Ice cream trifecta

What better food during the hot weather we've been having than ice cream? As things ended up, Melody and I got ice cream the past three days, each at different places. We can certainly recommend all of them.

Pretty Kitty Ice Cream

Thursday was Pretty Kitty Ice Cream (link to yelp.com) which is a few blocks from my office. I used to walk by there pretty often and had never seen it open for business. A few weeks ago, however, I noticed they were open so Melody and I went to try them out. Very tasty (I think one of us had a coffee-like flavor, the other salted caramel), and we've been there a couple times since. They do have some unusual flavors. Ube would probably seem the oddest; it's the Filipino word for a purple yam, but is sweetened and ends up being quite good. Prices at Pretty Kitty are relatively low, and it includes a waffle cone. They're still working out how much ice cream they need, however. Once we went there but they were closed, since they had run out. It's also not unusual later in the day for the labels on the case to not match the actual ice cream, since they replenish with what flavors they have available.

Gelatiamo

Friday we went to Gelatiamo in the same building where Melody works. I ended up spending the last part of the afternoon at the Web Collective since I had to pack up my office so it could get new carpet and paint over the weekend. As you can guess by the name, they serve gelato, and normally have a couple dozen flavors or so. The flavor and texture are top-notch, and the location is certainly convenient. Another great gelato shop downtown is Bottega Italiana which is in the Pike Place Market area, a couple blocks towards the water from Gelatiamo. They get an insane amount of traffic because of their location, and while they don't have as much seating as Gelatiamo, it's a very comfortable place to hang out.

Parfait Ice Cream

Saturday's ice cream was from Parfait Ice Cream, a new mobile vendor run by someone who used to be in my group at work. She hand-makes all the flavors and the waffle cones then takes her truck to a few different places around the city on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. If she has special flavors coming up, she'll tweet about them. Melody and I walked over with Justin from his place, got our ice cream, then ate it across the street in the shade. Justin ended up getting the last scoop of Butter Toffee Crunch, and there were several moans as Adria stepped out of the truck to scratch the flavor off the board. I had Apricot Sorbet, and Melody had Meyer Lemon Bar, both which tasted very fresh and fruity. We'll definitely be going again.

I suppose we could try for a quadfecta by going to the Poco Carretto Gelato cart at the Sunday Meadowbrook Farmers Market, but I have a feeling we'll stop at three days. When we did get gelato there a couple months ago, one of us had salted caramel, the other burnt sugar. Both had really intense flavor (more intense than the Pretty Kitty salted caramel) and were a great treat for a hot day.

Just because we may be taking a break from ice cream doesn't mean we won't be returning to any of these places. I'd say these are my five favorite places, and four of them are very (too?) convenient for us to get to. As for Parfait, it's a good excuse to drop in at the Prossers' place and walk over!