Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt

The Fountain on Locust

by Stephanie on June 8, 2012

in American, Dessert, Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt

Good morning and happy Friday! This has been one of the longest weeks ever. Bring on the weekend! I hope you have big plans. I know I do! :)

Every month, my mom, my sister and I have a girl’s night. We take turns picking out which restaurant we’re going to visit. The only caveat? It has to be a place that none of us has visited before!

Well, this time we made a tiny exception. ;)

It was my month to choose the location, and without naming any names (no, seriously…I’m going to be nice!), the location that I selected was unexpectedly closed. Boo!

So I had to roll with plan B. I’ve visited The Fountain on Locust quite a few times, so I knew that their offerings were good. And I had a feeling that my mom and sister would enjoy it.

 

Can we pause for a moment and admire the interior of this spot? It reminds me of an old-school soda shop! How retro. I’m a fan. :)

Moving on to food. The Fountain on Locust has an expansive menu, with offerings ranging from typical lunch fare (roast beef, anyone?) to desserts, and everything in between.

Even though it was lunchtime, I had a mad hankering for some ice cream. I went with one of my favorites, the Chocolate Brownie Cake in a Cup. This decadent dessert starts with a made-from-scratch brownie, and is topped with homemade hot fudge, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream.

Oh man. This dessert never gets old. The brownie was warm and moist, the ice cream was perfectly sweet, and the hot fudge? Amazing. I’m not even a huge hot fudge fan, but when I visit The Fountain, it’s a must. So. Freaking. Good.

My mom also went with the brownie cake in a cup.

Copycat! ;)

My sister went outside the box and ordered the Bearcat: Hot fudge over vanilla ice cream, hot caramel sauce, and butter pecan ice cream, all on top of a bed of bananas. As if this wasn’t rich enough, this dessert was also topped with whipped cream.

Go little sister! I’m so proud. :)

Service at The Fountain was good. Our server was very attentive, and answered all of our questions regarding the menu with a smile.

The best part about the whole experience? It didn’t break the bank! Dessert for all three of us came well under 20 bucks. Okay…so maybe that wasn’t the best part of the whole experience, but it came pretty close. I love a good deal!

If you’re in the area, I highly recommend giving The Fountain a try. It’s a hop, skip, and jump away from Hamburger Mary’s (and SLU!), and would make a fantastic after-dinner dessert stop.

Or if you’re anything like my family, The Fountain can be your dinner stop! Ice cream for dinner? I don’t care what anyone says — it’s always a great idea!

See you next week.

 

{ 4 comments }

Are you in or are you out?

by Stephanie on August 6, 2010

in American, Cake, Dessert, Dinner, Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt, Lunch

Well, the In Spot Dessert Lounge is…oh wait. You have to read to the end to find out!

I went with my mom and sister for our monthly girls night out event. This time around, it was my turn to pick the place, and I remembered a while ago when Natalie @ The Sweets Life recommended the In Spot! So I thought I’d give it a try.

The place itself was very chic and intimate. Totally lounge-y. Ready for picture overload?

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Nice place, right? Okay, now that you’ve seen the digs, let’s get down to business!

None of us were especially hungry, so we decided to split an appetizer, drink, and dessert between the three of us. This falls right in with my new healthier eating initiative, so I was game!

We started with the Brown Sugar Chicken Wings:

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I wasn’t a fan – at all. The flavor was decent (not very brown sugary, though!), but the chicken itself was terrible. The texture was just sickening. Very fatty and not at all appetizing. I could only take one bite of the chicken before I called it quits.

Next was the drink! The sweet pineapple martini caught my mom’s eye, and my sister and I agreed that it sounded tasty. We ordered it with high hopes.

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This was okay. The pineapple taste was definitely there, but the drink itself was just too strong for me. I feel this way about ALL martinis though, regardless of location…so perhaps I’m just not a martini fan. If you love martinis, though, you’d probably love this! I could only down a few sips.

Finally was dessert. I thought the fried cheesecake sounded good, so we rolled with that.

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Look at that strawberry drizzle! Delish. This was my favorite part of the meal. I don’t think my mom or sister cared for it too much (they didn’t think it was sweet enough), but I really enjoyed it – and I ate the entire thing! Oink. The dough was flaky and buttery, and the warm cheesecake filling with creamy and rich. MMM. The strawberry drizzle was perfect for this treat.

How was the service? Well, our waitress was nice, but seemed overwhelmed. Why is there only ONE waitress (but FOUR bartenders) at this place? Weird. When we asked her about a particular wine (and requested to see the bottle), she snapped that she was ‘too busy’ to show us. She eventually did show us the bottle of wine, but her curtness was a HUGE turnoff. Hmm. Maybe she wasn’t nice after all!

There was a band playing, and they were good (very smooth and jazzy), but WAY too loud. If they would have turned it down a couple notches, I could have stayed here all night to listen to them. But by the end of dessert, my head was ringing so badly that I just wanted to LEAVE.

On top of being not so tasty, the food was sort of expensive! 7 bucks for 5 mini chicken wings, 7 bucks for 2 bites of cheesecake?!? It was like tapas. Stephanie is not a huge fan of small plates!

Score time!

Food: 2 stars (out of five)

Ambiance: 5 stars

Service: 2 stars

Value: 3 stars

Part of me really wants this little place to succeed. It definitely has potential. But it’s not there yet.

{ 1 comment }

Ice cream quickie!

by Stephanie on June 8, 2010

in American, Dessert, Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt

What’s better on a hot St. Louis summer day than ice cream? NOTHING! I was craving something rich, sweet, and cold, so I went to Serendipity in Webster Groves, MO.

This place has yummy homemade ice cream, and LOTS of different flavors to choose from. Some of the flavors they have available: (per the website)

Coffee
Coffee Almond
Peppermint
Bordeaux (Black) Cherry
Strawberry
Egg Nog
Marker’s Mint Chip Chocolate
Clark Gold Star Swirl
Chocolate Almond Swiss
Chocolate Chip
Blueberry
Pumpkin Pie
Caramel Apple
Strawberry Cheesecake
Cantaloupe
Cinnamon
Cake Batter
Peach
Dulce de Leche		 Cotton Candy
Sweet Cream
Sorbets
Chocolate
English Toffee
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Pistachio
Chocolate Orange
Gold Coast Chocolate
Butter Pecan
Banana
Coconut
Banana Nut
Bailey’s® Irish Cream
Vermont Maple Walnut

Drooling yet?

I had the Gold Coast Chocolate. It was RICH and tasty!

It was just what I needed on a hot summer day.

The place itself is pretty cute. Lots of seating, so you can cram all of your friends in here for a cool treat!

Time for scores already?

Food: 5 stars (out of five)

Ambiance: 4 stars

Service: 4 stars

Value: 4 stars

Sorry for such a short review, but did you really expect me to wax poetic about ice cream for more than a few paragraphs? :)

{ 4 comments }

Ted Drewes!

by Stephanie on April 12, 2010

in American, Dessert, Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt

So after a 12 mile bike ride on Grants Trail in St. Louis, I had a craving for one thing, and one thing only: frozen custard! Anyone who grew up in St. Louis knows that the best place to get frozen custard is Ted Drewes. Do I think it’s the best? Well, you’ll have to keep reading to find out.

open on Easter Sunday!

Ted Drewes has a couple locations in St. Louis, but the most popular (and original!) location is along historic Route 66. It’s a cute little shack, but don’t be fooled by it’s rough exterior; there’s some good stuff being made inside!

Now I’m an ice cream purist; I don’t like nuts, fruit, etc. in my ice cream. But how interesting would a picture of plain vanilla custard be? Not very. I scoured the menu and found something that sounded tasty: the strawberry shortcake sundae! It was described on the menu as shortcake, with vanilla custard, strawberries, and whipped cream on top. Sounded pretty yummy!

So the first thing I noticed were the strawberries. Hmm. They looked a little suspect to me, and this is exactly the reason why I don’t like extra “stuff” in my ice cream. I’m very picky about ingredient quality, and these strawberries looked like the frozen kind with weird syrup all over them. Not very fresh. The syrup was sickeningly sweet, and had a weird aftertaste. However, I wasn’t going to give up just yet! I ate around the strawberries, and instead focused on the shortcake, the custard, and the whipped cream. Yum. The custard has an amazing consistency that I love.

However, the strawberries were overpowering the whole thing. If you like your strawberries like this, then go for this sundae, because they really load them on! But I wasn’t happy. So I dumped it and tried again with a different flavor. This time I went with the new Pomegranite custard flavor, in the “mini” size.

First of all, this was HUGE for a mini size! Not bad for two bucks and some change.

I tried it, and it was creamy and sweet, but not too sweet. The flavor of pomegranate was there, but it wasn’t intense or overpowering, which is always a plus in my book. I really enjoyed it.

Now if I had to pick one thing to gripe about with Ted Drewes, it would be this:

sad and melty...oh, and that's my boyfriend's thumb. Say hello!

That’s the same cup of custard, less than two minutes later. In 68 degree weather. If there’s one thing I HATE, it’s soupy ice cream. And Ted Drewes melts pretty easily, even in not-so-hot temperatures. Boo.

Service at Ted Drewes is speedy and efficient. On a warm summer night, the lines can be 20 to 30 people deep. But you’re never waiting in line for more than 5 minutes. It’s quick!

Prices are also extremely reasonable. You can get a pretty huge amount of custard for a couple bucks; can’t beat that!

With that said, it’s onto the scores:

Food: 4 stars (out of five)

Ambiance: 2 stars

Service: 5 stars

Value: 5 stars

Ted Drewes isn’t my favorite custard, but it’s not terrible either. And if you’re in St. Louis, you MUST visit, just for the experience. And who knows? You might just fall in love with it! :)

{ 5 comments }

Cyrano’s Cafe

by Stephanie on March 28, 2010

in American, Bread Pudding, Breakfast, brunch, Dessert, Dinner, Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt, Lunch

I went to a cute little place called Cyrano’s today.

It’s a cafe and wine bar, but it’s most well-known for their extravagant desserts. Think gigantic ice cream sundaes, pies, and bread pudding.

One thing you’ll get to know about me as you read more and more of my blog is that I absolutely adore bread pudding. It’s one of my favorite desserts…next to tiramisu and peach cobbler. I just love it.

So I ordered their caramel brioche bread pudding. At $7.50, it was sort of expensive, but I’m willing to fork out some money for good food!

The bread pudding was very good. The brioche was very light and fluffy, and the caramel sauce was sweet, but not so sweet that it was overpowering. And the whipped cream was airy, light, and creamy. It was perfection.

yummy whipped cream!

Although dessert was fantastic, service at Cyrano’s left a lot to be desired. When I walked in, it took a while before I was greeted and seated. And then it took a while for the waiter to acknowledge us and take our order. It was just surprising, considering how empty the place was. But I guess the fabulous food made up for it.

In summary:

Food: 5 stars (out of 5)

Ambiance: 4 stars

Service: 2 stars

Value: 2 stars

I’ll definitely be back to try some other desserts.

Oh, and lovely readers, do you think you could answer this poll (and elaborate in the comments, if necessary)? I don’t know how often to update this blog. Right now I’m trying to do it every three days, but would every other day be better? Let me know.

[polldaddy poll=2940346]

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Mr. Wizard’s Frozen Custard

March 19, 2010

Springtime is here! I LOVE early spring. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and best of all…it’s frozen custard season!  I went to Mr. Wizard’s to celebrate. It’s definitely a little off the beaten path, and not nearly as popular as another frozen custard place in St. Louis (although I will be reviewing [...]

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Bittersweet Bakery

March 6, 2010

Bittersweet Bakery. Ahhh. It is located in the lovely Benton Park neighborhood in St. Louis, MO, which is a rapidly changing, growing, and soon to be AMAZING neighborhood. Hell, some might say it’s amazing already! It is definitely unique. And filled with little gems like this place. Before I even get to the food, let’s [...]

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