Sunday Snapshot: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!
All is right in the world when it's a sunny day and you have a big ice cream cone in your hand.
I had a long week. The kind of week that makes you want to drown your sorrows in some cool, caring ice cream. While simultaneously mentally reviewing my work to-do list that didn't get done, deciding where to get my ice cream, and realizing that I hadn't even thought about this week's blog post yet, I serendipitously remembered that I had written a review for Salt & Straw ice cream for a writing class I took last year. So, I'm going to cheat a little this week and post the review. Ice cream done, blog post done, and the work can wait until Monday!
--------
I arrived at Salt & Straw on Fillmore Street at 5:45pm on a blustery San Francisco evening. Strange time for ice cream, right? Although I have no problem skipping dinner and going straight to dessert, the timing was intentional because there’s usually a line out the door, around the corner, and I’ve even seen it go well past the bus stop on Sacramento Street. I don’t have the patience for that silly, hipster game where waiting in line seems to actually be part of a restaurant experience, but I did want to check out the “farm-to-cone” hype for myself. My calculations of subpar ice cream conditions were correct, and only five people were queued ahead of me.
The shop is small with a few stools along a bar at the front windows to the left and a freezer case with prepared pints on the right. There are about ten “Classic SF Flavors” which are permanent options and five “May Flowers” seasonal flavors listed on the quintessential chalkboard menu. I tried a few of the interesting flavors like Sarsaparilla & Dandelion Root Beer Float and Rhubarb Crumble with Toast Anise, but I opted for two scoops of the more traditional Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons and Chocolate Gooey Brownie. The scooper, who was perfectly nice if a little hippie for working in Pacific Heights rather than the Ben & Jerry’s in the Haight, asked which flavor I would like on the top of the cone. Nice touch.
I got the waffle cone because it was the circus scent of fried, sugary dough wafting out of the shop, on to the sidewalk, and nearly across the street that compelled me to try this place. I had been avoiding this corner for weeks because of that smell. Now I admit that I’m not a connoisseur of waffle cones. I usually get a cup because of a few traumatizing cone incidents when I was a kid. For some reason, which I’m going to blame on gravity rather than my clumsiness, a couple of times my favorite Thrifty’s ice cream flavor, Chocolate Malted Crunch, toppled right off my cone and onto the ground with the first lick. Of course, the sympathetic teenager behind the case always scooped me up a replacement before any tears were shed and without charging another $0.35 (no comment to my obviously advancing age needed), but I learned my lesson and started getting cups. The Salt & Straw waffle cone was thicker than I anticipated which gave me confidence that it would hold my scoops snug within its crisp, sugary confines, and the flavor was surprisingly complex with an essence of the caramelized top of a crème brulee.
The Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons flavor is a perfectly balanced, magical combination of salty and sweet. Every taste bud in my mouth woke up like a blaring alarm just went off. The Fleur del Sel ice cream is light and creamy and the ribbons of housemade caramel are plentiful. It’s like a teeter totter where up and down are equal and opposite in perfect balance. The Chocolate Gooey Brownie was exactly what you want when you order a dessert called a chocolate gooey brownie. The onomatopoeia sells that flavor. I was pleasantly surprised by the restraint of the not-too-sweet chocolate ice cream especially in contrast to its fudgy consistency. That allowed the chewy, chocolatey pieces of brownie to be a special treat in every other bite.
Salt & Straw makes exceptionally good ice cream. No doubt about it. Is it worth the wait in a long line and $8.25 for a double scoop in a waffle cone? I’ll take my $0.35 Thrifty Chocolate Malted Crunch in a cup next time I have a sweet tooth.