Ice Cream

anticipation

If you are forced to weather the summer in Davis, then you're sure to need an ice cream from time to time (or you might try a gelato, frozen yogurt, frozen drink, or other dessert). And sure enough, there are a few places that would be happy to sate your craving.

Don't confuse this with I Scream.

In Davis

gonna drip eventually

• Baskin Robbins - ($1.00 cones on Tuesdays!)
• CREAM - Affordable, homemade-style ice cream sandwiches, cookies, shakes and brownies. $2.50 for a sandwich if you pay with cash.
• Davis Creamery - locally homemade Davis ice cream with unusual, ever-changing flavors; their specialty is the Cow Pie ice cream sandwich
• The Good Scoop - organic ice cream, unusual flavors that change regularly.
• The Junction - Ice cream by the scoop, in waffle cones, and stuffed between two cookies.
• MU Coffee house bakery - $0.30 per ounce
• Mishka's - $2.80 for single scoop, $3.80 for double. Six flavors available, including "very chocolate," espresso bean, and fat-free raspberry sorbet. Served in a paper cup.
• Rite Aid They have Thrifty ice cream by the scoop.
• Westlake Market now has Dryer's Ice Cream by the scoop, available until 10 PM. You will find the ice cream either outside the store, or inside next to the deli.

Outside of Davis

Davis has great homemade ice cream at the Davis Creamery, but why doesn't it have a sit-down restaurant where you can get a big drippy sundae like these from Leatherby's?

• Fentons Creamery — In Vacaville. Sit-down diner-style restaurant or take-out, with food, sundaes, etc.
• Gunther's Ice Cream — In Sacramento. Sit-down diner-style restaurant or take-out, with food, sundaes, etc.
• Leatherby's — In Sacramento. Sit-down diner-style restaurant or take-out, with food, sundaes, etc.
• Vic's — In Sacramento. Sit-down diner-style restaurant or take-out, with food, sundaes, etc.

Forms of ice cream

Soft serve ice cream

• Dairy Queen
• The Dining Commons
• McDonald's
• Habit Burger

Packaged ice cream

• The Dining Commons - They allow you to take one with you on your way out each time you eat, so an enterprising group of freshman can build up an entire freezer full of packaged ice cream in as little as a week.
• Newsbeat - There's a cooler full of frozen treats like It'sIts.
• Campus Vending Machines the machine opens up a freezer and a vacuum cleaner style hose retrieves an ice cream treat.

You can also buy larger quantities at local grocery stores (of course), or make your own!

"Ice cream" campus vending machines

See campus vending machines.

• Academic Surge - on the first floor near the west entrance
• Haring Hall - at the west end of the building where all the other vending machines are
• Hutchison Hall - Near the center of the building, 1st floor, north side.
• Memorial Union Games Area - near the other vending machines.
• Mrak Hall - By the Registrars Office
• Olson Hall - Bottom floor right as you come down the stairs.
• Scrubs - Med Sci Cafe.
• Vet Med Teaching Hospital - Bottom floor by the receptionist area next to all the other vending machines. Usually has three flavors of It's It!

Ice cream cakes

With the demise of Ben & Jerry's and Cold Stone Creamery, the only places to get an ice cream cake in town seem to be Baskin Robbins or Save Mart (as you go through the doors, they are in a case immediately to your right). Fentons Creamery has them, but (except for a very large cake or two they keep on hand), you need to order a week ahead.

Other

• Occasionally, you can spot an Ice Cream Truck around town.
• "Frosty Paws" brand ice cream for dogs can be found in the freezer section of some grocery stores. They call it "ice cream" but it is really more like a slightly meaty flavored frozen salt lick. Cats like it a lot too.
• If you are on campus at the right times (Picnic Day and some other events) you may be lucky enough to find a group making ice cream with liquid nitrogen.
• At the ASUCD Coffee House, you can order an ice cream sandwich by choosing any two cookies from the top shelf and any flavor of available ice cream. The end result costs less than if you got the pieces individually.
• CREAM offers catering for small and large orders. Pre-made ice cream sandwiches of whatever flavor combinations you can get in the store.

Places you used to be able to get ice cream

• Ben & Jerry's (Voted Best Ice Cream in Davis by readers of The California Aggie)
• Cold Stone Creamery
• Foster's Freeze
• Marble Slab Creamery
• Marvelli's
• Vintage Ice Cream
• Wendy's

How to evaluate the quality of ice cream

Simply look at the ingredient list of the pure vanilla flavor of the particular brand. If it contains more ingredients than an old homemade recipe, or artificial flavors like vanillin, or shortening and vegetable oils, then you can do better elsewhere. 4-5 ingredients are enough: Milk/cream, sugar, egg yolk, real vanilla. Most brands (even expensive ones) will have around 9 ingredients. There are two brands that can live up to these high demands and they are available in Davis:

• Strauss
• Haagen Dazs

2012-06-19 16:02:06   Perhaps one more addition to the "Ice cream used to be available from" section: According to the Davis Arch mural, there was an ice cream shop at (approximately) 715 2nd Street, in the building connected to the Anderson Bank Building (at the former Togo's and Bombay Dreams Restaurant location), next to what is now Tim Spencer Alley. Looks like it was called simply University Farm Ice Cream. This is all assuming the artist of the mural was in earnest of course, and wasn't just taking creative license... the hunt for photographic evidence is on! —OldDavis73

• OK, on my further obsession to confirm the existence of an ice cream shop that likely closed almost 100 years ago: It looks like the picture of the arch used on the Davis Historical Society splash page (http://www.davishistoricalsociety.org/) proves the existence of this ice cream shop... in fact, based on the way the cars are parked out front there, this picture may well have been used by the artist in creating the Davis Arch mural. —OldDavis73