Max's Best Ice Cream

As B and I celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary this month, I want to dedicate this post to one of the reasons I love him so much: his willingness to feed my ice cream addiction at all hours. I love ice cream so much that I can't keep it in our house. I never go down the ice cream aisle in the grocery store. I like to make ice cream eating a special event.

Last week we were sitting at home on a weeknight watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Ice Cream and B saw the look in my eyes. As soon as the show was over, he was on the computer looking up a new ice cream place for us to try. He told me to get out of my PJs (a.k.a. cozy pants) and get dressed for an ice cream outing. I jumped off the couch and let out a big cheer! Ice cream on a weeknight? YES!

He gave me the choice between Dolcezza Gelato and Max's Best Ice Cream. Gelato has its place in the world, but let's face it, it's not ice cream. After watching the celebrichefs on Best Thing I Ever Ate rambling on about ice cream sundaes, I needed an ice cream sundae and I knew Max would be the man to deliver. Max has been serving ice cream on Wisconsin Avenue in Glover Park since the days when Starter jackets and hypercolor shirts were cool (as evidenced by the outfits being sported by the kids in the photos on the wall). He makes all the ice cream (and the whipped cream) in the store and features a rotating menu of flavors such as peanut butter and jelly and fresh peach.

I ordered a small sundae with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and hot fudge. Max gets extra points for including a choice of candy topping on his sundaes. The peanut butter cups were a great match for the cookie dough. I also love that the whipped cream is spooned out of a mixing bowl and not squirted out of a can. The only drawback was the hot fudge. It was hot, but not as thick and gooey as hot fudge should be.

B loved his fresh peach ice cream and savored every bite of it. I wolfed down my sundae in record time and got to peruse the photos on the wall. Max has framed photos of hundreds of his customers over the years and it was fun to see fashions change and to try to identify the celebrities and pseudo-celebrities in the photos.

Max's is a great neighborhood ice cream shop. If it was in my neighborhood, my waistline would be in serious trouble.

Second Thoughts from B

At the risk of making this post the equivalent of a sappy Rom-Com, how lucky am I that ice cream scores major points with my wife? While others are stuck shelling out several months of their salary at jewelry stores, I get to savor freshly made ice cream for what amounts to pocket change. Clearly I'm the big winner!

I'm not the connoisseur of ice cream that J is. I don't claim it is my favorite "food" and I don't dream about it. But I do know the difference between the stuff out of the freezer at home and the velvety smooth deliciousness served by masters like Max. After all, we've sampled homemade ice cream from Dupont to Georgetown to Alexandria, frozen yogurt from the goofy to the chic, frozen custard worthy of POTUS, and I don't know how many milk shakes (Good Stuff's is still the runaway favorite). We may not be at the level of the girl from One Good Scoop (thanks for pointing us in the direction of Max), but we know our way around this town's frozen dessert scene.

To date, I was always a Larry's fan. In my book, his ice cream has never disappointed and really can't be beat in terms of creaminess and flavor. I even like the quirky (some might say intimidating) Soup Nazi aspect of the store. However, Max's ice cream might just be on par with Larry's (I'm looking forward to getting a second crack at this), and his welcoming shop and warm smile screams small town neighborhood store to me. If ice cream is J's comfort food, there's no better way to enjoy it than a comfortable place like Max's.