For years, Madison has had two standard-bearers in the ice-cream realm: Chocolate Shoppe, which started on Monona Drive back in 1962, and Babcock Hall ice cream, made by the UW’s dairy science program and sold at the Babcock Hall Dairy Store at 1605 Linden Drive and at the Daily Scoop counters in Memorial Union and Union South. It’s been around since 1951! Then there’s Big Custard — you have a Culver’s nearby, of course. And a craze for frozen yogurt seems to come around every few years — though froyo is currently on the outs. Now a new wave of high-end ice cream is upon us.
1815 E. Washington Ave., $5 (single)-$10 (triple)
Everyone has ice cream preferences — some love soft serve; I don’t know why it exists. I like a cold, rich, no-nonsense ice cream — high fat, little air. And flavor should be located in the ice cream, not the mix-ins. In a perfect world, I would be ordering a malted vanilla scoop in a dish, and any extras like a shattered Snickers bar would be sprinkled on top. If Stellie’s doesn’t quite fit my ideal, it comes darn close. The shop’s limited number of flavors are interesting without being too offbeat — eight regular flavors are augmented by a few flavors in development. For purists there’s a dark chocolate and a honey vanilla bean; fancier creations include cherry pie a la mode, white mocha espresso, peanut butter and strawberry jam, peanut butter cookie dough, and salted caramel and candied pecan. I’d read that owner Stella Buckley makes her ice cream with a lot of cream, and that’s obvious. What I loved most is that the ice cream comes super cold and melts slowly in the heat; the vanilla base has good flavor and my peanut butter cookie dough was balanced to the vanilla ice cream; the cookie dough didn’t take over, nor was it too peanut-buttery. As it should be.
—Linda Falkenstein
702 S. Gammon Road, $4.74 (single)-$8.50 (triple)…