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| - Initial side note: Mitchell's Ice Cream can't be compared to East Coast Custard. They are two completely different frozen deserts. Ice cream as we know it is primarily made with more air and more cream (fat content), while custard has a significantly higher egg yolk content and less air. It's like comparing red grapes to green grapes. Yes, they're both frozen desserts, but significant variations exist between the two. As a second side note, gelato is has lower fat content than ice cream and has less air.
My first time I was in a Mitchell's Ice Cream was on the CWRU campus. The first thing I said to myself was, "Huh. They sell dry ice. THAT'S AWESOME." But it's funny. After I left Cleveland 7 years ago (not at my own volition, to be honest), the city decided to get good, and it's been getting better ever since. And when I started to visit the West side, I finally realized that that's where all the real gems really are in the city.
But I digress. That's not what this review is about.
It's really about the ice cream.
It's funny how ice cream is. You grow up eating the crummy store brand ice cream, since it's the cheapest, then the not as cheap brands (like Edy's and Breyers) full of not-so-straightforward elmulsifiers, then you go to college and start growing up and you try the better national brands, like Ben and Jerry's, UDF, Haagen Dazs (of which the latter is way too sweet, by the way). Then you start trying out local stuff. That, my friends is where the fun starts. At least in Ohio. In Cincinnati, you have Graeter's Ice Cream. It's made by the "French pot process" but the flavors are pretty conservative and traditional, but they do it well. Then you have Columbus' Jeni's Ice Cream where they make adventurous flavors you never thought would ever go together work, requiring nerves of steel to order their favors, but it's more of a boutique ice cream parlor (lighter, pricier, and smaller portions).
Mitchell's hits that awesome sweet spot in the middle. Not only does it do traditional flavors well (and better than Sweet Moses, IMHO). Their ice creams don't skimp on flavor or ingredients. This is especially so with their seasonal flavors (and specialty flavors), which elevate these folks to a whole to a whole new and phenomenal level. When they have seasonal fruit flavors, they use actual fruit in the ice cream, and you can see it being be put in the ice cream as they make it behind the service area. You see them open boxes of chocolates with stickers that say "Product of Belgium". Lavender honey ice cream tastes like honey (and lavender) (though some may find it a bit too sweet) . You want s'mores in your ice cream? No problem, you'll find milk chocolate, graham cracker crumble, and marshmellow fluff. Then you have porter dark chocolate. Yes. Great Lakes Brewery's very own Edmund Fitzgerald Porter in ice cream form with dark chocolate chunks. Really, you can't go wrong with any their flavors, and they give generous portions. If your brain stops working at being able to choose from the the easily 20+ flavor offerings at any one day, the staff is more than eager to let you try the flavors.
Remember that dry ice I mentioned earlier? It's to throw into coolers so out-of-towners can take the ice cream home with them, never melted and refrozen. And I would totally do that if I had a cooler (which I don't), when I would return to Cincinnati.
In all honesty, they've become the ice cream standard in Cleveland, and to the Cincinnatian who worried about ice cream cred in his review: Your cred is intact. Mitchell's is indeed better than Graeter's.
As a warning, the W 25th St. location doesn't have straightforward parking -- it's street parking immediately around the parlor. It's a very busy area with restaurants and bars. So, parking there may be a challenge.
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