Returning for a moment to the original topic.

My family's favorite soft serve stand is in Glenview, next to the Glenview train station. It's called the Glenview Dairy Bar, but we simply call it the ICP - which is code for 'ice cream place'. We get soft serve there several times a week and always love it. The big local tradition surrounding this place is that people camp out overnight, starting the day before the ICP opens in the spring, so they can be the first in line to buy some ice cream.

Glenview Dairy Bar
1015 Harlem Avenue
Glenview, IL 60025

(847) 724-2029

EliasS wrote:My family's favorite soft serve stand is in Glenview, next to the Glenview train station. It's called the Glenview Dairy Bar, but we simply call it the ICP - which is code for 'ice cream place'. We get soft serve there several times a week and always love it. The big local tradition surrounding this place is that people camp out overnight, starting the day before the ICP opens in the spring, so they can be the first in line to buy some ice cream.

As a kid, I used to love that place - growing up in Glenview, I remember riding my bike there many times. Back then it was a Dairy Queen.

Okay, as noted before, I like ice cream, I tend to think of it as basically an entitlement in certain climatic conditions, and so I pretty much never look at it askance, as someone said of the Parker/Wine Spectator 100-point grading scale for wine, which starts at 50, it gets the first 50 points out of sheer gratitude for not being water. So I've generally declined to say that this or that ice cream place is better than the next, as we found on the south side tasting linked above, every place had its little touches which weren't necessarily comparable to someone else's, and it would be churlish not to be thankful for all of it.

Also, once you start actually getting analytical rather than sentimental about it, there's the problem of butterfat, which it's too easy to use as the thumb on the scale, the way a fancy restaurant can beat a hamburger stand for best burger by simply offering a half-pound of ground steak at six times the price. You'll have noticed in Vital Information's posts on ice cream that he tends to stand up for lower butterfat ice cream that tastes like ice cream used to taste. That's because, well, because nobody else stands up for it these days. But the spread of superpremium ice cream, like Haagen-Dasz or (more recently) that Australian (really Belgian) chain, which clock in at 16% or 18% butterfat, have all skewed our tastes so that a place serving ice cream closer to the legal minimum of 10% doesn't have that rich mouthfeel we associate with fine ice cream and consequently seems lighter, cheaper, less exciting. (Here's an article from Cook's Illustrated on the Double Rainbow site that talks about a lot of this stuff.)

Well, if butterfat is your only measure, then go ahead and call Godiva's obscenely rich chocolate ice creams from the freezer case at Jewel the best and be done with it; they're just barely enough ice cream to not be candy bars. But I don't think it's only about that; it ought to be about natural flavors, about not tasting like it's full of stabilizers and antifreezes. I want balanced ice cream that not only feels like eating frozen Crisco straight from the can but that also wows me with great fresh flavors. In short, I don't just want to be lulled with fat, like an Outback customer ordering a second blooming onion thinking I'm getting my vegetable for the day; I want ice cream that delivers the kind of fresh flavor jolt any good artisanal foodstuff delivers. In addition to the fat.

Not that anybody's counting, but a list of ice creams I've had in the last several months would include Haagen-Dasz and the gelato place I liked in Mexico, Mitchell's, Cunis and Gayety on our South Side excursion, Scooter's, Kopp's and Forbush's among custard places, Anderson's at the Lake County Fair, Homer's at Anthony's Italian Ice, Chocolate Shoppe at multiple locations around the area, Hershey's, house-made strawberry at some strawberry picking place in Maryland or Virginia, gelato at Massa, Blue Bunny at the Anna Held Flower Shop, ice cream with foie gras at Avenues, Bernard Callebaut ice cream bars, and last but very far from least, MAG's homemade. I'm sure there are others (we must have eaten more ice cream than just the two on our Cleveland-Pittsburgh-DC trip). Anyway, if I can't remember them all (oh yeah, I went to DQ once too) I trust I have at least established that I've taken ice cream seriously over the last few months, and so when I say that I can name the best ice cream place in the Chicago area, you may not agree but at least you can't dismiss it out of hand.

And that is what I will say in a moment. I had actually eaten there once or twice before, with the kids, who were the reason I got dragged down to this farflung corner of our world; and I had liked it but, I guess I lacked the comparative base listed above and the deep thinking about ice cream that I have now. This time, yesterday, was different, however. I ordered two homemade flavors-- chocolate chip and black walnut, which is better described as maple ice cream with walnut pieces in it. Now, there's no question that this is high butterfat ice cream, but it's something more than that-- the richness melded with bright, fresh flavors to make something that was qualitatively above every other ice cream I could remember tasting in recent times.

Add to that the fact that this is a place that's been around since 1937-- alas, it doesn't have the picture-perfect unchanged-since-it-was-built feeling that, say, Margie's has, but certainly conveys at least an Americana feel that takes you back as you enjoy your cone, and even sits at a rural-seeming corner that still feels like the small town country store it once was. If not the perfect ice cream place, it is a terrific one, and happily seems to have a loyal following, since it's always been packed whenever I've been there.

You will not find it easy to get to; it's in the middle of an obscure suburb you have probably never visited, and probably never would otherwise. But now, I suspect, you will. Or at least, Vital Information and his family will, at long last, because this ice cream place you must visit is:

The Plush Horse
12301 South 86th Avenue
Palos Park, IL 60464
http://www.theplushhorse.com/index.html

I'm working on a new, more complete ice cream list. The following places are in the database (so to speak) but without much data. If anyone has more specifics, both objective (is it home made, purchased/who is the vendor) and subjective (how'd it taste). Remember also, that the data is schitzo, some places are "pure ice cream" places and some are sundae places. If a sundae place, explain the sundaes.


Grampy's Frozen Custard (1 W. Illinois, St. Charles) - I guess I will keep this on the list even if I know of no one who has ever tried.

Sukhadia's Sweets (2559 W. Devon, Chicago) - Need current info

Soups and Scoops (2534 N. Clark, Chicago) - Gone right?

Pudgies (Lincoln Square) - What?

Suger Buzz (2909 N. Broadway) Double Rainbow right?

Windy City Sweets (3308 N. Broadway) ?

Greg's Frozen Custard (1490 S. Lake Street (Route 45) Mundelein, IL ) - This is the place I meant to go to after the Lake County Fair. Anyone know?

Hartigan's Ice Cream (2909 Central St., Evanston) - Mentioned in passing by Zim, who notes it serves cedar crest dairy ice cream from Wisconsin. Any other info?

Hartigan's, my neighborhood ice cream place, does indeed have ice cream from Wisconsin. It's pretty good, but not great, I believe. Many of their selections have lots of stuff mixed in -- chips, nuts, chocolate candies, fudge, etc. -- which is not to my liking, but kids of course often go for that. They do have cinnamon ice cream, though, which I like and often get to go with apple pie. Much better ice cream in this neck of the woods is the ever-popular Homer's, on Green Bay in Wilmette. Great peach ice cream at this time of year, and other super rich flavors as well. Prairie Berry is very good, and I like the pumpkin and egg nog flavors they feature during the holidays. But still...my thoughts drift off to the superlative gelato we had in Vancouver this summer...a return vacation based in part on our desire to eat that amazing stuff again. Why oh why can't we have that here?

Grampy's Frozen Custard (1 W. Illinois, St. Charles) - I guess I will keep this on the list even if I know of no one who has ever tried

I'm in St. Charles for a wedding Saturday with a 2 hour lag between ceremony and reception. I'll check it out as a great way to kill time.

Greg's has been mentioned by yours truly here. I do have photos to add to this post one of these days.

Regards,

Vital Information wrote:Hartigan's Ice Cream (2909 Central St., Evanston) - Mentioned in passing by Zim, who notes it serves cedar crest dairy ice cream from Wisconsin. Any other info?

Another place with Cedar Crest ice cream is the Medici Bakery in Hyde Park.

Medici Bakery
1331 East 57th St.
Chicago

...And when you're there try the Stawberry Lemonade.

Amata wrote:Another place with Cedar Crest ice cream is the Medici Bakery in Hyde Park.

Amata,

Not to mention Medici's excellent bread

Enjoy,
Gary

I slipped on the subject header - but once again the Strawberry Lemonade is great. The cinnamon rolls look good too, but I never had them. Plus the atmosphere is great - some people look like they haven't moved from their seats since the 50's!

Since my Plush Horse post was all by its lonesome self, I merged it into this one (above).

Here's another nominee, though it stretches the "Chicagoland" description all the way to the Chicagoans' vacation home town of New Buffalo, MI: Oink's, next door to the I Love Toy Trains store. (Amusingly, I note that it earned a passing mention in this thread. It's getting harder and harder to come up with things no one has mentioned before!)

Oink's actually doesn't make its own ice cream, it comes from a place called Sherman's in South Haven. However, Oink's must have the edge in atmosphere since it beat Sherman's in a local magazine's poll for best ice cream shop. It's a little prefab building (used to be a restaurant called Carl's Hut, whose framed menus are among the decor) packed to the rafters, quite literally, with ice cream memorabilia-- metal jugs, cardboard boxes, Mixmasters, scoops, from a million different ice cream companies. (They did not, surprisingly, have the Bing Crosby Ice Cream box that is in the Mike G Collection, however.) It's a lot of fun, in a quintessentially vacation towny kind of way.

As for the ice cream, it's rich and fresh-tasting. "Chocomania" and that Chicago standby New York Cherry were good, but the one that really blew us all away was a deeply purple Marion Blackberry which really tasted of fresh Michigan fruit. Probably a seasonal item, so I recommend getting it in season asap.

Oink's Dutch Treat
227 W. Buffalo Street
New Buffalo, Michigan 49117

ToniG wrote:Hartigan's, my neighborhood ice cream place, does indeed have ice cream from Wisconsin. It's pretty good, but not great, I believe.

I'd agree with that assessment

ToniG wrote: Much better ice cream in this neck of the woods is the ever-popular Homer's, on Green Bay in Wilmette. Great peach ice cream at this time of year, and other super rich flavors as well.

I like Homer's peach quite a bit, but I have to say the Peach I had this weekend (or rather my son had and I stole some bites from) at Bittersweet ws better, with little bits of fruit in it. Their expresso was very very good as well. In the general Evanston area, I'd stick with village creamery as probably my favorite ice cream place

As to Sukhadia, I haven't tried the ice cream per se recently, but they're making their own kulfi again (and its pretty decent), look in the fridge just to the east of the cashiers, in little plastic conical single serving deals

I've been to Sherman's in S. Haven as well, which Mike references and fwiw, didn't get all the fuss made over it

Gramp’s Frozen Custard, try it while it lasts!

Gramp’s is just over 5 years old, though it is on its 2nd owner and advertised for sale.

Gramp’s who founded the ice cream parlor just over 5 years ago was an older gentleman who mentored the couple who bought it. This couple had just graduated from “Scoop school” where they learned how to operate the custard machine. The couple’s original plans were to go straight to Arizona to set up a frozen custard business, though their experience was simply learning to operate the custard machine. Gramps who wanted to retire suggested this couple buy his operation to learn how to run an ice cream parlor. Except for expanding the flavors available, Gramp’s operation largely remains the same when they bought it 16 months ago.

Gramp’s Frozen Custard moto: “Gramp’s guarantees only the finest frozen custard because we eat our mistakes.” A phrase that reminds me of another focused perfectionist Gwiv, “With BBQ you get to eat your mistakes, sometimes they're just harder to chew.”

Gramp’s makes their own frozen custard with 14% butterfat. When we were there, they had at least 5 unique custard flavors in addition to the basic chocolate and vanilla. At mid afternoon, they were in the process of making waffle bowls and waffle cones for the next few hours consumption. Their waffle batter is flavored with cinnamon and some are dipped in dark chocolate for extra flavor. They make these waffles up front which I especially like for the entertainment and ‘how do they do that’ education.

This freshly rolled waffle cone is resting 45 seconds before removing and rolling the next:


As some may have observed, I am somewhat obsessed about real whipping cream. When I discussed this initially with the owners, they said they make their own whipping cream. Unfortunately rather than whip the cream, they aerate it via a canister. It is certainly heavy cream though lightly sweetened with little to no vanilla. I would have preferred vanilla, a bit sweeter and whipped.

For nut toppings, they offer pecans, walnuts, almonds and peanuts, which are fresh roasted at the store. The fudge and caramel sauces are homemade. When they make frozen dessert cakes, they use pie filling from the Amish.



I inquired if they had sources for Amish pie filling and ice cream topping in Arizona. Of course that was something they would be hard pressed to substitute out there.

Most of my family had waffle cones of vanilla, mint chocolate chip or crème brulee ice creams. My niece and I shared a Turtle Split: two scoops of vanilla custard layered with caramel sauce topped with hot fudge sauce, pecans, whipped cream and cherry surrounded by banana wheels in a waffle bowl fitted inside a regular bowl.

Turtle Split:


Gramps is for sale because the couple have learned everything they need to know running this type of operation. They are moving to Arizona where they plan to franchise Gramp’s. The new owner of the Illinois location has the option of continuing the Gramp’s concept or following their own dream.

Gramp’s Frozen Custard
“Made fresh all day long ‘The Old Fashioned Way’”
St Charles location:
1 West Illinois Street (in the Fox Island Square)
2 blocks south of 64 on 1st Street
630/762-9480

Hi,

On a recent Sunday, I took my growing-up-too-fast niece out for the day. She loves the routine: lunch, a museum and ice cream before going home. Her first choice for ice cream was Zephyr's which has long been our stand by. I made an effort to introduce her to something new by attempting to visit Anna Held Florist and Cafe, which Mike G has highlighted before. Unfortunately Anna is closed Sundays, so by default we ended up at Zephyrs.

I dropped my niece and Grandma at the Zephyr's before parking the car. They were already seated at a table in front of the service entrance to the kitchen. This wasn't too exciting and something I would have changed, but they were sipping water and happy to be out of the heat. So my impulse to change tables faded in their desire to simply cool off.

Our normal order is the 10-scoop War of the Worlds, which is a bargain at $9.99. Since it was just the three of us, we ordered the 6-scoop Son of Frankenstein with pineapple and hot fudge topping on the side and EXTRA whipping cream for approximately $7.

While waiting we kept up a running dialogue on family business without paying attention to what was going on around us. My niece suddenly declared, "Look at that whip cream machine!"



Zephyr’s has long been the gold standard in whipping cream for ice cream sundaes. I simply had never seen their dispenser before. In fact, I had imagined they had whipped it up in a stand mixer and dispensed it by pastry bags. However, I had seen this very machine before in Holland at a local ice cream store, though a bit smaller. It dispensed a rosette dollop of rich whipping cream on my cone. I had long thought this would be the perfect solution to ice cream store whipping cream dispensers. I see someone agreed and from the looks of the machine, I would not be surprise this is from Europe.



I certainly hope this idea is widely imitated only because it will elevate whipping cream available at ice cream parlors.

Zephyr Ice Cream Restaurant
1767 West Wilson Avenue
Chicago, IL 60640
http://www.zephyr-icecream.com
773-728-6070

Hi,

I always read the program information just before leaving the house. I was shocked to find myself attending a picnic in a forest preserve 169th Street south just off I-57. Thank goodness it was Labor Day driving conditions because I made it there in less than an hour from Highland Park. I also took information on the Plush Poney because I had to be coming quite close to it.

We arrived to the Plush Poney via the La Grange Road exit off I-80. We even passed Petey's II at La Grange Road and 159th before reaching our destination.

Plush Poney is really in the middle of town with almost no apparent business district. We parked near the garden where there were 10 people sitting on benches eating cones. Inside there were just as many people eating ice cream and others picking up ice cream cakes. This being the tail end of the Labor DAy weekend, there was a sign announcing no hot fudge as well as a small list of ice creams unavailable until Tuesday.

I ordered a banana split to share with my Mother with extra whipping cream. We selected black walnut, peach and chocolate malt ice creams with pineapple and strawberry toppings on the side. The pineapple was for Mom and the strawberry was selected because it is the only topping they make in house. The whipping cream was straight from the can and deflated pretty quickly. The chopped nuts were walnuts, which is a plus with me. Everything was assembled in a take-out container, which for eating in-shop didn't seem as nice as an ice cream boat. They didn't have any bananas, so I asked for a 4th topping of chocolate syrup.

The ice cream chosen was very good, especially the peach with bits of chopped fruit. We were quite happy with the toppings. The cheap, thin whipping cream, which should be the crowning glory pulled everything down a few notches. If they only whipped their cream in-house or used a machine similar to Zephyr's above, then I'd quibble less.

Mom and I were the only patrons who had an assembled sundae. Everyone else was feasting on cones which were very generously served. I saw there was an option to have your cone rolled in chopped walnuts, which was a terrific option over sprinkles.

We drove toward I-55 after we left which had a rolling hills topography one hardly ever encounters in our area. This would be a beautiful drive when the leaves are changing. I could definitely go for a Petey's II and Plush Poney chaser afterwards, though I expect I will stick with a cone.

Petey's II Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge
159 Route 45
Orland Park, IL 60462
708-349-2820

Regards,

zim wrote:My last visit to Mitsuwa (quite some time ago), there were 2 locations for Ice cream, the stand alone place in the food cart and then the small selection at the bakery. I preferred the bakery ice cream -especially the black sesame

The standalone place in the food court is no more.

HI,

I didn't check last time, but the Hippo Bakery also serves ice cream at Mitsuwa. I don't know the flavors because ice cream is not my focus at Mitsuwa.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

On my one and only visit to The Cheesecake Factory in the Hancock Center, they had such a whipped cream dispenser behind the counter for decorating their cheesecakes. I though it was the best thing there (including the food). I particularly like the thought of having an endless supply of whipped cream at my command.

Cathy2 wrote:I didn't check last time, but the Hippo Bakery also serves ice cream at Mitsuwa. I don't know the flavors because ice cream is not my focus at Mitsuwa.

Yes, that's the "small selection at the bakery" that zim referred to (presumably).

The Bernard Callebaut in Glenview, in addition to the best chocolates currently available in the Chicago area imo, serves two or three flavors of soft-serve ice cream, as well as prepackaged ice cream bars. I haven't tried the soft-serve, but I did try one of the bars, and while it was good, I frankly thought Dove Bars were better. (That's not meant as an insult: I love Dove's vanilla ice cream coated in dark chocolate bars.)

Bernard Callebaut
1970 Tower Dr. (in the big development where the Glenview Air Force Base used to be)
Glenview, IL
(847) 998-9680

Callebaut also has a store in Lake Forest, but I don't know whether they serve ice cream.

Adam Stephanides wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:I didn't check last time, but the Hippo Bakery also serves ice cream at Mitsuwa. I don't know the flavors because ice cream is not my focus at Mitsuwa.

Yes, that's the "small selection at the bakery" that zim referred to (presumably).

Yep, that's what I was referring to. Thanks for updating the board Adam. I should have mentioned it myself, as I visited mitsuwa recently and noticed the stand-alone place gone. Fortunately, I prefer the pastry house hippo ice cream anyway. Last time I was there, their plum was very very good, though there was no black sesame available.

Today's Sun Times has a story in the Business section on Maggie Moos expansion in the Chicago area. They are aiming for nine in Chicago with 60 in the area over the next 4 to 5 years. All are franchises as are Cold Stone Creamery shops. I suspect that both will try to open more stores than the market will truly bear given the incentives for franchisers to have too many outlets provided they can find enough suckers. Franchising's economics produce tremendous conflicts of interest.

Update on Margies on Montrose from the article:

The two retailers will compete with other premium brands, such as Oberweis Ice Cream, Marble Slab Creamery and Carvel Corp., as well as established neighborhood retailers.

Old-time retailers say they have no intention of taking a lickin' from the newcomers.

"Those stores don't bother a high-quality store that's here to survive," said Peter Poulos, owner of Margie's Candies, an 85-year-old Chicago institution at 1960 N. Western.

Indeed, Margie's will open a second store at 1813 W. Montrose within the next few weeks, said Poulos, whose grandfather founded the company.

Margie's makes all of its candies by hand, using the founder's recipes, with desserts ranging from $2.50 junior fudge sundaes to the world's largest Turtle for $35.

"If you sell the best, and you're proud of it, no one else will hurt you," Poulos said.

Just to link to a couple of ice-cream posts elsewhere....

Graham's Fine Chocolates & Ice Cream, Wheaton

Dessert Gourmet, Glenview

Both are worth going a bit out of your way for.

In my quest to find gelato comprable to what we have enjoyed in Vancouver, we tried a new place that opened recently in Evanston: Ling and Vail, at 922 Noyes Street. (It's just west of Al's Deli, the place with the great cookies.) They advertise "amazing gelato-artisan ice cream" and what they had was good, but not amazing, to me. I tried hazelnut, roasted almond, and pistachio (which was artificially green, I think.) All were rich and creamy, but not intensely flavored enough. That was the verdict rendered by my husband and kids about their choices as well, and in fact my kids didn't even finish theirs, so they weren't that enthusiastic. The place offers coffees and smoothies and etc., and is nicely done, with comfortable seating. But I question why they have three TVs (flat-screen wall mounted sets, to be sure) in their two small rooms; I wouldn't want a family ice cream outing to turn into a TV watching session, but it's difficult to avoid there.

The Evanston Creamery is gone. So is the Evanston location of the Marble Slab Creamery (I don't know about the one in Skokie). It's too bad, as they were both pretty good.

Sugar Buzz on Broadway met its demise at the end of last summer. Ice Dreams former space on Clark is still unoccupied for the second straight ice cream season.

YourPalWill wrote:Sugar Buzz on Broadway met its demise at the end of last summer. Ice Dreams former space on Clark is still unoccupied for the second straight ice cream season.

Yea, I'll do an updated list soon!

Every Day's a Sundae in Downers Grove
990 Warren St.
Downers Grove, 60515... best ice cream around here!

http://www.everydaysasundae.net/

Also, the librarian in me is s-cream-ing (get it) for an alphabatized list

Not an ice cream place, but a place I had the best ice cream: Sola. The "housemade" pistachio ice cream was the most intensely flavored I've had--closest to the Platonic Ideal of pistachio ice cream--of any ice cream or gelato of that flavor that I've tasted outside of Firenza.

Cafe Latakia is relatively new to East Lakeview and serves Ashby's Sterling ice cream, which is quite good. They also have Italian ices and gelato, supposedly made somewhere in the suburbs (more research needed), which is really, really good. Have some Illy coffee, Syrian pastries, and Wi-Fi to go with your gelato.

Cafe Latakia
3204 N. Broadway
773-929-6667

riddlemay wrote:Not an ice cream place, but a place I had the best ice cream: Sola. The "housemade" pistachio ice cream was the most intensely flavored I've had--closest to the Platonic Ideal of pistachio ice cream--of any ice cream or gelato of that flavor that I've tasted outside of Firenza.

Well, for pistachio, I've got to counter you:
Chowpatti, in Arlington heights is known for a wide variety of international vegetarian food of varying quality and sometimes glacial service with high points in their "loaded Indian nachos", and pista kulfi.

This is almost frozen pistachio butter, rich, richer than that, and perfumed with pistachio essence and chopped nuts. Kulfi generally doesn't have stabilizers and doesn't get churned, so it's stability is short-term: if you serve it at the right temp (and they do), it rapidly turns into milkshake, then soup. It's a small, expensive serving, and worth it.