An ice cream throw down brought on by a bunch of idiots and one fussy blogger
In the world of foodies and bloggers, there has been an ice cream sandwich throw down brought on by a bunch of “Idiots” from the team at You Idiot http://idiotsbeingidiots.blogspot.com/ which is a blog about life in Toga town. They challenged local restaurants in Saratoga to come up with their best version of an ice cream sandwich. The contenders are as follows:
The Wine Bar – Strawberry Basil Ice Cream w/ Chocolate Balsamic Cookie.
28 Tables – Lucky Charms Ice Cream Sandwich.
Comfort Kitchen – House-made vanilla bean ice cream between two house-made pizelles, chocolate ganache, salted caramel peanuts.
Wheatfields – Coconut Macaroon and Amaretto Gelato.
When a fellow blogger at FUSSYlittleBLOG http://fussylittleblog.com/ heard this was going down, he challenged the Idiots by saying that Albany had the best ice cream sandwiches and he really heated things up in this cool competition by adding four restaurants from the Albany area. Here is what the Capital is throwing down with:
The City Beer Hall- Cinnamon raisin cookie from All Good Bakers filled with apple cider donut ice cream from Bowman Orchards
Creo- Blood orange and fennel ice cream with a pistachio cookie dipped in dark chocolate Kahlua
New World Bistro- Valdeon-fig ice cream, pine nut cookie and choc-PX sherry-fig sauce
All Good Bakers- Brandywine semifreddo with brown butter and cinnamon basil cookie.
When I heard this was going down, I made sure to find out the details as quickly as possible so I could get my hands on these incredible concoctions. I headed up to Saratoga and made my way around to try these frozen treats and let me just say that this throw down is best idea ever! People will vote for their favorite ice cream sandwich and the 2 winners from Saratoga will go against the 2 winners from Albany for the ultimate idiotic fussy little contest. After sampling the 12866 versions, I am voting for Comfort Kitchen and Wheatfields. First off, the sandwiches were huge, which in the eyes of a sugar addict like myself, is a critical part. The Comfort Kitchen version was incredible with the addition of the salted caramel peanuts. I also LOVED the homemade ice cream and pizelles – nice touch.
Comfort Kitchen
The Wheatfields version was excellent because it was unexpected. The combo of the coconut and amaretto was perfect!
Wheatfields
28 Tables put up a good fight but I thought they could have used a better and richer ice cream and they were a little small.
28 Tables
Honestly, I wouldn’t turn any of these down and actually, I may need to head back up for another round because I am hooked! If you want to participate, visit the local restaurants mentioned above. Then comment or email the team at You Idiot to cast your vote for the Saratoga restaurants or comment/email the FUSSYlittleBLOG to cast your Albany votes.
If I were going to come up with the ultimate ice cream sandwich, I would use a chocolate chip cookie on one side and a peanut butter cookie on the other. Sandwich some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in between then roll it in crushed up peanut and pretzel pieces. Any of these restaurants want to make me one? I challenge you 
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August 15th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Jennifer, you don’t mention the Wine Bar. Did you not get to try that, or was it a case of “if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all”?
On the strength of your pictures and descriptions it’s hard to argue with your decisions. Especially because of the size consideration. Go big or go home!
August 15th, 2012 at 8:57 pm
I didn’t have a chance to get to the Wine Bar. It was on my hit list but I over indulged on the other three- couldn’t help myself:) I plan on heading over there by the end of this week.
August 15th, 2012 at 8:04 pm
We had an amazing ice cream sandwich from New World Bistro a couple of months ago. I don’t remember the exact details of its make up but it was so delicious. They only problem was you couldn’t eat it as a sandwich, it was impossible! No matter, all three parts, the cookie, ice cream and fruit sauce were fantastic and flavors worked well together. We happily used utensils to eat it. But isn’t part of the fun to use your hands, other wise why not call it ice cream with cookies and a fruit topping?? Also, it was HUGE … if you could all that a problem.
August 15th, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Charlie & Baby O’s Mom,
I agree that an ice cream sandwich should be eaten with your hands, that’s the whole point. Well, that and it has to taste great. Not sure if I could ever think of a dessert as being too big
August 16th, 2012 at 1:27 am
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