One crisis after another — climate change and nationalism, crime and, oh yeah, don't forget, Thursday's presidential debate. "From wrong to wrong, the exasperated spirit proceeds," as T.S. Eliot put it.
Unless restored by ... well, it's summer; let's talk about ice cream.
The world won't deteriorate faster because we pause to consider cool creamy goodness.
In my defense, I seldom write about ice cream. There was a 2009 column ripping the lid off the spumoni question — it isn't Italian — and then, way back in 1996, when I escaped parenting a newborn long enough to inhale a jumbo atomic hot fudge sundae at Margie's Candies.
I wouldn't write now, but Graeter's Ice Cream, a venerable Ohio company founded in 1870, converted an old auto body shop in downtown Northbrook into its first Illinois ice cream parlor in 2015. They offer a wide array of flavors, my previous favorite being black raspberry chocolate chip — think inch-long shards of Dove-quality dark chocolate.
Graeter's offers tasting spoonfuls. As much as I hate to hold up the line with gustatory experiments, it seems a failure of imagination not to sample a new flavor before ordering black raspberry chocolate chip. In the spring, Lemon Meringue Pie was featured. I like lemons. And I like pie. One taste. Boom. Bits of crust. Bits of lemon candy. My mind rearranged itself. I ordered a bowl.
That was it. Black raspberry chocolate chip was forgotten. For the first time in my life, I actually went to an ice cream parlor seeking out a specific flavor. A few days later I returned for another bowl. And bought two pints so I'd have it around. Two.
Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream — how'd they do that?
"It was a team approach," said Bob Graeter, chief of quality assurance and part of the fourth generation to run the company. "We're always working from a portfolio of 15 or 20 concepts. Seeing what's trending, what's out there. Lemon is an on-trend flavor. We're seeing a lot of citrus flavors in ice cream right now. We've been toying with lemon-flavored ice cream, along with the idea of reinterpreting bakery items. We have a baking business in Cincinnati."
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Love Graeters on the Village Square. It's on my bike routes. I try a different flavor every time.
ReplyDeleteHow much ?
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel wrong calling Graeters ice cream. It puts most of what i had growing up in Chicago to shame. It sits somewhere between custard and slow churned luxury ice cream.
ReplyDeleteIt is worth a try. And somehow it is still a family owned business.
Growing up in the 1950s, a family summer tradition was making ice cream. Twelve quarts every weekend, one vanilla and one chocolate. Hand cranked in a wooden container filled with ice chipped from a big block and rock salt. The very best was the ice cream right next to the wooden paddles. When it was done, everyone in the neighborhood came to "sample" it. The closest commercial ice cream to what we made was Frusen Gladje (spelling may be off; it's no longer made).
ReplyDeleteI think ice cream parlors are the happiest places in town. Everyone in line smiling, chatting with eah other, checking the flavors in the case, geting a taste, contemplating their choice.
ReplyDeletehopefully one day they will open a shop in chicago. id love to try it.
ReplyDeleteSearched for a grocery carrying Graeters, but looks like their trucks only serve the Southside. I'll definitely visit Northbrook, but a Jewel nearby would have been nice. From the website I get the impression that some flavors have a limited run, hope it's not true of the Lemon. Ben&Jerry's had a Chocolate with Raspberries, I forget the catchy appellation, which became my favorite. It didn't seem appetizing at first, but prompted to taste it, I found it irresistible. Unfortunately it never showed up in the grocers freezers and the Schaumburg location morphed into a Starbucks or Kumas. So if the Lemon Meringue Pie is gone, my trip will not be in vain.
ReplyDeleteWhich supermarket chains carry it?
ReplyDeleteMariano's, Jewel and Sunset, maybe others.
DeleteIt's available in the "Graeter Cleveland" area, nyuk nyuk nyuk, but only in chain supermarkets and specialty food places. Been here 32 years, probably have never had it. We have some good local labels, including a brand called "Blue Bunny."
DeleteThanks.
DeleteBlue Bunny is not local to Cleveland. It comes from LeMars, Iowa.
DeleteI had Blue Bunny in Des Moines Iowa, over a basic Wal-Mart fruit pie, the kind you add to a school lunch. Heavenly!
ReplyDeleteChocolate malt, cardboard cup, wooden spoon. I wish I could remember the brand. Used to get it at a drugstore (maybe a Rexall's ?) on 69th and Damen in the mid 1970s, coming home from Lindblom Tech. So good after a long day of classes, perfect treat for the wait for the 69 bus.
ReplyDelete"My childhood taste memories are of Sealtest vanilla cups, eaten with a flat wooden spoon"
ReplyDeleteI remember those, too. Better than nothing! I more fondly recall Klondike bars and Drumsticks from Isaly's or one of the other corner stores. Either premium ice cream was not the "thing" in the '60s that it has become, or we were just too, uh, thrifty to spring for it...
Though I like plenty of other flavors, too, I'm content with plain vanilla topped with some sort of chocolate goop and whatever nuts are available.
Count me among the plebeians as well. Neapolitan was as fancy as we could afford.
Deletejohn
The Graeters website lists grocery stores carrying their products but they are all south of the Loop. Perhaps it hasn't been updated but I have not seen it in Marianos or Jewel.
Deletegrew up on Graeters in Cincinnati in the 1930's and 40's. An ice cream cone in the original ice cream parlor on Reading Road cost a nickel or a dime. Graeters is always a first stop when I visit Cincinnati. It's a treat to find it occasionally in a grocery in my town, in spite of the current prices. Of course the raspberry chocolate chip will always be a favorite!
ReplyDeleteSome Jewel stores carry that brand.
ReplyDelete