The Creamery

My sister was visiting from CA and we had a wonderful weekend full of trapeze, eating, and more eating. Since an ice cream addiction is in our DNA, we had to sample one of Old Town Alexandria's ice cream offerings. On King Street, there are two ice cream shops doing battle directly across the street from each other. B wanted us to each get ice cream from a different shop and compare them. This was a fantastic idea in theory but we stopped into Pop's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Company and the smell of fresh paint was so overwhelming that we bailed and headed across the street to The Creamery (formerly known as The Scoop Grill and Homemade Ice Cream) .
The decor is sort of olde-timey and sort of in need of repair. I know, I know, who goes to an ice cream shop for the decor?

What matters is whether an ice cream shop can dish up ice cream that is worth the calories and a return visit. The Creamery's ice cream was good but nothing I will remember when the next ice cream craving hits. My rocky road was packed full of whole almonds and had a good marshmallow to ice cream ratio. B's black cherry was also tasty and the scoop sizes were generous. However, I think it tasted more like high-end grocery store ice cream rather than homemade ice cream parlour ice cream.
I am 100% confident that B is thinking: "well she should have listened to me and tried Pop's." The next time I'm in Alexandria, I think I'll do just that.

Second Thoughts from B

J is right. The thought currently floating between my ears is certainly in the ballpark of "I told you so." With so many ice cream/frozen custard options all in walking distance (Ben& Jerry's is around the corner and the Dairy Godmother isn't far), it is hard to swallow the fact that we settled for mediocre ice cream. But as we've said before (see here and here), even bad ice cream makes for a pretty nice time. I don't know what happened to the grill part of the formerly named "Scoop Grill," but if frozen treats are now their singular focus, I hope for their sake that their frozen custard is really good...

Still, the smell in Pop's was knee buckling. And as much as I love the far-out concoctions of Ira and Barry Shalowitz... errr... Ben & Jerry, I know what I'm getting there. So clearly, I don't regret giving The Creamery a try. But with so many other options available, it might be a while before I go back.