Sweet P's Ice Cream and Candies

Sweet P's Ice Cream and candies is located at 707 Main Street NW in Elk River, MN.  The store is in the old downtown area near Highway 10 and County Road 42.  It is an old time candy store and ice cream parlor.

The ice cream is made on-site.  They had sixteen different flavors the day we stopped.  There are free samples of ice cream to help you chose the right flavor.  The ice cream is served in cake cone, sugar cone, waffle cones or a bowl.  A single scoop is 2.49, a double 3.29 and the Sweet P's sampler is 5.29.  You will need to add 50 cents for a sugar cone and one dollar for a waffle cone.

I had the Black Cherry ice cream on a sugar cone.  The ice cream was creamy and had good flavor.  It had the right amount of cherries in the mix.  Having had a number of cherry ice creams this summer, I would rate the flavor in the middle of the pack.  It was nice but not great.

L had the Chocolate ice cream on a sugar cone.  She really enjoyed the flavor.  It was a 4.5 on a scale of 1-5.  She had a sample of the root beer ice cream and would recommend it to root beer lovers.  It had a strong root beer taste.

S had the Cake batter ice cream on a sugar cone.  She enjoyed the flavor and it was filled with lots of sprinkles in the ice cream.  She a little disappointed about the number of fun ice cream flavors that were available.

A had the Strawberry ice cream on a sugar cone.  He enjoyed the flavor.

Sweet P's Ice Cream and Candies is definitely worth the drive on a hot summer's afternoon.  The ice cream was good and the prices were reasonable.  The shop has plenty of seating with tables inside and outside.

Our rating system will be from 1-5 with 5 being the best.

Price:          4

Taste:         4

Service:      5

Ambiance:  5

Total Score:  18

Pumphouse Cearmery

Pumphouse Creamery Site

South Minneapolis has a lot of neighborhood business areas.  One of my favorite is 48th and Chicago.  There is the Parkway theater, Turtle bakery, a couple of restaurants and the Pumphouse Creamery.  The Pumphouse Creamery is located at 4754 Chicago Avenue. 

The shop itself is small.  There is one table, a window bench and the ice cream counter.   A single scoop of ice cream is 3.20, a double is 5.10 and a five scoop sampler of 4.20.  The ice cream is served in a bowl or a homemade waffle cone.  The ice cream counter had 20 different flavors of ice cream.  The ice cream is made on-site using local ingredients and the recipes are posted on the wall.

I am sorry to say that I did not enjoy the Passion Fruit, Orange, Guava Sorbet.  It did not have a strong flavor or a pop.  The sorbet tasted flat.  It seemed to be missing something that day.  The waffle cone tasted bland and did not hold the sorbet well.  I almost lost my sorbet to the floor twice.

L had the Chocolate ice cream.  She thought it was creamy and loved the dark chocolate taste.  She is a fan of very dark chocolate.  She did not like the waffle cone either.

S had Coffee with Almond Toffee ice cream.  She thought it was great.  It was three votes against the waffle cone.  She said that she would never have it again.

I was a little disappoint with the Pumphouse creamery.  If we stop by again, I would definitely pick an ice cream in a bowl.  They also make sundaes, malts, and shakes.  It is worth the trip, if you are strolling down the Minnehaha parkway on a hot summer's day and need a treat.

Our rating system will be from 1-5 with 5 being the best.

Price:          3

Taste:          3

Service:      4

Ambiance:  4

Total Score:  14

Grandpa's Ice Cream

Grandpa's Ice Cream Web site

Our next stop was at Grandpa's Ice Cream in Fridley, MN.  Grandpa's Ice Cream is located at 1258 East Moore Lake Drive.  It is in the strip mall next to L.A. Fitness. 

We were greeted by the very friendly staff when we entered the door.  They shared with us how the ice cream was made and offered us samples of any of the ice creams.  Grandpa's Ice Cream makes their ice cream on-site.  They use an Italian ice cream maker called a Carpigiani.  The server at the store told us that they have experimented with a number different ingredients to make some wonderful flavors. There were 32 different flavors the day we visited.  A single scoop of ice cream is 3.35, a double is 4.55 and a bowl of three mini scoops is 3.99.

I had a mini bowl with three different ice creams.  The Mango pineapple was creamy and had chunks of pineapple.  The Rum Cherry had nice big chunks of cherry and I really enjoy the flavor.  The Butter Pecan had lots of pecans and the flavor was great.  The theme here is a lot of good sized ingredients added to the ice cream.  I think the combination makes for a great ice cream experience.

L had the Chocolate and Mint Chocolate chip on a sugar cone.  She rated the Chocolate ice cream a 4.  The Mint Chocolate chip was a 3.  I liked the Mint Chocolate chip.

S had a mini bowl with three flavors: Mango pineapple, Brownie and Coffee.  She said that the Mango pineapple was good.  It had good size pineapple chunks.  The Brownie was full of many yummy flavors.

 

M had a bowl of Salty Caramel.  She loved it.  It was perfect.  The others thought it was too salty.

We enjoyed the sitting area.  It had a old ice cream parlor theme.  I thought the following poster says it all.

Our rating system will be from 1-5 with 5 being the best:

Price:           4
Taste:           4 

Service:       5
Ambiance:   5

Total score:  18

 

 

 

Tip Top Dairy Bar

We have passed through Osakis, MN many times on our way to the cabin.  I have always wanted to stop by the Tip Top Dairy Bar.  The Tip Top Dairy Bar serves soft serve ice cream.  It is like a Dairy Queen but on a smaller scale.

I know that soft serve ice cream may not qualify as real ice cream, but I feel that it should be included as part of our summer ice cream tour.  These small places have a fun atmosphere and are a big part of a community.

The soft serve cones come in the following sizes:  kids-1.15, small-1.50, meduim-1.75 and large-2.25.  They make sundaes, shakes, malts and cyclones.  The soft serve comes in vanilla and chocolate.  They have a machine that will give you a twist which includes both.

Each day, they use one machine to make a fruit soft serve.  They make raspberry, pineapple and orange.  I was lucky enough to get the raspberry.  The cone has a strong fruit flavor and I really enjoyed it.  The serving size was perfect.  They use a standard cake cone that was ok.

L had a Chocolate malt.  The malt was a little disappointing.  It was not mixed well and was a little runny.

S had a Coffee cyclone.  It was very yummy if you like coffee and chocolate.  She said that it is a must get if you are in the area.

M had a Hot Fudge Malt.  It was very rich but was not out of the ordinary.  

Use zoom to see the menu!

I enjoy my visit to the Tip Top Dairy Bar.  We will be making the stop again.  Part of the adventure is finding these small town treasures.

Our rating system will be from 1-5 with 5 being the best:

Price:         5

Taste:         3
Service:      4
Ambiance:  3

 

Total  Score:  15