The scoop on ice cream

LITTLE ROCK — In Stanley Kubrick's marvelously mad movie classic, Dr. Strangelove, Sterling Hayden's delusional Gen. Jack D.

Ripper sincerely believes that part of the Communist Cold War conspiracy against America involves fluoridation.

While the thermonuclear-armed bomber wing dispatched by Ripper heads toward the Soviet Union and the world's ultimate doom, the unhinged base commander maps out the supposed plot to his executive officer, Peter Sellers' bemused Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake:

"Do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies under way to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream."

In real life as in the movies, ice cream plays what buzzword buffs might label an "iconic" role - for us grown-ups as well as the kids.

That's all the more true in Arkansas in August, when heat bristles, sweat drips and soothingly cold ice cream is a highly pleasurable antidote.

It's fair to say that there's no such thing on a hot day as bad ice cream - only good ice cream, better ice cream and best ice cream.

In that upbeat frame of mind, I set off this month on a grand tour of ice-cream purveyors in the Little Rock area. In olden days, they were sometimes called "ice cream parlors." Now a couple of the snazzier ones bill themselves as "creameries."

Ground rules for this chilling odyssey were fairly loose. The journey concentrated on places whose principal mission is selling ice cream (or its moral equivalent, such as frozen custard or frozen yogurt). But I also dropped by a couple of fullfledged restaurants - Purple Cow and ZaZa - highly regarded for their frosty fare.

A vanilla cone was ordered, if available, at most stops. More complicated confections were sampled as well. And I managed to track down one of the 20 ice-cream trucks jingling their way around central Arkansas this summer under the Frosty Treats emblem.

The truck's jovial driver told me that every now and then an adult customer will buy a full pint of ice cream for $4.50 and consume every bite of it on the spot. I went lighter with a $1.50 Vanilla Crunch Bar, a flavorful choice from a menu offering seven youngster-friendly items priced at $1.

The tour's most frugal discovery turned out to be the existence - in 2009! - of an icecream cone priced at less than a dollar. This dazzling deal materialized at Dairyland Drive-In, a ramshackle edifice on Arkansas 161 on the northeastern fringe of North Little Rock.

My single scoop of Dairyland's vanilla in a crisp cake cone, dipped by a cheerful woman at the takeout window, cost a mere 80 cents plus tax. The slightly grainy ice cream was good rather than better or best - but still a refreshing bargain that I savored while seated at a shaded, wellworn picnic table.

The second-best deal - a single-dip vanilla cake cone for $1 - materialized in the roundup's most evocative setting. That treat got scooped at the old-fashioned soda fountain in Park West Pharmacy, off traffic-clogged Financial Centre Parkway in west Little Rock.

The vintage fountain, with its solid marble front bar and back bar trimmed with marble and stained glass, was made in Philadelphia at the turn of the 20th century and bought for Park West Pharmacy some years ago at an auction in Texas. If portable, it would be a likely candidate for Antiques Roadshow.

As for the most expensive cone, it cost me $4.95 at ZaZa, which has been dispensing superlative house-made gelato to adoring throngs since opening a year ago in the Heights. Touted on the menu as having "less than half the fat and twice the flavor of traditional American ice creams," the gelato gained my accolade in an earlier story as "delectably Italian enough to evoke a stroll through a Roman or Florentine piazza."

The listed vanilla flavor was unavailable on my latest visit to ZaZa, where the posted prices are $3.50 for a small serving, $4.95 for a large. So I ordered a small waffle cone of limoncello. The server said nothing until I'd taken the first lick, then asked for $4.95 plus tax.

Taken aback, I replied, "But I ordered the small size."

"Cones only come in large," she informed me. "The small size is just for cups."

I felt a bit bamboozled - but not enough to return the slightly licked gelato and demand my money back. Before long, I'd devoured every bite of the fast-melting limoncello, which proved to be briskly refreshing on a 94-degree afternoon.

HOMESPUN VS. SLEEK

It became evident as the tour progressed that there is a wide spectrum of ice-cream outlets hereabouts.

At one end, in the homespun category, are order-at-the-window spots that have been around for a while - Dairyland Drive-In, Asher Dairy Bar in southwest Little Rock, Shake's Frozen Custard in west Little Rock and Conway, and Shakey's Frozen Custard in North Little Rock. (The Little Rock Shake's used to be a Shakey's, and the "y" is painted over on the big sign out front.)

In counterpoint to those funky oldies are several sleek newer emporiums - Cold Stone Creamery on Little Rock's Chenal Parkway, Maggie Moo's in the far west Promenade at Chenal shopping complex and Jerzy's Creamery in west Little Rock. They're the ice cream equivalent of Starbucks - high in style and pricing.

The middle ground is occupied by established franchise brands - Haagen-Dazs, Baskin-Robbins and TCBY (standing for The Country's Best Yogurt, which once upon a time flourished its initials atop Arkansas' tallest building).

In a category of its own is Dippin' Dots, which sells its tiny super-cold pellets - made by flash-freezing ice-cream mix in liquid nitrogen - at kiosks in Park Plaza and McCain Mall under the banner "Ice Cream of the Future."

Dipping into several Web sites via Google, I armed myself for the adventure with a smattering of facts and figures:

Ice-cream cones are believed to have first been sold in the United States at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair (aka Louisiana Purchase Exposition). They were around even earlier in Europe.

To qualify as ice cream under U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, a product must contain at least 10 percent milk fat and weigh at least 4.5 pounds per gallon. Most U.S. ice cream runs around 14 percent fat, with some premium brands hitting 16 percent or slightly more.

The average American consumes nearly 4 gallons of ice cream each year, said to be the highest rate in the world. Total U.S. consumption amounts to more than a billion gallons annually. I fell short of the 4-gallon mark in my excursion, but not for lack of trying.

DOUBLE DIPS OF CUTE

Maggie Moo's, my initial stop, displays a tendency toward cute that may not be to everyone's taste. The sign over the entrance combines a cartoon mug shot of a cow with the legend "Ice Cream and Treatery." A sign inside asserts, "Maggie Moo's: So fresh it moos."

The menu's specialty is Fresh Escapes, prepared to order on a chilled stone counter by spatula-wielding employees. I ordered a regular Banana Beach in a cup ($4.89) and watched walnuts, bananas and caramel being folded into the banana ice cream.

The Banana Beach concoction tasted deliciously rich. I did raise a skeptical eyebrow at a few other Fresh Escape options - for example, Blueberry Muffin in the Morning and Cotton Candy Ski Jump. C'mon!

On a second Maggie Moo's visit, I suffered slight trepidation in ordering one of the least expensive items. It was a vanilla sugar cone listed at $2.89 for "kids 6 and under." Having recently turned 66, I was preposterously over the age limit. But the cone got served without any snickering by the young man behind the counter. A single-dip adult cone would have set me back $3.89.

At Cold Stone Creamery, whose setup seems to have been the model for the newer Maggie Moo's, more cute twists abound. The three sizes of its Signature Creations, mixed before your eyes on a granite slab chilled to16 degrees, are listed as: "Like It $4.39, Love It, $5.09, Gotta Have It $5.49." Your entry is likely to be greeted by, "Welcome to Cold Stone!" And you may be treated to the staff singing a corporate jingle.

The "Like It" size of Peanut Butter Cup Perfection (chocolate ice cream with peanut butter, crumbled Reese's peanut-butter cup and fudge) ranked among the best creations I sampled. The rich ice cream seemed even denser than Maggie Moo's.

Conversely, the $2.28 French vanilla kiddie cone that I ordered on a second stop at Cold Stone Creamery gave me slightly less of a kick than Maggie Moo's vanilla.

The cute quotient at Shake's Frozen Custard is wrapped mainly into the names of some sundaes: Dream Lover, Heavenly Angel, Pink Poodle, Bananadanna Split. Based on enthusiastic recommendations from several colleagues, I ordered a concrete: thick frozen custard blended with toppings.

My small Heath Bar Concrete ($2.97) was admirably hefty, although I didn't try holding it upside-down to see if it stayed in the cup - a trademark of legendary Ted Drewes Frozen Custard in St. Louis. I sat at one of two picnic benches outside the mainly drive-through setup, noting a sign's assurance that the custard is "made fresh hourly." A single-dip cone would have cost $2.

The bill of fare is similar at Shakey's Frozen Custard in North Little Rock, one of seven Shake's franchises in Arkansas, although it retains the former "Shakey's" name. Photographs of Elvis Presley and other performers next to the ordering window speak to the rock 'n' roll derivation of such Take Me Back sundaes as Big Bopper, Blueberry Hill and Love Potion No. 9. My junior-size vanilla cone cost $1.79.

TASTE WITHOUT WAIST

At the TCBY on West Markham Street in Little Rock, there's a focus on the nutritional value of the frozen yogurt. One sign urges: "Be happy, eat healthy. Low fat never tasted so good." Another sign puns: "Great taste. No waist."

Without shame, I ordered a $1.49 kiddie-size vanilla cone. Consuming it lower-calorie lick by lick, I was tempted to feel mildly virtuous.

Back to actual ice cream, I tasted the smallest size of vanilla cones at Haagen-Dazs ($2.69), Baskin-Robbins ($1.79) and Jerzy's Creamery ($1.95). The cones at all three places gave pleasure, and I returned to Haagen-Dazs for a commendable Dazzler Frozen Dessert ($5.95) in the rocky road flavor.

The Baskin-Robbins store on Rodney Parham Road was the busiest stop of my trip. At 3:45 on a Friday afternoon, it was swarming inside and out with children and their parents. Brand recognition is a marketing key for this 6,000-shop international chain that three-upped Howard Johnson's 28 flavors a half-century back by stocking 31. Over the years, Baskin-Robbins has devised more than a thousand flavors.

At the Purple Cow on Cantrell Road, the purple vanilla shake ($4.15) was as seductively sweet as always. Because it was before noon on a Saturday, I resisted the notion of upgrading to an adult shake ($6.25) by adding a 1-ounce shot of rum, vodka or other alcoholic infusion.

A whiff of childhood nostalgia - hearkening back to Dairy Queen visits of the 1950s in my hometown of St. Charles, Mo. - welled up at Asher Dairy Bar on Colonel Glenn Road. The menu at this homely spot fronted by a large curly-cone sign includes a Brown Derby ($1.95), soft-serve ice cream dipped briefly into melted chocolate that forms a thin crust. The Asher version measured up to the Dairy Queen's Brown Derby of my memories, complete with the challenge of avoiding chocolate fallout on shirt front.

As for the future of ice cream, it left me underwhelmed as well as flummoxed on my first venture ever to a Dippin' Dots kiosk.

On the top level of Park Plaza, this Dippin' Dots displayed three sizes of cups. Small ($3.83) seemed like enough for a Dippin' Dots virgin. But the young woman on duty informed me that she was out of small cups and I'd have to order a medium ($4.65).

I asked, "Can't you fill a medium cup part way and charge me for small?"

Her reply was brusque: "No. Can't do that."

In the line of duty, I refrained from stomping away. The vanilla pellets proved to be so cold that the threat of an ice-cream headache came to mind. It didn't happen, but another trip to the Internet told me that such headaches, also known as brain freeze, have a tongue-tangling scientific name: sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. It's a form of brief cranial pain caused by something cold (like ice cream) touching the palate and setting off a nerve response.

With that hazard in mind, I'll stick to the ice cream of the present. There's plenty to choose from around here. And just about all of it is either good, better or best.

Plain vanilla, please

Here are the 10 most popular ice-cream flavors in America, according to the International Ice Cream Association. Listed with each flavor is the percentage of Americans who say they like it best. Vanilla is the clear favorite.

1. Vanilla, 29 percent 2. Chocolate, 8.9 percent 3. Butter pecan, 5.3 percent 4. Strawberry, 5.3 percent 5. Neapolitan, 4.2 percent 6. Chocolate chip, 3.9 percent 7. French vanilla, 3.8 percent 8. Cookies and cream, 3.6 percent 9. Vanilla fudge ripple, 2.6 percent 10. Praline pecan, 1.7 percent All other flavors, 31.7 percent Ice-cream establishments Here are addresses and telephone numbers for ice-cream establishments mentioned in today's story: Asher Dairy Bar, 7105 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock, (501) 562-1085 Baskin-Robbins, 10202 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock, (501) 227-5656; 101 N. Van Buren St., Little Rock, (501) 666-8504; 2908 Congo Road, Benton, (501) 315-3500 Cold Stone Creamery, 12800 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock, (501) 225-7000 Dairyland Drive-In, 2306 Arkansas 161, North Little Rock, (501) 945-4593 Dippin' Dots, Park Plaza, 6000 W. Markham St., (501) 558-3477; McCain Mall, 3929 McCain Blvd., North Little Rock, (501) 753-6677 Frosty Treats, fleet of 20 trucks, office (501) 791-3100 Haagen-Dazs, 5911 R St., Little Rock, (501) 664-7888 Jerzy's Creamery, 12911 Cantrell Road, Little Rock,(501) 312-7472 Maggie Moo's, 17821 Chenal Parkway, Suite 113, Little Rock, (501) 821-7609 Park West Pharmacy & Old-Fashioned Soda Fountain, 11215 Hermitage Road, Little Rock, (501) 224-3499 Purple Cow, 8026 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, (501) 221-3555; 11602 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock, (501) 224-4433 Shake's Frozen Custard, 12011 Westhaven Drive, Little Rock; (501) 224-0150; 1135 U.S. 65 North, Conway, (501) 329-2545 Shakey's Frozen Custard, 5508 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock, (501) 753-5407 TCBY, 11418 W. Markham St., Little Rock, (501) 221-9020; 2600 Lakewood Village Place, North Little Rock, (501) 753-5572; 19500 Cantrell Road, Little Rock; (501) 868-3305 ZaZa Fine Salad + Wood-Oven Pizza Co., 5600 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, (501) 661-9292.