafer cone in her hand and asked if I wanted a twist. I think I was lost for a moment since I couldn’t figure out how you would twist hard ice cream and change the cellular matter of the cone.

The ice cream wasn’t anything to write home about. In fact, Sam asked if I just skipped over the places that weren’t good, but I feel as obligated to steer folks away from bad ice cream as I do to alert them to great stuff. There wasn’t much flavor here at all…. neither the cream, butter, nor pecan did anything. Despite the benefit of the beach this seemed old and stale with soft pecans and lots of refreeze. If you’re in New Hampshire swimming, look around for other options.

Somehow all of these problems are sort of swept under the carpet. Even if a quarter only gets you ten minutes of parking, the chance to spend time on the beach erases any indiscretions. Thankfully those indiscretions didn’t carry over to Sam and I reciprocating the flirting we were getting from some girls nearby (because when they got near we realized that they were younger than his little sister). A few jumps through the waves after diving in the sand for some errant throws makes whatever seemed bad disappear.

Cone – kids $2.75 small $3.75 medium $4.25 large $4.75

Sundae – small $4.75 medium $5.75 large $6.75

Frappe/shake $5.25

Aloha Homemade Ice Cream

Ocean Blvd, Hampton Beach NH

Phone?

Open seasonally

Hours #a-#p?

no web mentions?

Strawberry Alley – Portsmouth NH

While technology can be great at times, it doesn’t know everything. Sometimes the human memory wins out. None of the locals we asked even knew this place existed. I knew that I found ice cream in that spot before, so I put on my most confident strut and was relieved when we saw a bunch of folks with cones. In honor of the name, I had a Strawberry cone. Sam got Grapenut.

There is a reason that none of the locals know that this place exists. It is really meant to serve the tourist portion of town as Strawberry Alley is located in the Jefferson House – part of the Strawberry Bank Museum. It also conveniently caters to the crowds that gather for all of the summer events in Prescott Park, just across the street. The museum is a Colonial-themed historical re-enactment with most of the homes in their original site right near the harbor. Think Williamsburg without the rollercoasters or fair food… maybe just think Sturbridge Village by the sea.

For some reason, I always thought that the ice cream parlor didn’t  come about until the 1950’s, but the museum has been running this through Portsmouth summers for years. They don’t require these employees to wear period garb, so it really is a moment out of time. I’ll forgive these transgressions for the sake of ice cream, though ideally, I would make the ice cream using colonial methods and make that an interactive exhibit (we could use freezers for storage).

My dreams of antiquely homemade ice cream are dashed as soon as I see the Annabelle’s sign. They don’t even make the ice cream here. Annabelle’s delivers it to them from just down the street. The options here are limited to around a dozen, and most of the flavors are pretty conventional. The realization of where I am makes me remember an edict that I issued to myself that when I go somewhere that has got something special in their name, that I should just go for that. Strawberry calling.

The ice cream was off though. Maybe the fact that this ice cream doesn’t sell at the clip it does at Annabelle’s itself and thus wasn’t as fresh was the whole of the issue. However, it seemed off. The cream had bitten the tang of strawberry off, and the results were a pinkish cream. The strawberry pieces showed the effect of refreeze as well. Leads me to another of those get it where they make it decrees that I need to adhere to more.

This place is really a scoop shop. All that is offered are three sizes of cones, with the option to upgrade to a waffle cone or add sprinkles. There’s nowhere to sit, but as long as the weather allows, the gardens of Prescott Park are right across the street or you can walk all the way to the water’s edge.

Cone – kiddie $2.25 regular $2.60 large $3.25

Strawberry Alley – The Strawberry Bank Museum Ice Cream Shop

Marcy St, Portsmouth NH 03802-0300

603 433-1100

Open seasonally

Hours #a-#p

http://www.strawberybanke.org/

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/