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| - This is a nice business that's bringing a touch of commerce and atmosphere to an area that can definitely use it. Therefore, I'm a fan even though their ice cream, while good, isn't quite to my personal taste. Sweet Moses serves a softish, rich, creamy and very sweet variety of ice cream, whereas I am more into the harder, more textured, and perhaps a little less sweet varieties. I'm the Baskin Robbins type, as opposed to the softer/ richer/ sweeter Ben n' Jerrys or Coldstone Creamery type. Nevertheless, Sweet Moses' ice cream is still pretty decent, they sell candy and other sweets as well as the ice cream, and I'd rather "buy local" than support a big chain, so they still get four stars from me.
You can get your ice cream "to go" or have a sundae or soda in Sweet Moses' charming, old-fashioned ice cream parlor atmosphere. The decor is along the lines of tastefully understated pre-WWII as opposed to very ornate. The walls feature prints of old Cleveland postcards and railroad posters, which were very homey for me as I have purchased many of the same bits of Clevelandiana off eBay myself. They also named several of their sundaes after local landmarks, including the "Gordon Square", the "Mt. Carmel" (which is, of course, a caramel sundae) and the "Terminal Tower" (the huge, bring-friends-to-help-you-eat-it concoction). Good old standbys like the turtle sundae are also available.
The ordering process is a little confusing given that you have to order at a counter and then either pick it up or they bring it to your table, but the staff was nice and our eat-in order was quickly made. I'm not sure if they serve all their sundaes in a big glass or if it was just the two we happened to order, but I would have preferred getting them in a dish. The glass seemed a little out of place, like something I'd expect from Friendlys rather than here, and it made it hard to appreciate the look of the sundae. (I'm such an ice cream aesthetics snob!)
The neighborhood, which is right on the edge of the currently developed Gordon Square area, looks a little sketchy after dark, but the ice cream store is busy enough - even on a rainy weeknight - that it doesn't feel too unsafe on that block, especially if you street-park in front of the place. All in all, a nice place to stop for a treat.
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