Here come the New Britain Bees!

Last night Maureen and I spent the evening with her cousins in New Britain to see a New Britain Bees minor league baseball game. No game is complete without a variety of baseball treats such as hot dogs, cheeseburgers, popcorn, peanuts, pretzels, beer and ice cream. Only one ice cream option is available at the Bees Stadium, Dippin Dots Ice Cream. Believe it or not Dippin Dots was founded in Paducah, Kentucky and I am pretty sure I visited the original store about 15 years ago.

Dippin Dots is an interesting concoction of a flash-frozen ice cream mix in liquid nitrogen, which actually makes an interesting combination of granular ice cream pellets. There are a number of flavors but our gang was split between chocolate and rainbow. The rainbow was both sweet and tart creating a refreshing flavor on a warm, humid night. The chocolate didn’t really work in pellets form, at least according to my chocolate connoisseur wife Maureen but the boys seemed to devour it.

Unfortunately the Bees lost the game but a good time was had by all and it was fun to hang out with Maureen’s cousin Kim and Maureen’s younger cousins who are all unique in their own ways. We had the best seats in the house…right behind home plate with the scouts. Hunter is a true-blue baseball fanatic (good boy) and a quiet student of the game. Kaylyn is bright and observant of everything going on around her and Anthony is introspective and full of energy. And then there is Jordan…no words can describe Jordy but he is a cute, intelligent lad with a big heart. Thanks for humoring me guys and going to a game. Next year we’ll do it again.

Next up West Haven.

Adequate but not top notch…

In honor of national ice cream day, but seriously every day is national ice cream day, we took Marve and Sheldon (Cooper White) out for ice cream today. We traveled to our neighboring town Deep River, which is nicely located on the southern part of the Connecticut River.

We visited the Main Street Sweet Shoppe, which has the appearance of an old town ice cream shop in the center of Deep River. Excellent selection of hard ice cream and traditional soft serve ice milk. They have three brands of hard ice cream, Buck, Giffords and Ashbury. Have to admit I haven’t heard of Ashbury and am wondering if the kid misspoke.

Maureen had a generous serving of soft chocolate with chocolate sprinkles (are you detecting a trend here) and thought it almost tasted like traditional hard ice cream. I on the other hand had the old faithful chocolate milk shake, which was flavorful but lacked consistency in the viscosity of the shake…some parts very thin and watery, other parts too thick for the straw which only suggests to me it’s all in the preparation.

The Main Street Sweet shoppe gets props for the diversity of ice cream flavors and three species of this frozen dessert, but loses points for poor preparation. As my friend Cope MacClintock would say, adequate but not top notch.

No great “shakes” in Lisboa!

Back from Lisbon with Maureen and my niece Jackie. Great trip and here is a quick review of the ice cream in Portugal.

Surprisingly no great “shakes” or ice cream, gelato, or frozen yogurt in Lisbon. These ice cream stands (see picture below) are everywhere and they sell a variety of “Ben & Jerry” flavor hard ice cream, popsicles, fudge bars, and drum sticks.

Prices in general were pretty inexpensive, you could get a cup of Ben & Jerry’s for 2 Euros at these stands. Most restaurants had chocolate or vanilla gelato on the dessert menu but hard to pass up those tasty, delicious pastries.

In fact one of the best ice creams I had was on the United flight back…a Belgian chocolate truffle.

Welcome Peyton…or whatever we call you!

It’s a winner…thank you Beth Bolen for suggesting Salem Valley Farms Ice Cream as a perfect Friday night activity. Stopped on the way home from East Haddam, where Marvin and I met our new doggie Peyton (soon to be Melvin, Sheldon, or Wilson). Unfortunately Mighty Mo couldn’t join us.

The best ice cream we have had so far and pretty sure it is the 16% butterfat that gave it that insane, rich, dreamy taste! A wide range of flavors and options. Hard and soft-serve available, but seriously why would you have the soft serve. I had a coffee milkshake that was the best taste I have had so far, while Marve enjoyed what was left of a cup of rich, dense vanilla (remember that butterfat!).

This place is out in the middle of no where but worth the drive. Expect a line. There were five cars in the parking lot when we arrived and 20 by the time we left. The last pic here is our new boy…time to fatten him up and I know where to go!

A family fun kind of place…

A pleasant surprise awaits you in Waterford at the Cowlick Creamery on the Boston Post Road. Fun place with outside seating area for families and lots of play areas for kids and private parties.

Seasonal place with a mixed selection of hard ice and soft ice cream, frozen yogurt and Italian ice. Had the old standby chocolate milk shake and Maureen had a small cup of soft chocolate ice milk with chocolate “shots”.

Hershey’s Hard ice cream and soft ice milk was really nothing special, and somewhat limited yogurt selections but the diversity was impressive. Nice, open store with some goofy decorations and lots of seating inside and a large picnic make this a must stop for families.

Adequate but not top notch!

The Pattaconk Creamery is located on Main Street in the quaint downtown section of Chester, next to none other than the Pattaconk Bar and Grill. They serve Hershey’s ice cream, which is good but nothing special.

Nice kids working the window. Numerous flavors, cones, cups and shakes. I had a coffee milkshake, which was actually pretty good…tasted like it had a nutty flavor.

Next door the bar and grill was hopping with a lively crowd out on the sidewalk enjoying an early summer, Sunday night. As always Marvin was a hit with the locals who enjoyed the big galoot.

Eight is great, eight is great!

Visited James Pharmacy in Old Saybrook tonight with Maureen. Have wanted to check this place out for awhile and well worth the trip. Beautiful setting in a historic building just off Main Street. James is also a bed & breakfast, a bakery and a bistro which serves all three meals. Friendly, helpful staff.

But as far as ice cream, they make their own fresh gelato every day, which is rich and creamy and naturally a bit pricey. I had the coffee, which is made from their own roasted espresso beans and it was insanely good! Maureen had a Stracciatella which is a white chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate shavings, although she thought the coffee was better….and I would have to agree. Check it out!

p.s. Eight is great is a cheer we would yell for my niece Jackie when she played in her high school hockey team.

Sir yes sir!

Spent the morning at Avon Old Farms watching two friends, Jackson Colehower and Jesse Walsh, graduate and about to begin their future with appointments at West Point. Well done guys! Proud of you.

We stopped on the way back home in Haddam at a local favorite, the Dairy Barn on route 81. Have driven by this place for years but decided to stop today on a cool misty afternoon.

I had my usual chocolate milkshake and Maureen had a small chocolate soft serve with chocolate sprinkles. See below, this is anything but small! Rich flavor and thick milkshake, made with hard J Foster ice cream. Both were actually very tasty and very reasonably priced.

New weight loss program!

Since the start of this quest, I am down seven pounds so might have to start referring to this as the Ice Cream Diet!

This is a nice place, great location near the shore. Nice selection of nice hard ice cream with some unique flavors. I had a coffee milkshake which despite claiming to be “best milkshake in the state of Connecticut” it was just so so. Maureen had a sugar cone with “brownie batter” hard ice cream. Good tasty ice cream but kind of a watery milkshake so a bit disappointed.

Petersen’s also offers a grill and fried seafood so I can see coming back on another Friday night…wait that’s not on my diet!

You better give him your best, he’s on a quest!

We were one for three last night trying two places in Old Lyme that were closed. So we drove by a favorite, Scoops, of our friends Jim, Denise and Renee (AKA Gaylord) Fregeau in Essex, Connecticut. Scoops is in the Centerbrook section of Essex and a bit of a legend on the lower Connecticut Valley.

Marvelous Marvin joined us last night and he enjoyed a nice small cup of soft vanilla which he some how managed to get more in his belly than on his face. But he was happy to take a ride and humor his pop.

Maureen tried soft chocolate, covered with chocolate “shots” on a wafer cone, and I had a rich, dense chocolate milk shake. And don’t get me started on “shots”, that will be the topic of another post. Scoops serves Pralines ice cream, which is a very tasty, high quality ice cream. In fact the kid serving ice cream at the counter asked “soft or hard ice cream” and Maureen said…”you better give him your best, he’s on a quest”.

Okay it may be a mixed Dunkin/Baskin-Robbins but it’s pretty darn good ice cream. Not too mention this is the only ice cream place in Killingworth but it is about a mile from our home.

Maureen and Marve took me out for ice cream tonight, not something we do often but much appreciated. I had a chocolate milkshake, my go to choice at any ice cream shop. I liken it to a plain pizza, a standard that you can compare from one shop to the next.

 

 

 

Had dinner across the border in Westerly, RI with Maureen’s college roommate Amy and her husband Peter. Capped it off with a coffee milkshake at this old school ice cream parlor in Stonington. In addition to soft serve and hard ice cream, they had Hawaiian Shave Ice.

Ashley’s Ice Cream Shops is classic New Haven ice cream. A few shops in the area  but honestly not that impressed. I had hard coffee and my wife had chocolate soft-serve with sprinkles. Pricey but limited variety and ice cream was soft and honestly not that tasty. The soft serve machine was broken and seemed like it took forever to fix it. Staff was friendly but I think the best years of this place is behind them.

 

 

 

An oldie but a goodie. Spent a lot of time here in the 1990s when I first moved to the Shoreline. An American classic serving soft serve ice cream. Simple ” fast food” ice cream, chocolate or vanilla, dipped in chocolate, covered in sprinkles, Blizzards, milkshakes and my fave Dillybars.

We were on our way home from the movies, Super Troopers 2, and this seemed like a good place to start this quest at the DQ in Westbrook on Route 1. I always assumed Dairy Queen was a northeast chain but they were founded in Joliet, Illinois in 1952 and are operating across the States, with Texas having the most franchises (who knew?).

April 28, 2018. Prompted by my wife Maureen finishing her 50 state quest, we decided to start a new challenge. We decided we wanted to visit all 169 towns in Connecticut and check out some part of the town. Maureen decided she wants to visit a historic site or local history museum in each town. I have a more lofty and worthy goal to visit an ice cream establishment in each town. So here we go…

“When your on a quest, you need to respect the quest.” Tim White, April 19, 2018