Earnest Ice Cream - Vancouver, BC

[lectroid]

Having the key advantage in being a long walk or short bus ride from my place, Earnest Ice Cream is great to have in the neighborhood, especially now that we’re actually seeing the sun for multiple days in a row! Walking in, I’m sorry in a way I didn’t take pictures, but in another way, they’re entirely unnecessary. Earnest looks like every single other gourmet/artisan ice cream shop in existence. Cute art on the walls, white walls with lightly distressed wood trim, counter w/ adorable little tasting spoons and a pot with "dirty spoons ’ (complete with smileyface) on it. It’s like they just cloned Salt 'n Straw or Carmela’s. This has nothing at all to do with the icecvream, but not only the layout of the place (which is pretty optimal given the business) but the similarity in feel struck me. The ice cream shops all look alike the same way ramen joints all look alike. But I digress…

That right there is a double scoop of ‘Serious Chocolate’ topped by a scoop of ‘Salted Caramel’. Good stuff. The chocolate is, indeed, serious, not being too sweet, and tasting like a nice, deep, well balanced chocolate. The Salted Caramel was ok, though I think Carmela’s was superior. What I got a taste spoon of, that I will definitely go back for, is their ‘Spruce Bud’.

They get the tips of spruce branches and infuse them into the milk for the ice cream, and the result is… fascinating. It’s a little nutty, but still has this ‘green’ quality to it. I’ve never encountered that particular flavor before, so I’m very anxious to give it another go.

And also worth a mention: that cone above? They pack it with ice cream. No hollow cones here.

They have two locations, one on Fraser (where I went) and other farther north on Quebec. Each location features different flavors of the day. London Fog appears to be popular (bergamot) as does Matcha.

Another point of interest is several vegan options offered in both locations. My feelings on vegan ice cream are, I think, well known by this point, but I do not begrudge others their own petty idiosyncrasies.

They are conveniently located next to Batard Bakery, which makes a lovely, earthy french levian which absolutely earns it’s ‘sourdough’ name. Tangy off the charts. This corner will doubtless become too frequent a visit on a nice weekend morning.

[Xochitl]

Wish I could try that spruce ice cream!

[lectroid]

I suspect I’ll get a scoop this weekend (since the weather seems to want to cooporate). When I do, I’ll report back.

[grayelf]

There’s another outpost coming in North Vancouver soon, and I heard a rumour a fourth to the north edge of Strathcona. Since the OP seems to be near Batard, I recommend the kouign amann there as well as the various breads. Best one I’ve had in Vancouver (I think I’ve tried them all now), it could hold its own in the Bay Area.

Agree about them filling the cones. I usually order the kids’ cone as I can’t get through the adult one.

I was at the Quebec Earnest shop on Tuesday to try their fresh lemon after someone tweeted about it and was delighted to note that they got it together and are using the A/C finally – the Fraser store needs to get with that program now too if they haven’t. I got a jar to take home and found it consistently creamy with only one ice crystal so far but light on lemon juice and more of a zest flavour so for me a little too sweet, which is often the case with Earnest. My all time favourite flavour, strangely, is their Milk Chocolate, which has the most unctuous mouthfeel of any ice cream this side of Victoria’s Beacon Hill Drive In soft serve, and actually tastes as though it has salt in it. Far superior to the much vaunted salted caramel at Earnest, IMO.

A flavour that impressed me very favourably is the rhubarb oatmeal crisp but they need to lose the oatmeal part and just offer the rhubarb. Not a fan of chewing ice cream!

Fun fact: I bought my first bottle of Earnest from the bicycle cart that is now hanging in the Quebec St store.

Pro tips for other good stuff adjacent to the Quebec store: walk east on Third Ave and grab a frissant (fritter mated with croissant) from Swiss Bakery if they have any that contain fruit. Then walk back west across Quebec to Fife Bakery, get a loaf of bread to take home from Felix and enjoy an outstanding pourover from Edmund at Moving Coffee which is inside Fife. Their chocolate chip cookies with Maldon salt don’t suck either if they have any left when you get there :-).

[lectroid]

I’m a tea person, but that sounds like a lovely afternoon, and the GF would probably appreciate the coffee. I’m on a constant hunt for good bread. Oliver’s sourdough isn’t particularly exciting, but is better than anything else in the bread aisle at Safeway. Terra breads is very tasty, and the crust is properly crunchy, with a nice sourdough tang. It’s the closest I’ve thus found to what I’ve grown used to in california over the years.

Batard also has a great pan au chocolate.

[grayelf]

Finally got back on the two “new” boards today and here you are (I replied to a really old post of yours on HO earlier).

You’ll be looking a while to find sourdough like in CA, I fear. Do check out Fife if you get a chance. I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Anywhere you like for tea? We’re surprisingly short of quality tea shops considering our national UK roots. I like 05 on Fourth the best of the ones I’ve tried. If you stretch to bubble tea, Dragon Ball on 25th near Oak is my top choice.

And to return to the topic, Earnest recently introduced sweet cream as their vanilla sub. It is excellent. I like the new serious chocolate as well, though it is not quite as delightful as my late lamented milk chocolate. Having a scoop of each in a bowl is not a bad thing

[Lexcy]

Whisky Hazel nut is my favorite but i will certainly be checking out other flavors such as milk chocolate and serious chocolate the next time I visit Earnest.

[Lexcy]

I recently tried their peanut butter and chocolate chip flavor from them and it was amazing!!!