The cold, sweet, luscious truth

Uptown Twist is in its fourth season and makes its own sorbet-of-the-month from local, seasonal products like strawberry, mint/melon and others. Uptown Twist also offers soft serve with free sprinkles. For the colder, rainy days or for sluggish mornings, there’s Monkey Joe’s coffee. Griffin and his wife Julie make their own soups to get them through the winter months, as well as crepes for the Farmer’s Market. Griffin said Uptown Twist even offers breakfast, lunch and dessert crepes such as ham and cheese or fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil.

The little-stand-that-can also sells Deising’s Bakery products, cane-sugar Cokes and gluten-free and organic local bakery items.  Kids’ ice cream cones are a highly reasonable one dollar.

Walking up to the booth can mean being treated to Celtic music, a puppet show or a balloon — depending on the day. Griffin, who’s become a sidewalk fixture, interacts with folks regularly as they walk by.

“[This booth] is the model of the future,” said Griffin. “Since it’s an open structure, people are more likely to start a conversation, like at a farmer’s market so there’s a lot more conversation.”  Top-selling flavor? “Maybe vanilla, but I think the twist might be it,” said Griffin.

Oh, Mickey’s, you’re so fine

Mickey’s Igloo is owned by Ron and Christine Vetere with locations onEast Chester Street and Hurley Avenue. The East Chester Street location, the former Silver Lake Dairy, has been in continuous operation since 1956 as a drive-up ice cream stand. The Hurley Avenue location was added within the last few years.

Since all other bases of ice cream have been explored, we asked Ron to talk about the big picture. “Why ice cream? What’s the big deal?”

Ron explained that it’s a matter of finances, family time and nostalgia. “Economics plays into it,” said Ron. “You can’t go out to dinner for over $100, but you can come here with the whole family and spend $12 on ice cream and make everyone happy … My store is basically a destination because it’s been here so long. We have three or four generations of families that come here because it’s been a tradition for so long.”

Ron added that it’s mostly families who come for ice cream; however Mickey’s sees a lot of lunchtime eaters as well for the hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, chicken and onion rings.

Mickey’s Igloo and Mickey’s Igloo II season is from beginning of April to Labor Day.

And now, a surprise. Most popular selling flavor, according to Ron? Soft-serve coffee. “Coffee is the most popular-selling flavor in the nation,” he said. “Everyone thinks vanilla is the big hit, but that’s not true.”