Mike G wrote:The definitive comment on Larry Cohen's movies was that of the legendary producer Samuel Z. Arkoff to Roger Ebert, about a movie called Q which Arkoff produced and Cohen directed. (It concerns a Quetzalcoatl, the Mayan bird-like or pterodactyl-like deity, plucking people off of rooftops in Manhattan.) Ebert said "Isn't it remarkable that there's this funny, naturalistic performance by Michael Moriarty in the middle of all that dreck?" and Arkoff replied, "The dreck was my idea."

[insert relevance to ice cream discussion here]

Ice-as an admitted Larry Cohen fan(and of the heydey of "horror" in general) how can you omit his blaxploitation extravaganzas like Bone?-cream

Steve sold his store (and the name) to a group of investors in the mid 1980s who wanted to franchise it. According to Google, there is a Steve's Ice Cream in Faneuil Hall,; I don't know if there is a connection with the original. Steve's Somerville (MA) location was a mecca (I think that I wrote about it when we were discussing what you would stand on line for). With the sale, I believe that he couldn't open a store using the name Steve, so in a few years opened Harrell's near Harvard Square. Steve not only "created" mix-ins, but had high quality ice cream - super-premium. Cold Stone and Marble Slab are pale imitations, psuedo-high end, aimed for shopping centers.

I think that Toscanini's in the best in Boston now, but Christina does (deservedly) have its fans. In San Francisco, there is (or was, haven't been for awhile, Double Rainbow).

The question is why is Chi-town, such an ice cream shy town. Evanston or Hyde Park would be great markets for a high-end home-made parlour.

In Evanston, there's Hartigan's on Central, and Homer's on GB Road in Wilmette, of course. There's another place on Dempster and Main, where B-R used to be, but I've never been there and the name escapes me at the moment.

There used to be more ice cream places in Evanston - after all the ice cream sundae was supposedly invented in that then-sober and somber town - but they have given way to bars, fast-food places, and chains, like the much-reviled Cold Stone Creamery, which is on Church St, by the train station.

sundevilpeg wrote:In Evanston, there's Hartigan's on Central, and Homer's on GB Road in Wilmette, of course. There's another place on Dempster and Main, where B-R used to be, but I've never been there and the name escapes me at the moment.

There used to be more ice cream places in Evanston - after all the ice cream sundae was supposedly invented in that then-sober and somber town - but they have given way to bars, fast-food places, and chains, like the much-reviled Cold Stone Creamery, which is on Church St, by the train station.

Remember Peacock?

Peacock....Peacock....

The name is ringing a distant bell.....what was the address?

Downtown Evanston sure has morphed into something unrecognizable since 1986, when I first moved there. I was thinking about that this morning. I had business to conduct at 500 Davis St., and parked right in front of Trio. I remember when it was Cafe Provencal, and when Leslee and Andy Reis had not one, not two, but three restaurants, all in east central Evanston.

*sigh*

Time flies, whether you're having fun or not.

sundevilpeg wrote:Peacock....Peacock....

The name is ringing a distant bell.....what was the address?

I don't remember for sure where it was. It was either on Davis or Central. It was a family owned ice cream parlor that had been making its own ice cream for something like 100 years. (My friend went to HS with one of the Peacock daughters). I moved away from Chicago for a period of about 6 years in the late '60s/early 70's and when I came back, Peacock was gone. I remember it as being decent ice cream and a cool place to go on a date.

GAF wrote:I think that Toscanini's in the best in Boston now, but Christina does (deservedly) have its fans. In San Francisco, there is (or was, haven't been for awhile, Double Rainbow).

Also worthy of consideration in Boston is Rancatore's in Belmont (there's a new one in Lexington, I understand). Gus Rancatore owns Toscanini's; his brother Joe owns the smaller namesake ice cream shops. In the mid '80s through early '90s I lived in the neighorhood of Joe's first shop and spent many a night there discussing ice cream. Not as fancy or probably as adventurous as Toscanini's, but certainly as good, I'd claim. Even the whipped cream was generously scooped out of the KitchenAide bowl it was made in.

I'd also agree on Christina's, which has an outpost in Davis Square (my other old neighborhood there) last I heard. The first time I ordered a cup with a scoop each of white chocolate and butter pecan, they told me I had zeroed in on the two highest-butterfat ice creams they sold. Savored every spoonful.