Beast Blog: Ice Cream In The Beast

June 15, 2003

Ice Cream In The Beast

The long-awaited re-opening of Fenton's Creamery spurs this post. See, ice cream is one of my core food groups. When I lived in San Francisco, I would make lengthy detours to get to Mitchell's.

In the Beast, I have two favorites. Tucker's Supercreamed Ice Cream in Alameda is on par with the Mitchell's experience. Both offer that classic ice cream store experience, an excellent variety of flavors (including tropical favorites), and reasonable prices.

Mondo Gelato in downtown Berkeley avails customers of a remarkable selection of 'artisan' gelatos. Lines go out the door with people waiting for standbys such as chocolate and strawberry, and house specialties like straciatella. Two nights ago I had a combination of vanilla gelato and strawberry sorbetto, both of which were to die for. This stuff ain't cheap, but it's worth it. It's also funny to realize that it originated in Vancouver, and the third store is in Beijing.

Now, with Fenton's back open, I'm curious -- I never ate there before its fire shut it down for years. I drove by on Saturday night, and the place was hideously mobbed -- the line stretched a good 40 people or so into the parking lot. Friends have tried the new Fenton's, and said that it was good, but it's also become remarkably over-priced. $8 sundaes is the norm. One suspects they're either still trying to recoup fire damage losses, or they simply think that being in Yuppie Ground Zero means a 50% extra mark-up. I would think such a strategy would ding them in the long run.

I do need to try Tango Gelato on Fruitvale in Oakland. They seem to be a community fixture.

Oh, and I spit on Cold Stone Creamery, newly situated on Shattuck. That gimmicky overpriced chain garbage offends my sight.

You got favorite frozen treats? Add them to the comments area.

Posted by peterme at June 15, 2003 08:48 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Went there last night with some friends at 9pm, which results in a 40 minute wait.

Word of warning: don't bother getting the burgers. You're at an ice cream shop. (Learn from my mistakes.) Also, the burgers there don't come with fries, so what's the point of getting a burger in the first place?

Had a bite of my friends ice cream, though. Stick with the ice cream. You can not go wrong with ice cream

Posted by: ernie at June 20, 2003 11:22 AM

fenton's is a mindset as well as an ice cream parlor, so the wait for a table will be horrendous always, even with $8 sundaes. happily, 3 people can split a black and tan and feel comfortably full, as opposed to bloated and burned out on caramel. at least they are open late!

tango gelato is *quite* good, though maybe not as good as a year ago..not sure why. their strawberry is very nice, as is their hazelnut varieties. the staff at the store can be hit or miss with attentiveness. there is another location on fillmore, if you are in SF, it's more posh of course.

Posted by: Rena at June 24, 2003 08:56 AM

Fenton's is LAME. Even Dreyer's is better than this stuff. People going there are there for the hype, not the quality of the food. The salads also suck - where else in the Bay Area do you get only iceberg lettuce? The owner is obviously trying to clean up on the historic ties to Fenton's, but quality food or even home-made taste this is NOT.

Posted by: Bri at October 26, 2003 09:01 AM

I went to Fentons for the second time ever last night and found the wait to be less than five minutes, though possibly that was due to the cold weather. We arrived around 8:30 pm though and I noticed it had gotten busier by the time we left at around ten.

The ice cream was fantastic, as were the toppings - especially the caramel. I didn't find it to be the best ice cream I've ever had - I'd have to go back to France for that - but it was certainly the best Ice Cream I have found in the Beast. Easily surpassing the Dreyers flagship store on College as well as the gimmicky Coldstone.

The coffee was OK, neither good nor offensively bad. The food though was merely mediocre – but after all this is an ice cream parlor that also offers food and not a food place that also offers ice cream. You should expect the food to be second rate – similar to the way espresso at fine restaurants is almost always sub-par.

The service was nice but sloppy. They were quick to take our orders and produced the ice cream amazingly fast. However we has to ask for spoons, didn’t get all our coffee’s until asking twice, had to ask for napkins, and two people got their orders incorrect. But our waitress was very pleasant through all of this and quickly fixed each problem with a smile that didn’t seem fake.

Posted by: Griffin at November 2, 2003 10:06 AM

My mom loved the place when I was little, butI preferred Bud's. This is probably more a matter of civic pride: I grew up on 24th Street; she grew up in San Leandro. As an adult I went to Fenton's a few times a year, before the fire - usually for a birthday, when someone gets all nostalgic and has to go and order a grilled cheese sandwich. As noted above, that's a common mistake. It's all about the ice cream, which is good and creamy, high fat content, heavy rich texture, and the toppings, which are also nice. Not that I'd know much beyond the hot fudge and the brownies. This opinion is all pre-fire: I haven't yet braved the long wait - they'd just reopened on my birthday, in August, and the wait was insane each of the next three weekends. I called ahead, each time, and discovered that they're open til 12:30am Fridays and Saturdays. Probably not so much of a wait, that late.

Posted by: Jessica at November 7, 2003 06:06 PM

hey, have you tried double rainbow ice cream? my favorite so far. i think i found a parlor that serves double rainbow on college ave. in oakland. damn good stuff, my favorite is the apple pie ice cream (holy crap!). as for fentons, i went to the newly reopened store. i didnt enjoy it as much as i did when i was a kid. i remember the ice cream being MUCH better..

Posted by: anders h. at February 7, 2004 08:22 PM

Sadly, Tango Gelato has closed. Too bad, because I loved the gianduia and the dulce de leche, and it was a short walk from my house. It's been replaced by another ice cream parlor that serves Double Rainbow ice cream, gelato, sorbets, and (I'm not making this up) homemade chicken tamales.

Posted by: Robert at March 10, 2004 09:49 PM

If you're craving gelato and you're near Lake Merritt, Mondo Gelato (now Gelateria Naia - are they still run by the same people?) has an outpost in the Michael Mischer chocolate shop on Grand, right next to Domino's (ehh). Not the wide selection that you find at the Shattuck store, but all the old faithful flavors are there.

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