This week marks the official start of summer, which means you can absolutely consider ice cream a meal. Cold and full of protein and calcium, it can sometimes be the right answer when nothing else sounds good. Treathouse, the creative, vegan soft-serve ice cream shop that operates out of Treehouse Kid and Craft on Barber Street, recently extended its hours for the summer, so that it’s now open 12–6 p.m. Sunday and Monday, 12–8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 12–9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Here are three new ice cream options scattered around town to satisfy a variety of different tastes.
TAJ SWEETS (2024 S. Milledge Ave.): Tucked in between Achachi Market and Mitti Desi Cuisine (which is changing its name to Taj India) is this new sweet shop from the same owners of the rest of the strip. It operates under a similar model to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, offering two or three scoops (but not one), allowing you to mix and match flavors. It’s worth spending some time thinking about which flavors will go together as they melt, and if you’re unfamiliar with the options, you can sample as many as you like. Yes, there’s vanilla and pistachio, but there’s also rose, mango, butterscotch and malai kulfi (with or without chopped nuts and all flavored with cardamom, my personal favorite). The ice cream itself is rich and dense, and although some flavors will always be options, others rotate depending on the season. Should you want to add toppings like chocolate syrup and Oreos, you can do that, but it doesn’t need them.
You can also get some of the same excellent, rich, sweet coffee that the restaurant next door serves. To the right of the counter is a large refrigerated case stocked with loads of brightly dyed sweets. Across from it (behind you as you order) is a freezer case full of ice cream bars and popsicles, many made by Vadilal, a large company that manufactures more than 25 different kinds of frozen treat: tiny tubs of meetha paan-flavored ice cream (minty, nutty, sweet), sleeves of Shahi Kulfi bars in flavors like almond and pistachio, treats called Dollys that resemble creamsicles with a fruity outside and vanilla ice cream inside, Shots (little circular, chocolate-coated ice creams on a stick). You could get a different kind every day for months. Taj Sweets is still tinkering with its hours, but is open late-ish most days (closed Tuesday).
CAFE RACER (2343 W. Broad St., 706-850-0297, caferacer78.com): Cafe Racer’s soft serve seems like a gimmick: only available during dinner hours (5–10 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday) and intensely Instagrammable, with a collar of toasted marshmallow you can add for an extra 50 cents. Hold it up in front of a wall and take its picture to make your friends envious. That’s what it’s here for. Only it turns out, it’s the rare social media treat that absolutely lives up to its profile pic. Currently available in espresso and vanilla, it works best when you swirl them together, playing the cool, neutral sweetness of the latter against the assertive, bitter, thoroughly grown-up taste of the latter. The waffle cone is worth upgrading to, a homemade beauty that’s texturally ideal, and the marshmallow, much as it’s a gimmick, is a gimmick worth falling for, pulling the same bitter-sweet trick as the two ice cream flavors. Go out of your way for it. Sit in the parking lot and eat it fast before it melts. Take a picture if you need to. Consider my hat tipped.
SWIRLEE’S SWEETS AND FROZEN TREATS (1040 Gaines School Road, 706-850-0955): You can find Swirlee’s in the Ansonborough development on the Eastside, where it has replaced Lil’ Ice Cream Dude’s Cool World, closed after a family tragedy when co-owner Vickie Shell died. There’s another branch of the store in Jefferson, and I’d think it would find its audience here. For one thing, toppings are free and self-serve, included in the price of your ice cream. It isn’t quite the magical candyland that Beau Shell’s place was, but it has its own charms.
Swirlee’s serves Hershey’s ice cream in a large array of flavors, including standards like Superman and cookie dough that will keep your kids happy. It also serves Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream, out of Michigan, in flavors that are a little more adventurous, like a caramel corn ice cream that incorporates butter-toffee popcorn bark and dark chocolate, and a Milky Way one with chocolate malt flakes. There are sodas in glass bottles, the toppings are plentiful (Lucky Charms, frosted animal crackers, Reese’s Pieces, gummy bears, caramel syrup as well as chocolate), and there’s even a working vintage Pac-Man machine next to the door. A small array of candy is available by the piece. Swirlee’s is open 2–9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 12–9 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
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