Ice Cream Man

While trendy yogurt shops and healthier dessert options are becoming mainstream, there are still a few independent ice cream shops which put taste and quality over calorie count. One of these places is the Grand Ole Creamery on historic Grand Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota.

They have been serving up some of the best scoops of ice cream for over 22 years and show no signs of slowing down. With a showcase of awards, including Best of the Twin Cities and being named one of the top 12 ice cream shops in the nation by Saveur Magazine, it is always a stop for anyone in the Twin Cities area.

Being a native of St. Paul, I have been coming to this quaint little shop for years, and every time I stop in, there are always new flavors to try and a fresh waffle cone waiting for me. After stepping in from the crisp fall air last week, I was welcomed by a familiar vanilla aroma and saw one of these cool ice cream peddlers making their signature fresh waffle cones, which always have a malted milk ball in the bottom of the cone.

I usually have their White Chocolate Raspberry ice cream, which has a rich ribbon of raspberry and chunks of white chocolate, but since they continually rotate their flavors, I decided I would have to wait till next summer. I tried one of their new fall flavors, Home Brew, which is made with real beer, but sometimes two good things should not be mixed. It tasted just like beer, but had a strong aftertaste which did not have me asking for more. The man behind the counter saw my look of disgust and said that one wasnt very popular.

After looking at all of the flavors, I settled on a split cone with German chocolate cake and one of their fall favorites, pumpkin. The German chocolate cake had a large amount of sweet shredded coconut and the perfect balance of light chocolate ice cream, which just sent me back to my mid western youth. The pumpkin ice cream tasted just like its pie cousin, but was overall a little too rich for me. I overly enjoyed my large cone, even though my sister thought I was crazy for ordering ice cream when it was only 50 degrees outside.

I know that ice cream seems to be falling out of style, but trust me, when there are incredible ice cream parlors like Grand Ole Creamery, it doesnt matter what kind of toppings you put on your plain frozen yogurt; ice cream will always reign supreme over the frozen dessert kingdom.