Ice cream competition heats up downtown

With the opening of The Bent Spoon last summer, downtown Princeton acquired its fourth ice cream and sweets shop. While four sweet shops may seem excessive for a small town, each shop has its own character and distinctive clientele.

"Thomas Sweets is for chocolate lovers. Bent Spoon is for health nuts," Libby Howard '06 said.

Thomas Sweets first opened its doors 25 years ago as a chocolate shop. The store added ice cream to its menu at the suggestion of the University, which acts as the business's landlord, said T-Sweets co-founder Tom Block.

Now, T-Sweets provides a wide variety of ice cream and frozen yogurt flavors, as well as toppings. The Nassau Street shop, however, is best known for its blend-ins: an assortment of candy and fruit, including Reese's Peanut butter Cups and crushed Oreos, that can be mixed into ice cream.

"I like the fact that you can make any flavor at Thomas Sweets," Liz Mullen '06 said.

Those looking for an unorthodox treat make The Bent Spoon their destination. This Palmer Square shop keeps its patrons guessing by varying its ice cream flavors every week. The store also serves hot chocolate, brownies and other assorted desserts.

"The Bent Spoon is an artisan ice cream, specialty beverage and good-ingredient baked-good haven," co-owner Gabrielle Carbone said. "[We] love to reinvent classic goodies."

Despite its speciality billing and apparent popularity, T-Sweets does not seem very worried about the competition from The Bent Spoon.

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"I consider them a competition but I love what they're doing," Block said. "They're doing something a little different than we are. I think there's plenty of room in town for just about all of us that are here."

In fact, T-Sweets' co-founder suggested that The Bent Spoon is good for the business.

"When we first opened up we literally had no competition," she said. "The competition keeps us at the top of the game."

Ricky's Candy, Cones and Chaos is another relatively new addition to a University student's ice cream options. Opened in summer 2004, Ricky's doubles as a candy shop and an ice cream parlor. Decked out in bright neon colors, Ricky's has distinguished its atmosphere from our other local ice cream parlors.

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"The Candyland atmosphere made me feel like a 2-year-old, but let's be honest — the cake batter ice cream was really, really good," Chanel Coney '09 said.

For those looking for something more mature, there is Halo Pub. With a darker interior, Halo gives off an Irish pub feel.

"The atmosphere in Halo is dark and brooding; it's like a cave," Jose Leonor '06 said.

However, some students have voiced concerns about the quality of Halo's ice cream.

"Their flavors are great," commented Vivian Kim '07. But, Kim said, "It's kind of hard to compete with The Bent Spoon."

James Mister '09 eagreed, saying, "[Halo's] really cheap and they don't have a wide selection of good flavors or any of the staples of the ice cream world."

As all four ice cream shops seem to occupy different niches in the town's taste for ice cream, it looks like Princetonians of the future can look forward to dining at all of these ice cream parlors for years to come. As Carbone from The Bent Spoon put it, "We love the idea that Princeton could become the ice cream capital of the U.S.A.!"