Paisley Petunia

{Afternoon Snack – Roasted banana ice cream, housemade graham crackers, caramel sauce and whipped cream}

On my last trip to SF, I had a night off from the wedding festivities and enjoyed an evening out on the town with some of my favorite City dwellers. First up, Erin took us to Nihon Whiskey Lounge, a hip lounge featuring Japanese Izakaya (sort of like tapas) and over 400 types of whiskey. It was no joke. Fun for tasting different types of whiskey, but try as I may, its just not my favorite spirit.

So its a Friday night, you’re in the Mission, what do you and 6 adults do next?

Ice cream, naturally.

The first destination was closed, so our cabbie switched routes and dropped us off at Bi-Rite Creamery. I had seen it featured on an episode of The Food Network’s Best Thing I Ever Ate: Dessert Edition and made a mental note to get here on my next visit to SF.

Lots of other adults had the same idea and there was a sizable line, which luckily moved quickly. Once we entered the doors and spied the menu, the debating on flavor combinations began. While many of the sundae concoctions were very tempting, I knew I had to go with their unique special:

Sam’s Sundae: Chocolate ice cream with bergamot olive oil, maldon sea salt and whipped cream

Olive oil?! I know you may wrinkle your nose in confusion, but honestly this was one of the best treats. The high quality olive oil has a distinct citrus taste and balanced with the rich dark chocolate and the sea salt, it was heaven for my tastebuds. I am not the biggest whipped cream fan, but it was freshly homemade.

I definitely recommend Bi-Rite as a must-do in SF.

{my glenrock girls + ice cream aficionados}

Some of the other available flavors:

• Salted Caramel
• Chocolate Coconut (vegan)
• Ginger
• Mint Chip
• Honey Lavender
• Coffee Toffee
• Ricanelas (cinnamon with snickerdoodles)
• Roasted Banana
• Balsamic Strawberry
• Brown Butter Pecan
• Malted Vanilla with Peanut Brittle and Milk Chocolate Pieces
• Brown Sugar with Ginger Caramel Swirl
• Earl Grey
• Cookies and Cream
• Toasted Coconut

I also love Bi-Rite’s mission:

Bi-Rite Creamery is committed to creating ice cream in a responsible and sustainable manner. We are proud to be the first ice cream shop in San Francisco to use Straus Family Farms organic dairy to create our ice cream. We strive to create unique and exciting flavors that are made with local, organic or sustainable products. Not only do we care deeply about our ingredients, we also care about the impact we have on our environment. We use cups and spoons that are biodegradable, our sugar cones are made from organic ingredients, and we source our ingredients as locally as we can. Our tastes are served on metal spoons that don’t create waste. In doing so we save over 500,000 plastic spoons from filling our landfill every year.

You can see the Food Network video that inspired it all here (Bi-Rite is at the -4:58 mark)