4540 W. Main StreetI’ve always had the romanticized idea of walking to the corner ice cream shop to get ice cream to end the day with our kids. I say “romanticized” because I’ve never actually lived anywhere that had an ice cream shop within walking distance and, as I’ve mentioned before, Kalamazoo is kinda missing that walk up seasonal shop where half the neighborhood gathers for ice cream on a Saturday night.
We have been somewhat lazy the last two weekends after an awfully busy summer. We’ve spent time just lounging around the house and taking care of some housekeeping things.
One of those nights, we needed to make a trip to Walgreens to pick up some pictures we wanted to frame. I had sent them to the Walgreens on Drake and Main. J suggested we all go and get ice cream.
I was stumped as to where she wanted to get ice cream from. We usually go to Culver’s because, again, there isn’t many options and it’s easy to hit the drive through. She said we could go to Cold Stone Creamery but I couldn’t picture one on that side of town.
Of course, she was right, there is a Cold Stone Creamery on West Main in the Westwood Plaza just to the east of Drake Road. It’s right next to the Biggby Coffee almost straight back from the main entrance to the shopping plaza.
The shop is set up so it kind of wraps you around the outside of the small dining room to the order area which is in the back corner furthest from the door. This is to make it a little less congested for people who chose to use one of the tables in the small eat-in area in front of the counter.
There was one family in front of us when we got there which gave us a chance to look over the flavors. There is a huge case with all of their different creations which is a starting point to building with Cold Stone’s super premium ice cream.
If you’ve been living under a rock, here’s how it works. You pick your flavor and then pick a “mix-in” which is then mixed in to the ice cream on a marble slab.
You can keep it simple with a flavor and a mix-in or you can go crazy with one of Cold Stone’s “Signature Creations.” Cold Stone didn’t invent this kind of ice cream, Marble Slab Creamery did (hey, we used to have one of those in Kalamazoo), but Cold Stone is really the place that made it famous.
We let L pick first. She picks her ice cream by color and chose cotton candy and had gummy bears mixed in. The flavor combination does nothing for me as I don’t really like either, but L loved it. She’s never had gummy bears inside ice cream before and that was a huge treat for her.
I ordered the Cookies and Cream and I was fine with the ice cream like that. I didn’t really need any mix-ins, but the server asked if I wanted some more cookies in and I said sure. More cookies is never a bad thing. The smooth, creamy ice cream is littered with small cookie bits so mixing in a few bigger chunks just made things better. She actually ordered it like this and none of us realized (until just now as I’m writing this blog), this combination is one of the Kids Creations called Beary Beary Blue.
J picked the cake batter ice cream and got sprinkles and Oreo cookies mixed in. The cake batter is delicious on it’s own and all cakes have to have sprinkles on them. The cookies were just a delicious addition to an already tasty ice cream.
The three ice cream bowls cost us just under $17. I know I get kinda sarcastic talking about the lack of ice cream places in the area, but I really just like that sitting out on a worn out picnic table and eating ice cream as the sun goes down feeling. Places like Cold Stone Creamery don’t offer that setting but they do have pretty darn delicious ice cream.
