Hark, fellow Angelenos, I have found an ice cream shop that’s worth writing home about! It’s pretty new, so I wasn’t lying when I wrote that thing about LA having bad ice cream. And it’s no wonder this new place is great, because the fantastic and deservedly hyped Huckleberry pastry chef, Zoe Nathan, is behind it. When I heard that she was opening an ice cream shop, I was there the first week. I’m talking about Sweet Rose Creamery, located in Brentwood Country Mart. What’s so great about Sweet Rose? They have seasonal, interesting flavors, like earl gray, plum sorbet, and non-dairy black sesame. The flavors rotate, so don’t get disappointed if those ones aren’t there the day that you go. There’s never a bad day for some Sweet Rose, every flavor is great. For you traditionalists, they have delightful chocolate and vanilla and that kind of thing too. Each flavor is made from scratch, not all mixed from the same vanilla base, which ends up protecting the integrity of each ingredient. The texture is nice, too, it’s a little airier than my beloved BiRite, but it’s very smooth. So the Huckleberry-Rustic Canyon team strikes again! They never miss the mark. Oh, PS: A bunch of LA Whole Foods stores now carry Three Twins ice cream! It’s not the same as getting it freshly scooped, but it’s still pretty delicious. Check it out.

You know what is woefully absent from this town? Decent ice cream. Sure, we have plenty of yogurt, which is lovely, but there is not a single decent ice cream joint in Los Angeles, as far as I can tell. I have traveled far and wide in search of such a place, and I’ve taken a decent sampling of the scene, from the ever-popular (and cheap as dirt) Diddy Riese, to Milk on Beverly, to the CoolHaus truck, to Carmela at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, to Jonathan Gold’s beloved Bulgarini Gelato way out in China…sorry, I mean Altadena. Maybe I’m spoiled, but nothing holds a candle to San Francisco ice cream. San Francisco has a complete monopoly on good ice cream. My home city harbors the incomparable BiRite, with its salted caramel that blows away even Bertillon’s in Paris. And as if that weren’t enough, there’s also Humphrey Slocombe, and the underrated Three Twins, where I could eat Earl Gray all day long. You can even get decadent, luscious Fiorello’s Valhrona Chocolate Gelato at Whole Foods there. Share the wealth, SF! I went through a brief phase where I drove the 40 minutes to Scoops in Hollywood multiple nights a week for their inventive flavors that change daily, but then I spent a few days back in San Fran and had some BiRite, and now I can’t even bear to go back to Scoops. It’s too depressing. The flavors are good, but the consistency is all wrong. It is a great option for vegans and lactose-intolerants. Nevertheless, the search continues. If you have any insights, I implore you to share them. I am at a loss.Image Credit: flickr user roboppy