Flamingos #2 Ice Cream

I read about Flamingos #2 in the Chicago Trib At Play Section.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/ ... 058.storyn

We decided to go on Saturday, at about 4 pm. It wasn't overly busy or crowded, but there was a steady stream of customers who like us read about the place in the trib.

As far as Ice Cream places go, Flamingos has all of your standard fare, plus some Mexican favorites like Ejotes. We saw one Ejotes come out, it was corn off the cob, mayo, butter, salt, and hot sauce served in a sundae glass.

The staff was very helpful and allowed us to try several different flavors, like sweet corn, agave, sweet potato. I really like the sweet corn and am thinking of different ways to serve it.

My husband had the Coconut and really liked it. However after he was 1/2 done with it , he noticed that they had Roasted Coconut and he wished he got that. I had the Carmel and wasn't too thrilled with it. It was too sweet, too icy, and not at all creamy. Of all the ice creams we tasted, none of them were very creamy.

We picked up a quart of the Agave to go. On Sunday we served it with some grilled nectrines that had marinated in a little tequila and sugar. It was very good and refreshing. Our guests had no idea what flavor the ice cream was until we told them.

They also have diablo Italian Ices. Off the top of my head they had Cucmber, Papaya, and Pineapple Diablo ices along with the traditional flavors. I'm wishing I tried one of the diablo ices. I've had spicy chocolate ice cream before, but never an ice.

So I'm thinking that a little scoop of the sweet corn would taste great in a tomato gazpacho, what do you think?

Your Trib link is giving me an error. Can you post the address please? Thank you.

Best,
Michael

Whoops. I had that and totally forgot.
Flamingos #2
6733 W Cermack Rd
Chicago Il
708-749-4287

Here's the article from the trib.

Link

[Moderator edit link to the Tribune as the article is copyrighted]

The Trib article mentions that Guadalupe delivers her ice cream to Evanston City Hall. Do any of my fellow Evanstonians (or anyone else) know if that means for a special event or if her ice cream is sold there?

I've heard good things about the place. With Miami flavors RIP, I need a good avocado ice cream source.

BTW, it's "elote." (You might want to correct it for other's searches.) Thanks for the info.

Avocado ice cream (and other interesting flavors; maize is good) is also available at the Village Creamery on Oakton in Skokie and in Morton Grove.

Stuccolow wrote:Flamingos #2
6733 W Cermack Rd
Chicago Il
708-749-4287

Berwyn, actually.

And for the benefit of those reading this after the Trib article is archived, I note there is another location at 2635 W. 51 St.

ToniG wrote:Avocado ice cream (and other interesting flavors; maize is good) is also available at the Village Creamery on Oakton in Skokie and in Morton Grove.

Did the Morton Grove location reopen? I haven't been in the area since late spring, but at that time I was sad to see it was closed. I agree about the maize ice cream, though -- worth the trip.

We tried the ice cream here tonight. As told in the Tribune, the owner, Guadalope is part of the appeal. She spends a lot of time explaining her ice creams and offering tastes. In fact, I tasted so many, with the flavors so intense, that I got palate fatigue. She told me that the Trib tasters had water lined up between tastes. I needed some bits of bread or something.

The bad thing to say about the place is that, as I imagined, 101 flavors is too much to handle. Even an apparantly fresh looking vanilla suffered a bit from freezer burn. Ice cream really benefits from freshness, and I wish they slash their daily inventory greatly.

OK, that out of the way, everything is interesting in its own way. All of the flavors come from natural sources, meaning sometimes the flavor itself may be muted, but it will always taste like something. The poster above did not like the cajeta, and I could see why in a way, because it was not creamy, yet the flavor of the cajeta, sugar, burnt sugar, carried the scoop. Guava was especially good as the flavor is strong. Then again, some of the ices, especially the ones with salt and spice were, as I noted, too intense.

In the annals of undiscovered, it should be noted that this place has existed on the South Side for 21 years. I'm glad it is being discovered.

Rob

Vital Information wrote:The bad thing to say about the place is that, as I imagined, 101 flavors is too much to handle. Even an apparantly fresh looking vanilla suffered a bit from freezer burn. Ice cream really benefits from freshness, and I wish they slash their daily inventory greatly.

Whenever I walk into a homemade ice cream parlor, my excitement level is inversely proportional to the number of flavors that they have. If a place says "We make our own ice cream. Four fresh flavors daily!" I'm thrilled. The idea of 101 makes me feel like 90 of them aren't going to be so good.

Bob S. re Village Creamery wrote:Did the Morton Grove location reopen? I haven't been in the area since late spring, but at that time I was sad to see it was closed. I agree about the maize ice cream, though -- worth the trip.

Village Creamery currently has two locations:

847/965-9805
8000 Waukegan Road, Niles

847/982-1720
4558 Oakton St., Skokie

eatchicago wrote:

Vital Information wrote:The bad thing to say about the place is that, as I imagined, 101 flavors is too much to handle. Even an apparantly fresh looking vanilla suffered a bit from freezer burn. Ice cream really benefits from freshness, and I wish they slash their daily inventory greatly.

Whenever I walk into a homemade ice cream parlor, my excitement level is inversely proportional to the number of flavors that they have. If a place says "We make our own ice cream. Four fresh flavors daily!" I'm thrilled. The idea of 101 makes me feel like 90 of them aren't going to be so good.

I have kinda mixed feelings. They are trying really hard, and the stuff is really special in its way, but yea, it would be a lot better if it was limited. On the other hand, at least you can tell the ice cream is really made locally. The best way to tell real home-made ice cream, from say, ostensible fresh made ice cream (say at a former much falsely loved Division Street spot) is whether the ice cream is in plastic buckets or cardboard boxes. This place is clearly real.

Vital Information wrote:

eatchicago wrote:

Vital Information wrote:The bad thing to say about the place is that, as I imagined, 101 flavors is too much to handle. Even an apparantly fresh looking vanilla suffered a bit from freezer burn. Ice cream really benefits from freshness, and I wish they slash their daily inventory greatly.

Whenever I walk into a homemade ice cream parlor, my excitement level is inversely proportional to the number of flavors that they have. If a place says "We make our own ice cream. Four fresh flavors daily!" I'm thrilled. The idea of 101 makes me feel like 90 of them aren't going to be so good.

I have kinda mixed feelings. They are trying really hard, and the stuff is really special in its way, but yea, it would be a lot better if it was limited. On the other hand, at least you can tell the ice cream is really made locally. The best way to tell real home-made ice cream, from say, ostensible fresh made ice cream (say at a former much falsely loved Division Street spot) is whether the ice cream is in plastic buckets or cardboard boxes. This place is clearly real.

We stopped by a few minutes ago, and one advantage of going on a relatively hot day, is that the place was pretty crowded (probably 50 people came in and out while we were there), so there's good turnover, and everything we had (and we had some non-traditional ices and ice creams, like tejocote and fig) was fresh and good (to a point).

The most challenging was devil chamoy. The chamoy, the nice lady told me, is like a small peach, and this ice was fruity, somewhat piquant and salty -- I was temped to take it home and drop it in a frosty tumbler of tequila. It was good for about a half-dozen bites, but that's about all I could take. Cashew was very nice, with soft fresh nut meats and a dialed-down sweetness.

David "And I'm Not Even that Crazy about Ice Cream" Hammond

I've been a steady customer at the one Just E of Oak Park Ave. and Cermak for a few years now. Coco cremoso (creamy cocnut w/ no coconut flakes) is the one that I can't live without. The ice creams do come off as icy unless you let them melt a tad, and then they are quite creamy. This place is truly a gem to me.

I stopped in last week and had a diablo cucumber. Was delicious. I often forget about the place, even though I live 2 blocks away.

The Tamarind ice was good as well.

After chasing jr around a park for a while, he claimed hunger, and professed a need for tacos. My mind went straight to La Chaparrita because of a thirst for alfafa. Why I had not tried an aguas fresca de alfalfa ever before La Chaparrita is just killing me. Anyway, I remembered Flamingo's and figured I'd pop in and see if they sold aguas frescas in any interesting flavors. Proudly displayed in the window was "Aguas Frescas De Alfalfa." SOLD! And it did not dissapoint. AT ALL. The lady claimed her secret was,"KEY limes, not regular limes, they taste muy different." La Chaparrita's was better in a different way, but Flamigo's was fantastic. And, drum roll please...They take credit cards now! They lady told me that all her customers are saying the same thing - they liked the place better before when they took cash only BECAUSE, they knew exactly what they wanted before they walked in. NOW, everyone just keeps adding to their order. I have to plead guilty. I went in with five bux in cash, and walked out with a 13 dollar debit on my discover statement. But how do you choose between coco cremoso, blueberry ice cream, and tamarind ice? Well, if you don't have to, you don't. And as always, they almost force you to try every flavor they have on offer when you walk in the door - free tastes on little spoons. They WANT you to try them all. I hope alfalafa is good for you. I'm gonna be drinking a bunch of those things this summer.