hungry hound

Chicago restaurants serve personalized ice cream bars

Sunday, September 17, 2017

ABC7's Steve Dolinsky tries customizable ice cream bar options.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Summer is officially over this weekend, but the Hungry Hound still sought out two new shops that take ice cream bars to new levels.

"Pick, dip and sprinkle" is the mantra at Gordo's Homemade Ice Cream Bars. The store sits next to a Flaco's Tacos beneath the Red Line's Granville stop in Edgewater. They offer about a dozen flavors each day.

"You can just eat the paleta or ice cream bar as-is, or you can have it dipped in a chocolate or butterscotch of your choice. And then after that you could also add sprinkles to it or nuts, chocolate chips, Oreos," said Ed Hebson, the owner of Gordo's.

All of the bars are made in their primary store in Printer's Row, then delivered each day. Most are made with milk, but they always have at least two made from water and one with soy milk, just in case you're lactose intolerant or vegan.

"We do an orange chili spice vegan paleta, and then we do a hibiscus tea paleta, then we have a banana avocado, made with soy milk," said Hebson.

In Logan Square, you first have to enter The Crab Pad, one of those seafood-by-the-pound communal table concepts, before you see Milk & Wood, a tiny L-shaped counter near the front. Their flavors speak to the owners' Asian heritage.

"We have really fun flavors like green tea Kit Kat, ube, we have pandan which is really good. We also have one of my personal favorites, mint Oreo," said Catherine Sneed, one of the managers at Milk & Wood.

Everything is made on-site and flavors might rotate frequently, since the case is so small. Again, customization is encouraged.

"You can get dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate, you can top it off with some Butterfingers, coconut, mixed nuts," said Sneed.

They'll even let you go s'mores-style on your bar.

"Which is marshmallow, and we toast it a little bit, so it's just like a s'more - sweet and creamy, and also maybe a little bit messy," she said.

Don't always feel pressure to put something on your pop. You don't have to dunk it and dip it all the time. Sometimes they're delicious on their own like Double Trouble, with Oreos and chocolate; what could go wrong with that?

Extra Course: ABC7's food reporter Steve Dolinsky asks Milk & Wood owners to create a Singapore-inspired ice cream bar.