We All Scream: More Ice Cream in Portland!
Note: Both of these businesses have now closed.
I recently commented, at length, about the absence of homemade ice cream in Portland. Apparently, somebody was paying attention. Some bodies, to be precise. Open just over 2 weeks, Little Red Bike Café is not only a super-duper cute and much-needed addition to N. Lombard Street. They also make great-looking (I haven’t tasted them) breakfast and lunch sandwiches, serve pastries from Fleur de Lis Bakery, and coffee and espresso drinks made from (very small-scale and local) Courier Coffee. Check out the Little Red Bike menu here.
Bike-up window
And then…when the shop closes at 3pm, owners Ali and Evan (who, themselves, are as super-duper cute as their café) open up the bike-through window and serve FRESHLY-MADE ICE CREAM. And it is GOOD. Note: the ice cream is available ONLY from 3-5pm, at least at this time. During regular hours, you can order “old fashioned buttermilk milkshakes” and root beer floats served in mason jars, as well as hot fudge sundaes. These are made with Alden Farms organic ice cream, as opposed to the fresh homemade stuff.
My “double shot” of malted milk ice cream served in an espresso cup (pictured here) was perfect. There is a Whopper candy on top – and there were several more crushed-up within the scoop. I was also given a generous sample of “sweet corn”, which was… sweet and corny. I liked it a lot.
Malt Shot
Recent (daily rotating) flavors have included Courier Coffee, lemon verbena with Oregon blackberry swirl, peanut butter chocolate with chocolate chips, strawberry sour cream, and mango coconut.
Full-size scoops are $2.50, $4.50 double. The double shot mini-scoop is 95¢
Little Red Bike Café
4823 Lombard St. Portland, OR 97203
503.289.0120
You can see more pics and details on their blog.
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Here’s another guy who was listening to my plea:
Jr. Ambassadors
Junior Ambassadors.
This is a bright orange “Mostlandian”* food cart on N. Albina Avenue, just south of Alberta, kitty corner (ish) from the Albina Press Coffee House.
Rudy is the proprietor of the cart, and very enthusiastically dishes up about 4-5 flavors of FRESHLY MADE ice cream, including at least one vegan offering made from coconut or almond milk. On my first visit, I tried the chocolate coconut, sprinkled with toasted coconut, and my friend B went with vanilla topped with fresh peaches and brown sugar. Both were great.
Flavors change (almost) daily. Like Little Red Bike, he also made a corn ice cream this week – “Corn on the Cob” – which worked really well. Blueberry lemongrass, available in vegan (coconut milk based and agave-sweetened) and non-vegan versions, was also featured.
Additionally, Junior Ambassadors serves “Panwiches.” According to Rudy’s recent email bulletin:
“Panwiches have bread made from cornmeal and whole wheat flour and
griddled like pancakes and then made into these sort of sandwiches…
GRILLED CHEESE…with up to 4 cheeses.
BLT…with pepper bacon or tempeh bacon.
TUNA MELT…white albacore tuna, tomatoes and cheese
HOT DOG…meat or non-meat with baked beans or sauerkraut.
All these Panwiches come with SESAME GINGER SLAW, or CHIPS, or CHEEZ-ITS.”
Prices range from $4 – $6.
*To learn more about Rudy’s “Mostlandian” cuisine, visit his myspace page. Better yet, visit the (very charming and friendly) guy in person at his cart, and he’ll happily tell you all about it.
Junior Ambassadors:
4734 N. Albina Avenue
HOURS: (as of now, could change in Fall/Winter) WED, THURS, FRI : 4-8 pm (Fri. Panwich hours: 12-2 pm), SAT: 12-6 pm (Panwiches all day)
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Finally, there’s Rose’s on N.E. 42nd, , whose re-emergence we mentioned a few weeks ago here. It opened last weekend, but I’ve yet to try it. So…has anyone been? If so, give us the word.
Joanna MillerComments
7 Responses to “We All Scream: More Ice Cream in Portland!”Leave a Reply
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Finally, someone has cracked the mystery of that little ice cream hut. His hours have been so sporadic; I’ve wanted to check it out but hadn’t gotten a chance. Now that I know his panwiches come with a side of cheez-its, I’ll make the extra effort.
my family and i have been to the cart several times (we are lucky enough to live nearby). they are always fun, and i think collectively we have tried about every flavor they have made (though we are behind on this weekends). they all have been wonderfuly. i wasnt ready to like basil in my ice cream, but i did. i recommend it.
thanks for the review of the little red bike cafe, i am hoping we can pedal on over there soon before we have to cover ourselves in waterproof gear to do so.
Um, I’ve worked at seven restaurants in Portland so far, and each and every one has made its own ice-cream from scratch – I’ve probably made 50 flavors so far. So, how on earth can there be a “shortage of home-made ice cream” in Portland? It is one of the simplest operations that every pantry person in every restaurant cranks out every couple of days. Nonsense.
Hey don’t be so grumpy, Grumpy68. I think what Joanna is referring to (and if you read her Willamette Week article that she links to), is the lack of specialty places that specifically market themselves and sell their own ice-cream on its own and not just part of a meal or in a restaurant. Besides a few gelato places that make their own, and given that Portland has the highest consumption of ice-cream per capita of any city in U.S. (according to Joanna’s WWeek article), ice cream shops (or call them scoop shops if you will) are woefully lacking in Portland. Besides the places in Joanna’s article, can you name any other ice cream shops?
Besides, it’s ice cream. Can we really ever have enough places that make ice cream? Bring it on I say!
Don’t forget about Cool Moon Ice Cream, soon to be on the corner of 11th and Johnson, just across from Jamison Square.
http://www.coolmoonicecream.com/
Grumpy: Yes, as Cuisine Bonne Femme said (thanks CBF), I’m talking about shops (not restaurants) where you can buy a scoop of homemade ice cream for a couple of bucks. I realize there are several restaurants in town making great ice cream, which I meniton in that WW article.
Lady Concierge. Cool Moon – I can’t wait. I also mention them in the article, and interviewed the owner, Eva. Last I heard, they are slated to open mid-late October. Yeah!
This place is exactly what we’ve been missing in NoPo. Joel’s coffee is aces, and these folks know how to brew it up. We went in for breakfast this morning, and came back for freshly churned chocolate ice cream this afternoon. Big trouble. Evan’s mom even let my Chatty-Frickin’-Cathy six-year-old talk her ear off (ok, she was on a sugar high from the i.c.) I’m in deep coffee love.