Bi-Rite Creamery and Bake Shop

Directly following my trip to Peru, I left on a research trip to the West Coast for two weeks.  What was I researching?  Glad you asked: a book on Stadium Eats!  Um, yeah, without a deal in sight currently (hint, hint, anyone reading this who is interested!), I went to preemptively scout out the 6 West Coast stadiums and eat my way up and down the West Coast at the same time, starting in San Francisco, working my way down to Los Angeles, then San Diego, back up to San Francisco and then to Seattle!  Phew!  Tune in at 4:15 EST (or 1:15 PST, lunchtime on the West Coast) for the next 6 weeks to see what I ate and where I ate it… and how I gained 10 lbs in two weeks!

Following my two lunches at Mifune, I decided that, what else?  I should have two desserts.  Over the course of going to San Francisco about once a year, I’d discovered a few ice cream places that I like quite a bit, notably Bi-Rite Creamery and Humphry Slocombe.  Given that my schedule on this trip was fairly tight, it made sense to go to both, even if my stomach was telling me, “Um, dude, no, you’re kind of full?”  I forged ahead and decided to park at Bi-Rite and walk the ‘short distance’ to Humphry Slocombe afterwards, giving my poor tummy time to recover and digest a lil bit. 

The day’s flavors were posted by the door. 

This sign was posted on the door.  A lil amusing, given that I don’t know who Nate Query is, and I wouldn’t recognize either of these people if they walked right up to me to say hello… and Alice Waters?  Well… I guess you’ll see in a few days. 

While I hadn’t found the salted caramel to be salty enough my last time at Bi-Rite, I simply find it impossible to turn down anything listed as salted caramel, so that immediately went into my cone.  This time, though, I chose Earl Grey as its sidekick. 

This choice made all the difference in the world; the bitterness from the tea shone through clearly and cut right through the sweetness of the salted caramel, letting the saltiness make its presence known.  Bear in mind a few things here: this isn’t to say that the salted caramel was too sweet, not at all! nor that the Earl Grey was bitter in a bad way.  I love bitter flavors where some people might expect or want sugary sweetness; tea-based ice creams being one of them.  I also am not a huge fan of very sweet items, so the combination just hit all the right notes for me; not too sweet, with a lot of the natural flavors presenting themselves in the most positive way possible.  I inhaled this very quickly. 

As I walked away to begin the “long walk” (a little over a mile each way) to Humphry Slocombe, I noticed they also sold salted caramel cupcakes.  My belly refused to allow me more than a moment to glance over and take a snapshot, but that sounds pretty darn tasty – perhaps next time? 

I did, however, stop to grab a Maine Root Root Beer to quench my thirst on the hot walk over to Humphry Slocombe.  Good stuff – another example where one might consider my use of bitter to be a bad thing, but I love it when the flavors of “root” are not masked by excess sugar or artificial flavors.  Yummy! 

Yvo says: I absolutely adore Bi-Rite Creamery and its amazing ice cream flavors.  The shop is adorable, and the staff is super friendly; it’s great to see they’re expanding with an outdoor counter and window for pick-ups, doing more with their ice cream and also offering soft serve now, along with cupcakes, but while continuing the tradition of good ice cream made properly.  Excellent.  I will continue to visit them when I am in San Francisco.
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