Which ice cream cone do you go out of your way for?

[mmocpi]

The whole Toscanini's thing got me thinking that people sure are loyal to their icecream.

In my case, the ice cream cone I go out of my way for (even though I live close to Herrell's in Allston which I love) is .... Brigham's Mocha Chip with chocolate jimmies on a sugar cone (in Belmont).

How about you?

[Angel Food]

Coffee Raspberry Truffle at Erikson's in Maynard - even though it's not out of my way! Coffee ice cream studded with raspberry-filled chocolates. I like a lot of their special flavors there - Cake Batter, Apple Struedel, Pumpkin.

[powerfulpierre]

Pistacio at Meletharbs! No green coloring, just sweet with nuts. Mmmmmm.

[threedogs]

I'm going to throw in Hodgie's in Amesbury - but I have to confess that, without a car, I haven't been there in years. Someone PLEASE tell me it's as wonderful as it was years ago...

Anyway, their almond flavor was my absolute favorite. Mmm. Huge portions, too. My oldest dog was introduced, as a pup, to ice cream there.

One place I will never, ever return to is any Stone Cold Creamery. Yes, I know it's a chain, and it's unlikely that any decent chowhound will succumb - as I did, yesterday. I was stuck at the Cambridge Street plaza (right near Whole Foods), waiting for a ride. I could have just gone back into Whole Foods for something - anything - but the cold, bitter wind got to me & I thought it was worth it, just to sit down inside - no, no, no - standing in the bitter cold for the hour would have been a better fate! Ugh. I even think the peanuts in the waffle cone were spoiled. Double ugh... (serves me right - I know better!)

[Ralphie_in_Boston]

I love Hodgies, although I haven't been there in a couple of years either!!

[dchow]

the furthest i've been for ice cream was at crescent ridge in sharon. took us about 45 minutes to get there, but it was worth it. can't remember the flavor name, but i know it had caramel, fudge, and huge, toasted whole almonds in the vanilla ice cream. we had to visit it after enjoying their quarts from whole foods (only 3 flavors offered at the brighton whole foods -- vanilla, chocolate, rocky road). fresh, delicious, friendly service, huge serving (practially a pint teetering atop a cone).

[mr mangia]

black rasberry chip at bedord farms in concord. it has milk & white choco chips. mmmmmmm.......

[saltyair]

Any creamy stand in Vermont. It is not soft-serve, it is a creamy!

[RoseWethersfield]

Chocolate/orange at Christina's
Cappuccino Crunch at J.P. Licks

[Bobs Girl]

Lizzy's Homemade ice cream in Waltham. All flavors are great! On a nice night the line is out the door and down the street. Once you taste the ice cream, you will see why people are willing to wait.

[Baiye]

Bittersweet chocolate at Rancatore's.

[Bob Dobalina]

Ain't THAT the truth!

[Maxinella]

I've got to agree on that one. Besides, if Joe is there and it's not busy, you get to talk about the Red Sox for as long as you want to, even if it's February.

[Gabatta]

Christina's chocolate/banana with chocolate jimmies on a sugar cone. Though it is not too far out of the way, and I am glad for that. It is walkable in the summer, and tough not to stop in after any ECG meal no matter what the season.

[okello]

Just had this last night: Oreo Cake Batter at JP Licks. OMG. Never had the cake batter ice cream thing before, but YUM YUM YUM.

[mmocpi]

Herrell's Almond Creme (the other favorite of mine which I have to put in here since Herrell's has not had it on their board for a while now (but keeps promising)).

[LeoLioness]

Banana cinammon at Christina's.

[foodperv]

puleo's in salem mass
they even serve real malted milk shakes those are becoming harder to find too

[MC Slim JB]

FYI, Picco also has real malt powder as an add-in for its shakes.

[foodperv]

MC slim JB my friend, i never said no one else had it i just said that it is getting harder to find
even friendlys ice cream (YUK) dropped it yrs ago

[MC Slim JB]

Agreed, it's getting harder to find; I was just offering another place to find it.

I really like Picco's pizza (one of those quite-thin crusts, with lots of big bubbles and good wood-oven charring) and its ice cream, too. A Picco chocolate malted is my second-favorite "medicine" (after chicken pho) when I'm feeling under the weather.

[sailormouth]

Herrell's, JP Licks, Lizzy's, Toscannini's and Christina's all have the malt powder. It can be a little overkill in a malt-vanilla frappe, in my opinion, but always brings my coffee frappes to the next level.

Huh, "frappe" is listed as misspelled, but "frappes" isn't.

[gltsoi]

The Berry Cherry at Christina's is unbelievely good, sadly, they seldom have it. The Banana Cinnamon has also been a favorite for a long time.

[bear]

Herrell's chocolate pudding in a cone.

Kimball's chocolate chip, if only you could actually get a kiddie-sized. I can't quite manage the whole thing.

White's chocolate raspberry truffle is pretty tasty, too.

Chocolate-peanut butter at Richardson's...lots of peanut butter throughout. Wish it was a little more chocolaty, though (think Herrell's chocolate pudding).

[sablemerle]

Richardson's Dairy Cake Batter.

[Vicki99]

I second the Fresh Raspberry ice cream from Benson's in Boxford..they only have for a short time during raspberry season.It's a little more $$ than their regular flavors..but it's awesome.

[wamcadoo]

Also LOVE the malted vanilla. Herrel's is my choice. I use it to make my own ice cream sandwiches out of cake-like brownies flattened with a rolling pin.

[kewpie]

after all that is daid--- HERRELS - malted vanilla has been our favorite for over 10 years-- HANDS DOWN- NO CONTEST

[MC Slim JB]

That's one of the great things about Chowhound: the minute you say "Hands down, no contest", someone else sticks up their hand, ready to contest you.

I also wonder about stuff that's "to die for". I love eating, but I've never had anything so good it made me say, "That's it: if I died now, I'd be happy." Eating good stuff makes me want to go on living, not stop.

[sailormouth]

Playing fast and loose with the OP's question. . .

I work near Harvard and Inman Sq., so there isn't much out of my way for ice cream as there are three fantastic places nearby (hooray!), but, one thing I pull over for when venturing to the burbs is Friendly's Reeses Peanut-Butter Cup Sundae.

I hear the peanut-butter sauce has the toxicity of used plutonium, but it's sooo good.

[mohotta]

Oh, scary re the Friendlys PB sauce... I like it too, and have been known to order it over vanilla in desolate non Kimballs winter months.

100% agree with the post re Kimballs Gingersnap-Molassas! So good. Also a huge fan of Toscanninis Burnt Caramel, and I believe I've had similar at Christinas. White 's in Ipswich has an amazing Key Lime Pie ice cream in the summer....a necessary stop after a day a Crane's.

[sailormouth]

Christina's is Burnt Sugar and I'm partial to their version over Toscannini's, but there's no accounting for taste.

[kewpie]

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!--- the taste part :}---hah a ha--- christina's is always excellent--- toscannis- needs to only pay their taxes and ''catch up to'' the flavor combos of christinas

[Pia]

Not a fan of the Christina's version, which tastes too sweet to me as opposed to Tosci's (IMO) more caramelized flavor. But I have to admit I'm turned off by the whole "donate to our for-profit business because we didn't pay our taxes" thing.

The Friendly's PB sundae is funny... it seems to inspire longing in the hearts of even the most dedicated Chowhound. There was a long thread on the Home Cooking board about how to recreate it.

[shaebones]

Sweet Cream from Meletharbs.

[heypielady]

Just before we hit the bridge leaving the Cape in the summer we hit Twin Acres in Sandwich on 6A. If your going to sit in traffic you might as well have an ice cream dinner. I get a different flavor every time but at least once a summer I get bubblegum ice cream with rainbow jimmies. Gross right? But sometimes food is about childhood memories.
Locally I love Christina's and Toscanini's (butter pistachio, like butter pecan but with pistachios- so good)

[taxi]

Any unique flavor at Lil 'N Chicks in Saugus. All is homemade.

[Johnresa]

I am going to get lynched for this...lol......

Sweet Cream in a Chocolate coconut cone from Cold Stone

[treb]

Benson's in Boxford, native red raspberry or any of their native fruit flavors. Worth the trip (only open in the summer). Richardson's for year round ice cream fix.

[grunko]

I can get there usually once each summer. Stopped there last August with my 5-year old grandson. It was great!

[fondue]

burnt caramel at toscanini's with hot fudge.

[pollystyrene]

Yup, yup, and yup.

[turtl_girl]

lemon yogurt at lizzie's is the lightest and most refreshing thing i've had in a very long time. sounds banal i know, but something about it is divine...

[Bob Dobalina]

Any spice or flower flavor at Christina's

Fresh Peach at Dr. Mike's in Bethel/Monroe, CT is still the best ice cream I've ever had.

[finlero]

Ah yes, Dr. Mikes. One summer when I was five or six, my grandparents (longtime Bethel residents) took me there. After waiting in line for what seemed to me like a life-threatening, soul-destroying amount of time (perhaps five minutes), I got so impatient that I screamed, "The line's too long, let's all go home!" And several dozen strangers laughed at me. Good times. Haven't been back since; maybe it's time for an unnecessary road trip for great chow.

Locally speaking, on the highbrow tip, I agree on Christina's, in particular the dark chocolate with fleur de sel.

A bit more middle brow, during clement weather, I love walking up the Minuteman Path from Somerville to Arlington Center, and getting some frozen custard at the Chilly Cow. The "small" is more than sufficient for two to split.

[Bob Dobalina]

LOL...I thought that was you!
Thanks for the Chilly Cow tip - will definitely check it.

[Ralphie_in_Boston]

White's farm in Rowley.

[chucktownlady]

Any flavor at Louie's. Does anyone know when they open? Months away and I'm already counting the days.

And I like JP Licks and Emack and Bolio's -- one of them has a great raspberry chip flavor. Yum. I much prefer these humble guys to the fancy-pants flavors at Christina's.

[lulu806]

M&M ice cream from Meletharb's in Wakefield.

I also had out of this world cookies and cream ice cream from a stand at the Taste of Eastie a few weeks ago but can't for the life of me remember the name of the place! Did anyone go to Taste of Eastie and remember?

Of course my old standby is Mint Choc Chip from Friendly's - love the green!

[hargau]

Gingersnap Molassas at Kimballs (they only have it for about a month in the fall before they close)

[mmocpi]

Sounds yum! Gotta try it when I get out to the deep 'burbs during that time.

[another_adam]

Christina's fig, or azuki, or pumpkin when it's in season. I would totally walk a mile if a place in the are would start making their own purple yam (ube) flavor, but I haven't seen it. I'm also quite partial to grapenut, and toscanini's has a decent one, but I'm unenthused about them right now...

(Does it count if you only get cups, never cones? I'm not a big ice cream fan anyway, and the cone always struck me as completely gratuitous sweetness-- but that also means that a place has to be extra good for me to want to go out of my for it, and for me, Christina's is the one)

[MC Slim JB]

I took the "cone" thing figuratively; I rarely get anything but a cup at these places. Cones are just a distraction.

[autopi]

aw come on--you get more for your money with the cone! i get upset whenever i see people get a cup over a cone; i always want to ask them to get a cone, take the scoop off the top and give me the cone, with the little plug of ice cream that's inevitably wedged in it.

anyway, i'm partial to the coconut almond at jp licks, though that's in large part b/c they're close by to me. i'd go to christina's a lot more frequently if it weren't such a pain to get to, just to try the neat flavors.

[MC Slim JB]

Hmm, I'm going to have to dispute this: I think you get more ice cream at Christina's with a cup than a same-sized cone. When forced to get a cone, I will get a plain over a waffle or sugar cone. I like the textural interest, but not the flavor distraction. Cones can be an improvement with second-rate ice cream, though.

[hiddenboston]

Grape nut ice cream at Louie's in East Somerville
Raspberry fudge swirl at Kimball's in Carlisle
Soft-serve twist with jimmys at Dairy Barn in Randolph

Of course, none of these places are open during the winter...

[Joanie]

I too love Louie's grapenut ice cream. Altho it's not THAT far out of my way. Actually, this B&J Dublin something flavor I just bought is pretty darn tasty.

[pollystyrene]

Dublin Mudslide. One of my favorites, too, and no need to go out of our way. My most favorite B&J's is Vermonty Python. You might love it since you're into the coffee/chocolate combo. It's coffee liqueur ice cream, milk chocolate "cows" and a crunchy chocolate cookie swirl.

[TomH]

Yummmm....Louie's Grapenut!! Is it Spring yet??? :)

[Sal Monella]

The apple crisp in October at Kimball Farms.

[pollystyrene]

What? I haven't seen this one. Can you elaborate? Is it apple crisp mixed with vanilla ice cream? Is it October yet?

[Sal Monella]

It's strictly seasonal from end of Sept thru Oct and while supplies last. It tastes like an apple crisp would but with no dough like a dessert.

I don't recall vanilla ice in the mix.

Unfortunately, they only roll this out when the apple harvest season hits.

Something to look for to then Polly. :>)

[hargau]

I live near by/go often yet have never seen apple crisp ice cream at the one in Westford. In the fall they always have normal apple crisp with vanilla ice cream though. My gf gets that there often

[pollystyrene]

I never like October, with those pretty leaves tolling the death of summer, but apple crisp ice cream ought to help me through. Thanks!

[MC Slim JB]

Malted vanilla plus any deep chocolate flavor at Christina's, Inman Square. Whopper to the Nth.

[Bostonbob3]

Also a huge malted vanilla fan, but I usually go to Herrell's for my fix.

[phoebek]

Me three on malted vanilla (me two for Herrell's), but I usually get a dish rather than a cone. I'm not a big fan of cones. . .

[catsmeow]

When I was a kid, I use to get an ice cream cup with malted falvored ice cream. It was like a light chocolate color. Has anyone seen this flavor around. It was good....at least that's how I remember it being as a l'il one.

[pollystyrene]

Me four on malted vanilla (Toscanini's) with hot fudge. Hot Whopper to the Nth.

Also, Kimball's grapenut. I get a cone, which automatically comes with an empty bowl on the side since the cone is no match for the pint of ice cream.