Ice Cream Oddities

I always pegged The Scoop Grill  in Old Town, Alexandria as a second rate ice cream shop that was content to live off the nearby Ben & Jerry’s fannypack crowd overflow. But a friend of ours who lives in D.C. swears by their cinnamon ice cream. And then I read a review somewhere online that touted some of the unusual flavors that round out the Scoop Grill’s repertoire.

So this weekend I dragged an unenthusiastic AK to the Scoop Grill in an effort to give them another chance. Sure enough, in addition to the usual ice cream shop staples, Scoop Grill also offers flavors such as black walnut, orange chocolate chocolate chip, and Guinness. Those familiar with York Castle, the Jamaican ice cream shop in Silver Spring, might be heartened to learn that they no longer have to schlep all the way up Georgia Avenue to see if Guinness somehow translates into a palatable ice cream.

For the record, we’ve made the pilgrimage to York Castle to try both their Guinness and Grape Nut flavors and can report that they are every bit as unusual as they sound. Both of these unlikely flavors are supposedly very popular in Jamaica. The Guinness flavor has a rich taste of malt and a mild taste of alcohol, not entirely offensive, but unlikely to inspire a desire to ever sample it again. And the grape nut flavor is essentially a bunch of grape nuts mixed in with sweet cream, which results in a merger of ice cream and whole grain goodness that could almost be described as nourishing. I used to be a believer that nearly every comestible is likely improved further by the ice cream format, even savories, but Guinness ice cream has forced me to modify this belief with some reservations. Still, everyone who loves ice cream, and that really should be everyone, needs to try at least one spoonful of Guinness ice cream before they stumble into the afterlife.

Anyway, back to Scoop Grill. I opted for the orange chocolate chocolate chip, hoping for something akin to an ice cream version of a Grand Marnier truffle. Sadly, the orange flavor overwhelmed any hint of chocolate. And while the chocolate flavor might have fought back in chip form, the chocolate chips they use are thin, brittle and insubstantial. I salute them for creating a flavor that sounds like a good idea even if their execution is off, and their execution could be so easily improved. The orange flavor should be more subdued and would likely make a better pairing with their bittersweet chocolate flavor. And the chocolate chip situation definitely needs to be rectified: they need those bittersweet chocolate chip slabs that Ben & Jerry’s deploys.

Scoop Grill also offers a few baked goods, most of which take the form of a bunch of tired, dilapidated looking cobblers. I did try one of their peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, which ended up being outstanding. Thick, stuffed with bittersweet chocolate chips that enclose a buttery peanut butter center.

While I was hardly impressed by Scoop Grill, I’ll likely make a return visit to try their bittersweet chocolate and black walnut flavors, though probably not Guinness.

The Scoop Grill is located at 110 King Street.

-AC