Ah! The glorious dog days of summer are fast approaching. What better way to ward off potential heat stroke than with a cool and refreshing bowl of ice cream? But with so many places in town, where to go for much-needed refreshment?
There's always Twist, located on Nassau Street next to Palmer Square. With eight flavors of frozen yogurt and umpteen toppings, Twist is the ultimate angel versus devil test of conscience.
On one hand, you could have a healthy sundae with Eurotart as your base (fewer than 18 calories per ounce) and top it with strawberries, kiwi, banana and pineapple.
On the other hand, you could have Ghiradelli chocolate with Oreos, M&M's, Reese's Pieces, Whoppers, cookie dough, chocolate syrup, caramel, peanut butter sauce, whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.
The choice is yours.
Twist also features couches and tables and, more importantly, Wi-Fi, making it an ideal place to study. And at 45 cents per ounce, those sundaes would make a great pair with the essay that's due tomorrow, of which you have only written half a page.
But if you don't desperately need to work, and your taste buds are looking for something a bit more eccentric, take a walk down Palmer Square for some Bent Spoon ice cream.
My recommendation at Bent Spoon: Try something different, something you wouldn't have imagined would be good, like sour cream or carrot cake. Or sour cream and carrot cake, which I got on my most recent visit.
The carrot cake ice cream has all of the nuances of moist carrot cake: the spices, the sweetness of the carrots, even the dense and cakey texture. The carrot cake ice cream provided the perfect base for the lighter, subtler sour cream ice cream.
Unlike the large and well-lit Twist, the small cafe-like atmosphere of Bent Spoon is not really conducive to doing homework. All the better, because you really don't need that essay to distract you from the selection of uniquely flavored ice creams and sorbets.
If the price of that small serving of Bent Spoon ice cream - $3.50 for a small cup - is going to eat away at your nonexistent finances, have no fear. Walk past Bent Spoon down Palmer Square and take a right on Hulfish Street. On your right, you'll find Halo Pub and Halo Fete.
Halo Pub is the perfect little ice cream store for college students. The selection is varied, the prices are reasonable ($1.75 for a small ice cream), and, most importantly, the ice cream is delicious. Only get ice cream scooped out of the freezer at Halo Pub; if you're looking for soft serve, turn around and go to Twist, as soft-serve ice cream at Halo Pub is much too icy. But that's in no way limiting.
Halo Pub features an assortment of more traditional flavors of ice cream (no carrot cake here). There are the usual options of butter pecan and chocolate, as well as some more inventive, albeit unsurprising, flavors like peanut paradise (with peanut butter and chocolate chips) and coffee Heath Bar (coffee and toffee).
Peanut paradise has a kaleidoscope of textures ranging from sticky peanut butter to crunchy chocolate chips. The coffee Heath Bar is "creamaided," blended in a machine until smooth. This provided an interesting change of texture that morphs the ice cream into a silky amalgamation of inseparable flavors that melt smoothly in your mouth.
Halo Pub's decor matches its name: simple and casual. Halo Fete next door is decorated with the excess of Louis XIV's France. Halo Fete features a collection of ice cream cakes and novelties, divinely presented behind glass cases. Like Halo Pub, Halo Fete's prices are also fairly reasonable ($4 for a piece of ice cream cake), making it a great place for a little celebration - une fete.
Rounding out this ice cream tour of Princeton is Thomas Sweet's, located in a bright blue building next to 185 Nassau.
There's something very wholesome and homey about Thomas Sweet ice cream. Its old-fashioned, thick and creamy goodness requires a bit of chewing and digging. It's not terribly sweet but not especially light. A small cup would satisfy your hunger (and at $3 a cup, put a dent in your wallet).
Like the other ice cream stores in town, T. Sweet's boasts a concoction of flavors. The granola bar ice cream is a failure of texture, as the granola loses its trademark crunchy quality while the flavor of the ice cream becomes a bit of a mystery. On the other hand, the peanut butter brownie flavor may actually pass for a brownie. Like a brownie, it is dense and chewy, sticky and filling, providing an exceptionally interesting eating experience.
At T. Sweets, you can also get toppings blended into your ice cream to create something similar to the silky creamaided ice cream at Halo Pub. Or you can always go for soft serve (strongly discouraged, as Twist certainly out-soft-serves every other ice cream store in town).
So the next time it's hot outside, grab a couple friends and get yourself a bit of ice cream. Whether you're looking for frozen yogurt or a cold substitute for cakes and brownies, there's a place in Princeton to satisfy your craving. Just don't ask me to come along. I've had way too much ice cream.
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