Adventures in Ice Cream

Reader, one of our motivations for coming to the US was to have some adventures. Recently, my co-habitee redefined an adventure as “anything we wouldn’t be able to do in the UK“. This opened up the field to a wide range of activities, and crucially, it brought into scope one of my favourites - nipping out for an after-dinner ice cream.

Now it’s said that in the U.K. we eat a lot of ice cream, but it appears there’s something of an ice cream boom happening here in the Bay Area. Hipster coffee, craft beer and artisanal bread seem somewhat tame compared to the explosion of luxury ice cream that’s available. In this post, I’ll take you through the options which are walking distance from our place here in Palo Alto, and even slightly beyond.

Salt and Straw is the best ice cream in Palo Alto, and boy, they know it. Salt and Straw comes from ultra-trendy Portland, Oregon, and offers a whacky and seasonal take on traditional flavours, like for instance Gingerbread Cookie Dough. You’ll be served by a trendy, chatty young person - but all this assumes that you arrive there on one of the rare occasions that there isn’t a ridiculous queue. Yes, this is not only the best, but also the most popular ice cream in Palo Alto by a mile, with both Stanford students and the rucksacks of new Facebook employees often jostling for position in the queue on the pavement outside. Top tips: jump the queue and get a pint bucket to take away, and don’t under any circumstances buy a two scoop cone.

Scoop microcreamery comes a close second. They claim to make their ice cream with liquid nitrogen, making it denser and more highly flavoured. It’s certainly nice enough, and typically there isn’t a queue. Service is definitely with a sneer; attempting to cover your dithering over ordering with liberal applications of English accent are frankly not going to cut any ice.

If you happen to have just returned from, say, camping in the desert without food, and want to both cool down and stock up on calories, look no further than Cream. Cream have ice cream sandwiches as their stock in trade. This is definitely at the cheap and cheerful end of the market - pick your cookie, and have it filled with ice cream of your choice. Then, take liberal time to regret as you realise you can’t possibly ingest that much saturated fat and sugar in one go.

Finally, there’s the Italian place, that I can’t remember the name of. This wasn’t all that great to be honest; definitely bottom of the bunch.

Beyond downtown Palo Alto, in the Town and Country shopping centre, and also in the nearby town of Los Altos, is Tin Pot Creamery. This is actually my favourite - traditional flavours of beautifully textured ice cream, served nicely too. It’s got the artisan feel, but without being too-cool-for-school, like Salt and Straw. But sadly, not walking distance from the house!

Come to Palo Alto and pick your favourite!