Liz Biro: My favorite ice creams — and yours
- Your ice cream tweets
- Bacon and booze on vanilla
- An ice cream hamburger
I drove 182 miles one day for ice cream. And that was just one day. Since arriving in Indianapolis on June 14, 2014, I’ve tasted a lot of ice cream. These are my favorite flavors — so far. I’ve got a lot more traveling to do, as evidenced by your suggestions included here.
Peach cobbler sundae
9270 E. 141st St., Fishers, (317) 776-3800, www.facebook.com/OldCustardStand
You can’t see the peaches in this sundae from The Old Custard Stand, but they’re in there, fresh peaches that is, baked in a cobbler. Silky vanilla custard is laid over the warm cobbler, and more warm cobbler juices are spooned on top. Creamy, sweet, slightly tangy, stupid good and available for the limited time that peaches are in season.
Mexican hot cocoa
401 S. Walnut St., (812) 333-0475, www.chocolatemoosebloomington.com
Homemade cinnamon ice cream with hot fudge at The Chocolate Moose, in Bloomington since 1933. This is like a hot/cold Mexican hot cocoa. The ice cream supplies the chill and spice; the hot fudge lends that warm, cozy feel.
Strawberry shortcake
1015 Virginia Ave., (317) 737-2653, www.nyescreamsandwiches.com
Strawberry ice cream? Love! Strawberry ice cream between vanilla cakes? Love, love, love those kinds of ice cream sandwiches. Nye’s are even better. Premium ice cream is sandwiched between hand-scooped sugar cookies. These are made in my home state of North Carolina, in Wilmington, my last stop before Indianapolis. I never thought I’d see them this far from home, but there they were at Wildwood Market in Fountain Square.
Funnel cake ice cream sandwich
Indiana State Fair, Aug. 7-23, 1202 E. 38th St., www.in.gov/statefair/fair
Warm, cold, creamy, sweet, soft, crispy — with chocolate on top. I didn’t try to pick up the funnel cake ice cream sandwich with my hands. I was wise. I used a spork. I found the treat at the 2014 Indiana State Fair. Will it be back at the fair this year? Stay tuned. Menus are due any day now.
Spumoni
635 Virginia Ave., (317) 986-6904, www.cafenonnaindy.com
National Spumoni Day is Aug. 21, but why wait. Celebrate now with dipped spumoni gelato at Cafe Nonna. Not too sweet and a texture somewhere between soft serve and ice cream, the cherry, chocolate and pistachio combination is a flavor that takes me back to my childhood Italian upbringing in central New Jersey. The flavor is fun yet sophisticated. Bellissima.
Graham cracker chocolate
9922 E. 79th St., (317) 570-0533, www.sundaeshomemade.com
Many of you on Twitter recommended I try Sundae’s. One of the most popular ice creams there is the Graham Central Station’s chocolate ice cream laced with Graham crackers. Customers have been known to get ticked off if Sundae’s runs out of the flavor.
Bacon and booze
49 S. Meridian St., (317) 636-2550, www.hardrock.com/cafes/indianapolis
Hard Rock Café’s Twist and Shout Shake is not new. The blend of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, salted caramel sauce, Guinness stout and Bacardi spiced rum is an adult favorite. Do yourself a favor: Order the shake with crumbled bacon on top. That’s how the restaurant served it at the Bacon and Beer Classic festival staged recently at Victory Field. It was a crunchy, savory, sweet, chocolatey kick.
Tangerine dream
7065 S. State Road 67, Pendleton, (765) 778-3800, www.facebook.com/BestBBQinindiana
Italian ice meets sherbet is the sensation you get when you eat tangerine soft serve at Jimmie’s Dairy Bar. So refreshing, so light that you can have more than one, which you’ll need if paying with a debit or credit card, both of which have a $5 purchase limit.
Gingersnap lemon curd
www.facebook.com/LickIceCreamIndy, www.lickicecream.tumblr.com
I like a lot of Lick flavors, such as the milk chocolate and the honey and goat cheese flavors filling this cone, but my favorite by far is gingersnap lemon curd. The tart lemon flavor against the spicy ginger cookie crumble is like a lemon pie in every bite. Try flavors Saturday mornings at the Broad Ripple Farmers market and various restaurants around Indy.
Salted caramel pretzel
901 E. 64th St., (317) 257-5757, www.bricsindy.com
When I put out the call on Twitter and Facebook for ice cream suggestions, Bric’s came up for its pistachio, one of my top three all-time favorite flavors. For the perfect mix of salty and sweet, order pistachio or Brics’ Caramel x 3 ice cream (caramel ice cream with caramel swirl and caramel pieces) in a crunchy, salted pretzel cone.
Yes, mushroom ice cream!
888 Massachusetts Ave., (317) 423-0312, www.rbistro.com
I first encountered R. Bistro chef Erin Kem’s shiitake ice cream at the 2014 Indy Cooks for the Arc of Indiana. I’m thrilled to see it on the menu at the restaurant. The mushroom’s flavor lingers just enough and plays so well with the ice cream’s lush creaminess. The chocolate pizzelle’s slight bitterness is a genius match.
Ice cream on a burger
Indiana State Fair, Aug. 7-23, 1202 E. 38th St., www.in.gov/statefair/fair
Call me crazy — in fact, I called me crazy for liking it — but this ice cream burger served at the 2014 Indiana State Fair charmed me. You know how a vanilla shake tastes so good with a burger? It’s that kind of experience. Will it be back at the fair this year? Stay tuned.
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Call Liz Biro at (317) 444-6264. Follow her on Twitter @lizbiro, Instagram @lizbirodish, Facebook and Pinterest.