Of courseTC was excited about the prospect of having ice cream (oh to be young and not care about calories and to have the metabolism of a hyper squirrel!) and again, my poor lactose intolerant husband steeled up his stomach and intestinal tract for another (losing) bout with rich, creamy dairy products.
Here's the interior which was busy and packed. Because
Look at those flavors...we should have tried their mocha almond fudge or blueberry cheesecake or dark chocolate cherry or even their chocolate peanut butter crunch! So much to choose from! If I lived in Oakland, I'd be here every week!
The view from our table outside. So nice and quiet instead of loud and noisy with babies crying and bratty kids screaming and shit.
WC had the sliders here and while I was tempted, even I could not muster up enough intestinal fortitude to eat another bite of actual food. No, we wanted ice cream!
The shadows on a nearby table umbrella...
I'm surprised that our daughter did not get a sorbet or a fruity or sour flavor. Instead, she chose the robin's egg blue hued Bubble Gum with real bubble gum pieces. The kid's scoop was smaller (and cheaper) than a regular scoop so we got that for her. Her ice cream was also served with two cookies (a pecan sandy and an orange sugar dusted butter cookies) which went uneaten which was fine with us. She really liked this flavor but didn't really eat the bubble gum pieces since it would mess with her bottom retainer brackets.
Bert and I shared the Black and Tan, one of Fenton's signature desserts. Our waiter suggested we have it in a dish as opposed to a tall glass which is their regular presentation. He explained that it looked nicer in a dish and was also easier to eat rather than digging around in a glass.
Isn't this bordering on obscene? It's two scoops of ice cream (vanilla and almond with almond pieces) covered with chocolate syrup, a blanket of homemade caramel (it's got an interesting texture - not quite smooth but very buttery), whipped cream and chopped almonds with a cherry on top. There was overflow sauce on the dish as well (I think this was intentional). Bert and I enjoyed what we could and it still look like we barely put a dent in this thing! I loved the flavors - chocolate, vanilla and almonds are a great combination (although I would never eat vanilla plain) and the textures (almonds and caramel). We joked with our waiter, "Hey, where's the Guinness?" And come to think of it, I bet these ice cream flavors (sans the whipped cream, caramel, and nuts) would taste fkg awesome with a pint of Guinness! Hmmmm, something to try later...
Who else ate at Fenton's?
Here's the original post that sold us on going there, again by Wandering Chopsticks
"Fenton's Creamery and Restaurant - Oakland" (July 2009)
as well as this older post I found from a blogger named Kelli, and an even older post from someone else's blog.
Articles and reviews about Fenton's
"Fenton's hosts Pixar Party" SF Weekly (2009)
Fenton's Creamery - Ice Cream Paradise in Oakland" by Rich Lieberman of SFGate.com (June 6, 2009)
Yelp
and of course Fenton's official site.
I kept thinking in the back of my head, "I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation!" while I was eating this monstrous calorific concoction. It's not like I went all Augustus Gloop in the chocolate river and snarfed it all down. Bert and I still enjoyed our Black and Tan and utilized our "off switch". I think somewhere a unicorn cried a tear though at the sight of our half-eaten ice cream dish. We're glad we stopped by this place! It's easy to see why locals and tourists love it here!
2 comments:
So I have to know, what did you think of the quality of the ice cream? We're local to Fenton's, and have been there several times. Sometimes it's really good, and other times it's kind of grainy. It's the texture more than the flavor that fluctuates. Their sauces are consistently really good, though. And a black and tan rocks.
Overall, their portions are huge, and because of that, their prices are reasonable. But I'd rather go to Loards or Baskin Robbins, for better quality. What I really miss is Swensen's. They were the best. The BEST. There's one left, but it's stand up only in a tiny tiny shop in San Francisco, not a full creamery like I remember as a kid. And they had a black and tan to die for.
hi j - i thought our black and tan was quite good, although a bit too much for one or even two people to finish, unless they were sumo wrestlers. the ice cream wasn't grainy but smooth in texture. the flavor was also excellent. i didn't realize that one of the toppings was caramel. my husband remarked that it was like soft melted toffee, which he likes.
as for loards - i actually had that on our gps as well but didn't know there was an oakland location. the one i saw was somewhere near or in salinas (where we did not pass thru).
i remember swensen's - there used to be one in our area but that closed years ago and is now a sushi joint.
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