Lactard, anyone? After dinner Phosphate? These are some of the questions we were met with upon strolling into Cole Valley's new soda fountain and ice cream shop, Ice Cream Bar on Friday night. Now I'm an ice cream gal through and through, so I've been waiting for the day when Ice Cream Bar would finally open. The time has come and I can assure you that what you'll experience once you step inside will be quite new to you.

Bustling, scooping, and smiling are the employees at Ice Cream Bar

When you walk in the doors, things actually look quite familiar: there's an ice cream menu, folks sampling their favorite flavors, and talk of sundaes and housemade cones. Another high-end ice cream shop? Not so fast. The best way to think of Ice Cream Bar is almost like two different shops. There is the ice cream half of the shop which is just that: wonderfully rich homemade ice creams served on their own, blended into thick milkshakes, or layered into classic sundaes. So let's start there, as you probably will begin there when you visit for the first time. The young gentlemen helping us with our samplings mentioned that the pistachio, butterscotch, and honey buttermilk ice creams have been the most popular so far.

The truly wonderful banana split

But we decided to go all out with the House Banana Split: a classic sundae made with three different kinds of ice cream and topped with a caramelized banana, housemade sour cherry sauce, almonds, and whipped cream. They spend time with this sundae, caramelizing the banana in front of you with a sprinkling of sugar and a blow torch. "You can kind of crack the top just like creme brulee," we were told. And the sour cherry sauce is reason enough to order the banana split. It's tart, colorful, and refreshing -- a nice change from the creepy maraschino cherries that adorn many a dish of ice cream.

Getting the lowdown at Ice Cream Bar

After our sundae, we wandered towards the back of the shop to the ice cream fountain. Here is where the magic really happens thanks to owner Juliet Pries' concept and Russell Davis' Soda Program. Davis, of Rickhouse, calls himself a "Beverage consultant, mixologist, and troubadour," and has created a soda fountain menu consisting of old-fashioned fountain drinks like fruit-based crushes, panaceas (healing tonics), egg creams, and build-your-own sodas using housemade extracts and tinctures. There are 13 syrups (including agave and chicory coffee), 24 house-made extracts (including birch, fennel seed, sassafras), and more than 75 tinctures all told and uncountable combinations for each. Enter the delight.

You'll scan the menu and see something familiar in a milkshakes or malts only to learn that even the milkshakes are a throw-back to the early 1900s when they weren't actually made with ice cream but, instead, a combination of egg, milk, ice and syrups. Nothing is expected or familiar at the soda fountain. You will ask lots of questions, you will sip something like nothing you've ever tasted, you will leave delighted with the experience, satisfied, and feeling like you'd just entered a whole new world.

Chris Simpson, bar manager, working his magic at the Soda Fountain

On the back of the soda fountain menus, Russell Davis explains:

"Soda fountains date back to the 1800s and served to replicate the 'healing' properties of the effervescent natural mineral waters that boil out of the earth. They were more like pharmacies than just places to get soda, and the soda experts were just as much healers as they were beverage crafters. We are reviving the lost art of mixing these specialty drinks, along with their ingredients."

Extracts & Solutions: How the Magic Happens

And reviving the lost art they are. Truly. At one point I saw Simpson glancing at a book with handwritten notes. Inquiring as to whether those are the recipes, he mentioned that they're his personal notes for concocting special off-menu drinks for customers who ask. We decided to go the more traditional route and opted for a root beer soda, asking him to make it with whatever extracts he thought would be really delicious. The result? A root beer soda with sassafras, wintergreen and peppermint extracts.

Extracts & Our Root Beer Soda

It was strangely refreshing and boasted a marriage of flavors I would have never thought to join. For our second foray into soda-land, we chose the Breakfast Soda, a drink with muddled fresh oranges, powdered sugar, maple syrup, and thyme extract. It was mild, pleasant, and only slightly sweet--a good starter soda for those wanting to try something but unsure how to dive right in.

The employees at Ice Cream Bar will be quick to tell you that everything is housemade, from the cones to the syrups to the marshmallows and candies. Their future plans involve rolling out savory items focusing on classic comfort food. Hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches are rumored to be in the mix. The delight is understandable: kids and adults alike are enjoying cones, sundaes, floats, and egg creams in a sweet, vintage-styled ice cream shop. What's not to like? The befuddlement arises from the fact that soda fountains are such a thing of the past that many of us will have little context for understanding how they were much more of a pharmacy than a dessert spot. You could tell the soda jerk what ailed you and he would fix up something to help relieve your symptoms. To most of us this invites questioning, curiosity, and an entirely new landscape of discovery. Go see for yourself.

Ice Cream Bar
815 Cole Street @ Carl, San Francisco
(415) 742-4932
Hours: 12pm-10pm Everyday
Like them on Facebook or Follow on Twitter

This week's culinary tour guide is Sean Timberlake, half of Team Hedonia and the mastermind behind Punk Domestics. As a food blogger for five years running, Sean is known around these parts as the go-to guy for food-related advice. Want to pickle some vegetables? Preserve your grandma's strawberries? Find the perfect place to take your beloved for a very special dinner? He's your guy.

Non-locals might not think to peruse neighborhoods such as the Castro and Noe Valley when looking for distinctive dining experiences, but Sean, a longtime San Francisco resident, has some awesome tips to share on the part of SF lesser known for their edible offerings. Remember: there's more to San Francisco food than the Mission and North Beach!

What are your favorite summer food events? What makes them so special?
I consider the farmers markets each their own discrete events. The produce is ever-changing, and each market has its own strengths. I love the Castro and Noe Valley farmers markets, but for different reasons. Castro's got great bakeries (oh the irony, considering the carb-phobic demographic) and gorgeous fruit (no comment); Noe Valley has Prather Ranch every other week, plus kooky musicians to entertain the kids. Just watch yourself around the stroller bank. It can get tight. 

When the weather heats up, what are your favorite places to eat in San Francisco?
Because we have relatively few places with outdoor seating in San Francisco, they get busy when the weather is favorable, so I often avoid them. But I can be swayed to hang out at The Ramp over a couple of beers, and I've recently become enamored with the new Bluestem Brasserie downtown. Their upstairs balcony is a great spot to watch the world go by. 

Where are your favorite ice cream places in SF? What's your favorite flavor there?
Like everyone, I love both Bi-Rite Creamery and Humphry Slocombe, but I'm still a Mitchell's loyalist, and there's a spot right in my neighborhood, Subs, Inc. in Noe Valley, that carries it. Mostly I'm a purist. I'm really happiest with simple vanilla, or maybe pistachio. But sometimes I like to get adventurous. At Marco Polo out in Parkside, they have some edgier flavors, like black sesame or the infamous durian. I tried the latter once. I've got a broad palate, but even I was not ready to commit to a whole scoop. Yet. 

Is Noe Valley a culinary contender in San Francisco?
Noe Valley can't compete with the Mission, but we have a few gems. Contigo, the Cal-Catalan place on Castro, is our hands-down favorite restaurant in the city, and we are frequent diners at Incanto as well. Firefly still manages to turn out good food after all these years from its dot-com darling days, and Le Zinc has a lovely brunch. I get the brik every time. 

What other little-known neighborhoods are up and coming in the food scene? 
Hayes Valley has a charming food scene, and the Castro is finally coming into its own culinarily, after years as a virtual dining desert. Frances gets all the attention, and it's great, but little L'Ardoise in Duboce Triangle is unjustly overlooked. Starbelly is a crowd pleaser. And since Blackbird came on the scene, we even have honest to god cocktails in the 'Stro. We're not in Kansas anymore! 

Enjoying Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream. Photo: Sabrina Modelle

The Bay Area is finally seeing 75+ degree weather, and both locals and tourists are out in full force, soaking up some much-needed vitamin D. Dolores Park is packed from corner to corner, the bubble tea shops have lines out the door, and street food vendors are crowding the alleyways and sidewalks.

When the weather warrants sunscreen, what better activities are there to take part in than those that involve eating? Right now is the time to enjoy an epic ice cream sundae while sitting enjoying the sun on a restaurant's outdoor patio, or grab a gourmet pizza and chow down in the park. But how do you know where to eat?

Sure you can just grab a burrito from your favorite taqueria, or walk around the Mission District while following your nose, but we thought we'd offer you a few tips on must-taste opportunities during these gorgeous summer days. We've tapped two local food bloggers to share their inside tips on the best edible offerings around town: meet Irvin Lin of Eat the Love and Sabrina Modelle of The Tomato Tart, your honorary culinary guides for the summer, as they provide insider advice on the best summer fare around the bay.

SF Chefs -- Chef Anthony Strong of Locanda. Photo: Sabrina Modelle

What are your favorite summer food events? What makes them so special?

Irvin: Hands down, my favorite summer food event is the San Francisco Street Food Festival. Street food is often where the innovation is happening in the food world. Though the lines are long, the food is always wonderful to eat and there is always a sense of discovery when you go there. This will be the third annual event (I believe it's scheduled August 20th), sponsored by the fantastic incubation kitchen La Cocina, and there will be established restaurants there as well as unknown vendors. This year sounds even better as they've not only expanded into some parking lots and it coincides with the National Street Food conference.

Sabrina: Since it began two years ago, the Eat Real Fest in Oakland has fallen on my anniversary weekend and my husband and I have had a street food anniversary date. We love strolling around Jack London square drinking local beer, sampling real street food, taking in food demos, and hanging out by the water's edge. This year, it's moved back to September, but since that feels like our summer anyway, I'll include it. I'm also really looking forward to SF Chefs this year. It will be my first time attending, but the preview events started last weekend with an amazing pasta-making demo with Chef Anthony Strong of Locanda and Chef Charles Phan of The Slanted Door. You can catch me hanging out at upcoming preview events each Saturday in July. This Saturday will feature Rachel Saunders of Blue Chair Fruit Jam.

When the weather heats up, what are your favorite places to eat in San Francisco?

Irvin: I absolutely love going to Bi-Rite Market and grabbing a sandwich and heading to the park. Though people complain that Bi-Rite Market is packed with people (navigating the crowds in the tiny store on a sunny weekend is a pain) the secret to getting a decent sandwich there and not going crazy is to call ahead. Just check out their website, look at the deli section and call ahead and place your order for your sandwich. Then ten minutes later, pop on over and just pick it up at the register, no fuss. Walk on over to Dolores Park where the people watching is fantastic and the late summer sun will shine on your face.

Sabrina: When it's hot, I love eating on my little patio, of course. I'm in The Mission, so picking up some essentials from Bi-Rite and throwing together a quick salad is my preferred course of action. If we're going out, I love to eat sushi when it's warm. There's nothing that can compare to the freshness and simplicity of ingredients in well-prepared Japanese cuisine. I'm currently in love with Ichi Sushi. I think Tim Archuletta is amazing -- both because he's very talented and I've enjoyed sitting across the bar and chatting with him. Sushi Bistro on 24th is another favorite for really fresh nigiri, the sushi chef is just amazing and I suggest trying whatever he recommends.

Caprese salad on the patio. Photo: Sabrina Modelle

Where is your favorite ice cream place in SF? What's your favorite flavor there?

Irvin: I adore Humphry Slocombe, and I think Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous is fantastic, I'm a Bi-Rite Creamery sort of guy. Again, part of it is the Dolores Park appeal, where you can buy some ice cream and walk over to the park, but part of it is the secret shortcuts that make me feel like I'm in the know. Everyone complains the lines are ridiculous (and they are) but rarely is the line long over a the soft serve window. Even better, if you know what flavors you like, go directly to the cold case in the main part of the ice cream shop and just buy a pint, bypassing the line completely. My partner AJ loves their signature Salted Caramel, but I'm a fan of the Honey Lavender. Rich, floral with a touch of sweetness, I get it every time.

Sabrina: I am a big fan of Humphry Slocombe. I'm exactly two blocks away from their store, and when we first moved in, I actually had a little problem. I had to set rules either one scoop of ice cream or one Dynamo Donut once per week. The ice cream pretty much always won out. Now, I've slowed down on my consumption quite a bit, and I visit about once a month or so. I love their salted licorice, their brown butter, and of course, the first thing I ever tried the ancho chili chocolate.

Ichi Sushi. Photo: Sabrina Modelle

The infamous monster size at Polly Ann Ice Cream, a classic city shake

I’ve been a student of San Francisco shakeology (the science of city milkshakes) for my whole life, but I have noticed an in-town trend towards outrageousness just over the past few years. Many chills, thrills, and bellyaches have been experienced to be your Dairy Queen and bring you this survey of just how crazy it gets out there these days. Shake it up, baby!

The Twinkie shake at Burger Bar

High atop Macy’s in Union Square, Hubert Keller’s Burger Bar playfully pokes fun at the American obsession for fast food with incredibly over-the-top versions of staples including a burger with foie gras, fries cooked in high-quality truffle oil, and heart-stopping milkshakes in child and adult (read: alcoholic) form. In the kid column, the craziest item one can order is the Twinkie shake. Rather than a research error, we deliberately did not ask how many of those Hostess bombs are stuffed into the blender with the vanilla ice cream, but we do know that a whole one is cut and thrown in the glass as a garnish -- and maybe an extra f*ck you to those nuts enough to try it?

Salted coffee caramel shake at Greenburger's

Greenburger's, which opened in mid-March in the Lower Haight, has a milkshake and sundae bar that you can sidle up to for a sip. Though it hasn’t been around too long, word of its excellent shakes is starting to travel, and we were taken with the salted coffee caramel, made with Strauss vanilla ice cream, French organic coffee, caramel sauce, and fleur de sel. In addition to the salted coffee caramel, vanilla, and chocolate, there is a weekly changing special that tends towards the extra-decadent; recent flavors include carrot cake and bananas foster.

The green chile apple pie shake at Chile Pies (& Ice Cream)

Chile Pies (& Ice Cream) in the Panhandle offers ice cream by the scoop from Bay Area company Three Twins, but it seems silly to go for a cone when the Green Chile Kitchen offshoot features pie shakes: Milkshakes with a generous slice of house-made pie blended into it. We suspect that there is no pie there that wouldn’t make for an incredible shake (particularly the Mexican chocolate with pecan, hello). However, it’s only proper to opt for the signature pie, an apple studded with green chiles and surrounded with a cheddar-baked crust. A cheese shake doesn’t sound that appetizing on paper, nor does a chile one, but it truly is all a taste combination actually worth experiencing. A spoon is essential to capture chunks of crust too large to blend. I won’t tell anyone that these shakes are about 1000 calories in a glass if you won’t. (There. It never happened.)

Ube and Grasshopper shakes from Mitchell's

Come to think of it, it’s always been easier to get a wild milkshake at city stalwarts Mitchell’s Ice Cream and Polly Ann Ice Cream than to get something relatively plain. Mitchell’s in the Mission is known for its exotic fruit flavors, and the bright purple ube (yam) is certainly the most wonderfully hued shake in town. Mitchell’s offers three suggestions for shakes, and three of them surprisingly contain Oreo cookies. The one to get is the Grasshopper, which blends grasshopper pie ice cream (mint with Oreos), more Oreos, and chocolate syrup. It’s the beverage equivalent of downing a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints in one go.

A Star Wars shake at Polly Ann Ice Cream

Exotic fruits are also a mainstay at Polly Ann, where it’s difficult to find much in the way of conventional flavors -- which is why I’ve loved it since before I was able to walk. I’ve never had the guts to try a shake with durian, the fruit that famously smells like gasoline, but I am curious. I also wonder what it would taste like to make a shake out of Polly Ann’s gummi bear flavor, but that’s perhaps best kept as a mystery for anyone over the age of 10. A shake made with Star Wars (mint ice cream with marshmallows) is a sleeper of outrageousness, especially considering that the ice cream probably starts with the highest fat content in this 7x7 town without the marshmallow assistance. The Sunset mainstay has offered a “monster” size, which clocks in at more than a quart, for more than 30 years. Guess we’ve always been crazy around here.

As far as I'm concerned, ice cream is the perfect dessert. There's nothing more relaxing and comforting after a hectic day with kids and work than a little hillock of lush and frosty ice cream sitting in a bowl. But lately my cholesterol has been creeping a little higher, making my nightly indulgence unsustainable. So after some months eating mostly store-bought sherbet and frozen yogurt, I decided to try something new -- almond milk ice cream -- and I'm so glad I did.

Now no one would ever proclaim me a vegan -- after all, I have far too many recipes on Bay Area Bites that use pork shoulder as a main ingredient -- but I do love the idea of cutting cholesterol and fat from my diet. So, noticing refrigerated almond milk at Trader Joe's, I started to wonder how it would fare as an ice-cream base. The container claimed it was "rich and creamy" and I also saw it was free of cholesterol and saturated fat. So far so good, but would it taste like ice cream? As someone who's never really liked soy ice cream -- it has too much of an aftertaste for me -- I was skeptical but ready to give almond milk a try.

I made three types of ice cream and, no surprise to many vegans out there but sort of a surprise to me, they were all amazingly good, exceeding my expectations on every level. My ten-year old daughter Maddie even exclaimed about the chocolate version "This is better than store-bought ice cream! It's my favorite!" I have to agree. My three flavors were almond, strawberry and chocolate (recipes below). All are vegan. The first two were delightful but the chocolate was really special, and all are cholesterol and fat free. But don't make these because they're healthy for you; make them because they are creamy and luscious. Basically they are everything that ice cream should be, minus the artery clogging component.

Happy spring! The vernal equinox, daylight savings time, and the Jewish holiday of Purim may all be upon us, but brrrr! With umbrella-destroying winds, tornado watches along the coast, and socks-drenching rain, it's feeling much more like winter than balmy spring. Oh well--remember all those sunbathing days we got back in January?

Like most of us, bees prefer to stay inside where it's warm and dry on days like this, snuggling together in a big bee-ball to keep themselves, and especially their queen, nice and toasty. But for humans, the show must go on, and so CUESA's honey celebration at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market on Saturday, March 19th went on even in the teeth of blowing rain. Once a month from February through November, CUESA will be hosting a celebration for a different fruit, vegetable, or product, featuring tastings, ask the farmer (or producer) sessions, and a variety of cooking demonstrations by local chefs and cookbook authors. Last month was citrus; this month, for the first time, was honey.

First up behind the counter was Margo True, food editor of Sunset magazine and the author (along with her staff) of Sunset's latest book, The One-Block Feast. The book, which comes out next week, came out of a series of homesteading projects undertaken by Sunset over the last couple of years. "We wanted to get back to the Lane brothers' original vision for Sunset, which was as a laboratory for Western living," said True. With a spacious garden, room for bees and chickens, the ability to get a "milk share" from a cow living at a nearby farm, and lots of kitchen room for testing, True and her team set out to see if they could make or source everything--even flour and sea salt--from as close to the magazine's Menlo Park campus as possible. The results were sometimes spectacular, sometimes frustrating, but all of it got incorporated into the book. True tried to be as honest as possible, promising that they "definitely wrote about what bombed," too.

However, on this gray morning, True was here to show off two recipes that promise big payback for not too much effort. A custard-based honey ice cream, made with honey from the magazine's own hives, had a suave, salted-caramel edge, thanks to a drizzle of honey on top and a sprinkle of sea salt. It's more lusciously creamy than sweet, but the honey flavor still comes through. Even though it was hardly ice cream weather, the crowd snapped up every sample and scraped the cups clean.

Next came strawberry jam, made of nothing more than ripe early-season berries, honey, and a dash of lemon juice. Rather than cook it on the stovetop, where the direct heat could scorch the mixture, True spread out her chunky berry puree in a thin layer on a baking sheet, then revealed her secret: a long, gentle bake in a slow oven, which would gently condense it down while preserving the berries' ripe flavor. Spread on slices of Acme bread, the finished jam did taste remarkably fresh, with a soft consistency somewhere between jam and compote, perfect for a yogurt parfait topped with granola and a handful of fresh berries.

When I was researching my own book about honey a decade ago, Helene Marshall and her husband, beekeeper Spencer Marshall of Marshall's Farm Honey, took me around their bee house, let me scoop a fingerful of eucalyptus honey straight out of the comb, and even let their bees model for photographs. Now, ten years later, Helene is still talking up the beauty of bees and the importance of local honey (and local pollinators), and finally, people are ready to hear what she has to say. Speaking about the recent resurgence of interest in backyard beekeeping, she said, "The biggest, best, and most important thing to come out of this is that people have respect for bees and beekeepers now, and a real appreciation of honey. People realize that we need those bees!"

Helene Marshall of Marshall's Farm Honey, offering samples of Fairmont Hotel

In front of the audience with J.W. Foster, executive chef of San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel, Helene talked about their latest project, putting hives on the Fairmont's roof. "I'm San Francisco born and raised, went to my junior and senior proms at the Fairmont, so it feels like our bees are going home. They can hitch a ride on a cable car...it's so San Francisco, I love it!" On warm days, the bees like to nip up to the penthouse level to sip from the fountains, getting a free look at that $15,000-a-night view.

So far, the Fairmont is hosting four hives, all very healthy. Last week's harvest yielded 60 pounds of honey, with a light, floral-herbal taste and an early-spring hint of eucalyptus. "This honey was harvested last week, extracted a couple of days ago and bottled this morning," said Helene.

Marshall's Farm Fairmont Hotel honey

With a lot of fresh honey at his disposal, Foster and his kitchen staff are experimenting to see what they can use it for. Their latest creation is an unctuous duck-egg aioli with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and a touch of honey, used to dress chopped raw beef tartare with stovetop-smoked onions and cress salad on walnut crostini.

Ice cream, beef tartare...finally, the last chef, Brandon Jew of Bar Agricole, promised something hot, a hot toddy made with brandy, chartreuse, honey from Alan Hawkins' apiaries, bitters, and lemon peel. He made some mostarda, too, his spin on Bologna's favorite tart-sweet relish, a late-winter version made from brandied, spiced raisins mixed with a honey-based Seville orange marmalade, and served over a slice of pork pate. A few sips, and hey, was that a ray of sunshine coming down?

Jake Godby and Sean Vahey. Photo credit Todd Selby of theselby.com

Humphry Slocombe’s Jake Godby and Sean Vahey are known nationally for their cutting edge ice cream flavors and massive Twitter following. The two are both remarkably trim even though they “taste everything” made at the Mission District shop. Many eating and drinking favorites make both Godby and Vahey’s list. Vahey seemed amused that there is also a strong showing of their clients on the list.

JAKE GODBY'S EATS
Jake Godby said, “I eat out every night but try to cook (at home) at least one night.” Because he lives by Delfina, that is “my go to restaurant.” Vahey said to him: “You're a duck fiend” and Godby nodded and smiled. He shops at Bi-Rite Market and that "they have great meat there." He favors the morning bun from Tartine Bakery and has “no guilt associated with food.”

Godby will eat “any of the pastas at Flour + Water. They're both a client and friends."

“I try to limit myself to one burrito a week,” said Godby. This limit must be a challenge given the Humphry Slocombe Mission location is heavy on taquerias.

For drinks, Godby likes a barstool at Aunt Charlie’s Lounge: “It’s a dicey, old school drag bar.” He goes to the Ramp because city living can make one “forget that you live by the water sometimes.” For simple, good food, Godby checks in at farm:table café: "It’s tiny and communal. There's one salad, one sandwich, one soup, and coffee."

One routine eating destination is the famed Vietnamese eatery Tu Lan: “I’ve been here fifteen years and I still go once a week. Order the #37 'Vietnamese Style' dish. Tu Lan is near my gym and I'm downtown a lot.”

GODBY & VAHEY’S FAVORITES
Vahey said that Godby “pretty much named my favorite places.” Sebo, Frances, and Flour + Water came up as joints that both men enjoy.

Godby offered two scenarios for where he likes to go for date night. First was Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack and Nap’s Bar. For Emmy’s: “I’ve never had a bad meal here.” His other date night choice is Blackbird and Frances. “Blackbird has a great Old Fashioned. At Frances, I order anything lamb." Godby admitted, "I was fired by Melissa (Perello)" when he worked “at Charles Nob Hill.”

Blackbird is also Vahey’s favorite bar. “If you put a gun to my head, I’d say Frances is my favorite restaurant. I can remember every single bite of every single dish there.” Vahey favors Chez Spencer for romantic dining outings. “With the outdoor lights, it’s a perfect area for gazing into someone’s eyes.”

SEAN VAHEY'S PICKS
“I love going out to Sea Breeze Café in the Sunset. It’s run by a husband and wife and is quaint. They are so kind. The food is really simple. They have the best pancakes on the planet, that reminds me of the way my Mom made pancakes.” He also likes Starbelly, and said, “I go there often.” Hogs & Rocks is another Vahey favorite.

The Little Star Pizza, Valencia location, has “the best pizza restaurant next to Flour + Water in the City.” For lunch at work, Vahey said, “Pal’s (Takeaway) is our lunch spot.” Nearby bar Shotwell’s also gets a shout out. Vahey is excited about newcomer Commonwealth: “What they’re doing is new, and has given a breath of fresh air to the dining scene. They have phenomenal service.”

NEWS
Vahey & Godby told Bay Area Bites that they just signed the lease for their new parlor location and that “it’s just dirt right now.” Expect to see something completed by late summer next year for this project. Bring on the Secret Breakfast ice cream.

When the weather reaches the 90s, I crave homemade ice cream. But as cool and refreshing as this cold treat can be, making ice cream custard is a bit of a hot and steamy affair. Normally I wouldn't flinch from standing over a pot on the stove while I whisked eggs and cream together, but this week I just wanted the chilly result of creamy ice cream without the fuss.

Now I've made ice cream using only heavy whipping cream and fruit before, but I wanted something with more substance. Remembering some lovely cannolis I had at Stella's a few weeks ago when my mom was visiting, I began to wonder what ricotta ice cream would taste like. After all, cannoli filing is rich and luscious and doesn't contain eggs that need to be cooked. I contemplated adding in a crispy cone of some sort to mimic the pastry shell, but figured those would have to be made from scratch and so quickly abandoned the idea. Seeing a quarter bottle of Muscat in my fridge, I remembered the peaches in wine my parents would make on hot summer days when I was a kid and thought it would be the perfect topping for my cannoli ice cream. I confess that I slowly simmered my wine and peaches -- yes, I did end up using the stove -- but this basically meant simply sticking the fruit and wine in a pot and simmering for 10 minutes with the cover on (no standing next to a hot stove or stirring).

To mimic a cannoli filling, I added vanilla, orange zest and some flecks of chocolate to the ice cream, but you could easily leave out the zest and use chocolate chips if you don't want the citrus flavoring. After churning away in my ice cream maker, the dessert was creamy and rich. Topped with the peaches in Muscat, my bowl of ice cream was the perfect way to end a sweltering Bay Area day.

Cannoli Ice Cream

Makes: Enough for 4 large bowls

Ingredients:
1 15 oz container whole milk ricotta cheese
1/2 cup simple syrup
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest from 1/2 orange or 1 tangerine
1/4 cup shaved semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

Preparation:
1. Whisk ricotta, simple syrup, cream, vanilla and orange zest until completely creamed together.
2. Add mixture to an ice cream maker and then freeze according to the manufacturer's directions.
3. When the ice cream seems thick but not quite ready, add in the shaved chocolate.
4. When ice cream is ready, serve with peaches and wine (recipe below).

Note: Ricotta ice cream freezes hard, so if you're making this dessert ahead, be sure not to let it sit in your freezer for more than a few hours before eating.

Peaches Simmered in Muscat

Makes: Enough for 4 people to eat with ice cream

Ingredients:
1 large or 1 1/2 medium peaches (you can use nectarines, plums, figs or grapes instead if you’d like)
1/2 cup Muscat

Preparation:
1. Place ingredients in a medium pot and simmer covered for 7-10 minutes or until the Muscat is syrupy.
2. Cool and serve with Cannoli ice cream.

Music permeates restaurant kitchens and occasionally even ends up on plates. We've found that it's no different in the world of sweets, an influence that goes far beyond opera cake.

The first local dessert/music mash-up we can remember experiencing goes back to San Francisco in 1991, a memory shrouded in some deep Outer Sunset fog. That year, Polly Ann Ice Cream introduced O.P.P., a flavor inspired by Naughty By Nature's rap song of the same name. Listen to the song to hear and understand its polyamorous proclivities, but here O.P.P. stands for something far more innocent: Orange, Peach, and Pineapple!

We still love going to Polly Ann, where O.P.P. is occasionally available to this day. It's still fun to spin the wheel of ice cream fortune, which is there for the adventurous, indecisive, or merely the patron who wants a shot at a freebie. But we head to the Mission to the two-year-old parlor Humphry Slocombe to get a sonic rock fix in frozen form. The Gabba Gabba Hey sundae is named after a song by the late great New York band the Ramones. A fat chocolate brownie mimics Dee Dee Ramone's bassline, there's balsamic caramel ice cream for Johnny Ramone's guitar, and sugar-enhanced Amarena cherries stand in for Joey Ramone's vocals on top.

Humphry Slocombe's Gabba Gabba Hey sundae

Only outrageous sinkers reside at Psycho Donuts in Campbell and San Jose, so it's a natural extension that some would be named after explosive musical personalities. There's Headbanger's Evil Twin (raised, filled custard), Michael Jackson (chocolate cake dipped in powdered sugar), and Bananarama (raised, filled custard topped with chocolate and freeze-dried bananas). The shop even created three limited-edition donuts in honor of Lady Gaga, including one with cherry champagne custard filling and a sparking cherry on top, and sold them the week she brought her Monster Ball concert tour to San Jose's HP Pavilion in August.

At Orson in San Francisco's SOMA area, Maria Muldaur’s 1974 hit "Midnight at the Oasis" is rendered in dessert form, with a chocolate fudgesicle, Devil's food cake, and milk pudding scattered with a streusel made with cacao nibs. Nearby, the Cups and Cakes Bakery takes its whole name from a Spinal Tap song with sweet lyrics: "Cups and cakes, cups and cakes/Please make sure that nothing breaks/The china's so dear and the treacle so clear/And I'm glad that you are here/Milk and sugar, bread and jam/Yes, please, sir and thank you, ma'am." Musical influence also shows up at Cups and Cakes Bakery in the Elvis-winking Viva Las Vegas cupcake (banana bacon cake and peanut buttercream topped with banana chip and bacon). And north of the Panhandle (Nopa to some), Candybar has constructed an ode to the catchiest Internet-era ditty you'll ever hear. Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!! (exclamation points theirs) is a peanut butter tart with salted peanuts, blackberries, and chocolate crust. Sweets taste better when you’re in tune with the music that runs through it.

I started watching The Big C last week. With Laura Linney as the lead and a tagline of "Grab Life by the Balls," how could I not love this show? The gist (without giving anything away) is that the main character finds out she has cancer and begins to lead a much less structured, sensible life. One night she deliberately pours red wine over the expensive sofa she'd previously obsessed over and at dinner one night with her husband, proclaims "I'm only having liquor and desserts." I knew I'd love this show. A woman after my own heart.

So this week--I bring you liquor and desserts in the form of boozy milkshakes. What's not to love about a thick, simple shake spiked with your favorite booze? I actually experimented and made more of these than I care to admit, but I'm sharing my two favorites with you today. One will appeal to all of you simple vanilla folks out there and the other will call to you chocolate, coffee, butterscotch types. The yin and the yang of the 'liquor and desserts' world. It's kind of perfect timing seeing that summer has finally decided do descend in, oh, the end of August. Right when school's back in session and fall clothes appear in shop windows--that's when summer decides to show its face in the Bay Area. But we'll take it. It's all good. And even better with boozy milkshakes.

Laying out the Ingredients for the Whiteout Milkshake

Let's start with what I'll call the Whiteout Milkshake. I have a fondness for really fabulous vanilla ice cream. It's obviously great plain, on top of berry pies or right beside a piece of chocolate birthday cake. Well it turns out, it's also the perfect base for a boozy shake.

Scooping Vanilla Ice Cream

Häagen-Dazs happens to be my favorite vanilla. What's yours? I like that you can actually see the vanilla flecks throughout. I was shocked to discover that yes, indeed, it takes an entire pint of ice cream to make a single shake. But let's not spend too much time contemplating that minor detail--just think of all the calcium!

The Whiteout Milkshake

And here you have it. We mixed up some premium ice cream, a little Kahlua, some Stoli Vanilla Vodka and just a touch of milk and topped it with a generous portion of canned whipped cream. There's something very diner-y and perfect about canned whipped cream that seemed fitting for these shakes.

Laying out the Spiked Malted Coffee Ingredients

Now the next milkshake is essentially the polar opposite. It's edgy and dark. It has very different flavor profiles that somehow compliment each other perfectly. It has bourbon. Enough said.

Scooping and Blending : On Our Way!

Mix in a bit of bourbon, some malted milk powder, coffee ice cream (or feel free to use chocolate if you like) and top with whipped cream and butterscotch sauce. Seriously, kind of magical.

Voila: Spiked Malted Coffee Milkshake

Below you'll find both recipes. The nice thing about going the liquor and desserts route is that you can't really go wrong. If you're a big Bailey's fan, throw some in. Love Irish Cream? Add it. A good rule of thumb is to work slowly, taste as you go, and--like me--you just might find some new summertime favorites.

The Whiteout Milkshake

If you just have plain vodka on hand, that will work just fine. And I add the milk slowly and don't use all that much because I like my shakes rather thick. Feel free to add another splash so the consistency is to your liking.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups vanilla ice cream (essentially, 1 pint)
1-2 Tbsp. whole milk
1 oz. Stoli Vanilla Vodka
1/2 oz. Kahlua

Method:
Blend together, top with whipped cream, and serve immediately.

Makes: 1 generous shake

Spiked Malted Coffee Milkshake
Ingredients:
1 1/5 cups coffee ice cream
2 Tbsp. malted milk powder (like Ovaltine)
1 oz. bourbon
1-2 Tbsp. milk

Method:
Blend together, top with whipped cream, and serve immediately.

Makes: 1 generous shake.