FROZEN delights

With summer in Bloomington heating up, it is the perfect time of year to enjoy ice cream or, for the lactose intolerant, some cool dessert. Bloomington is full of ice cream parlors and their chilled delights. Each place has its own story and its own uniqueness that pulls people to them. \nA free standing brown stand, The Chocolate Moose, 401 S. Walnut St., has been open and operated by the same family for more than 70 years. Two of its employees have been there for more than 50 years. \nJunior Leanne Kelker, an employee of The Chocolate Moose, said Bloomington high school students used to walk over for ice cream during lunch and after class when the high school was located in closer proximity to the downtown area. \n"People still come here that remember when they stopped by on their lunch break when they were 16 and now they are in their 40's," Kelker said.\nIn addition to ice cream, The Chocolate Moose offers BBQ, Spanish burgers, hot dogs and old-fashioned flavored sodas in cherry, vanilla and chocolate.\nAmanda Peterson, employee, said before 5 p.m., they sell more flavored cokes than ice cream. \n"Some folks come here and get 4 diet vanilla cokes and take them back to work," Peterson said.\nFor those searching for a lactose-free treat, The Chocolate Moose has a fruit-flavored Dole whip and frozen yogurt. Its flavor offerings change approximately every four days.\nWith walk-up windows and outdoor seating, Bruster's, open since 1998, sits at the corner of State Road 446 and Third Street. \nBruster's makes its own ice cream on site and offers low-carb and sugar-free ice cream, ices, sherbets, yogurt and Blasts, which are ice cream blended with various candies. The ice cream flavors change, but the basics of chocolate and vanilla are always available.\nFreshman Dustin Carter, a Bruster's employee, said they get business from people from Brown County, but a lot of their business comes from sports teams. Travelling teams often stop by to get different treats on their way in or out of town. \nWith locations throughout Bloomington, Jiffy Treat's most popular spot is near the corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Dunn Street. The ice creamery offers 24 flavors of soft serve. They also serve carbo-light, a 99 percent dairy-free frozen treat with no sugar or fat. In the laid-back atmosphere, many patrons order cyclones, ice cream mixed with candy, cereal or fruit.\nJunior Emily Krecke, a Jiffy Treat employee, said the Kirkwood location is a great place to stop in for a treat when walking around the downtown area.\nJiffy Treat makes its own hard scoop ice cream and offers snow cones and slush puppies for those seeking a dairy-free delight. They also serve sodas, milk shakes, malts and sundaes to tempt the sweet tooth.\nAround the corner at 107 N. Dunn, White Mountain Ice Creamery opened in 1982 and introduced Bloomington to the idea of mixing candy into ice cream. White Mountain makes its own ice cream using an old-fashioned crank freezer.\nThe parlor offers a wide variety of flavors -- about 20 at a time -- and a service which allows patrons to request notification of flavor availability. White Mountain calls these patrons when their favorite flavor becomes available.\nThe ice creamery also offers many novelty items -- bon bons, bars on sticks, ice cream sandwiches with homemade cookies, ice cream pizza and ice cream pies. \nWhite Mountain offers a French-style waffle cone that comes in chocolate and in the form of a bowl. \nDowntown recently obtained a new parlor with the grand opening of a local franchise of the national chain Cold Stone Creamery at 530 E. Kirkwood Ave. on June 12. The chain features custom created ice creams made to order by blending mix-ins on a frozen granite stone. \n"We want to provide every customer with the ultimate ice cream experience," said local owner Barry Keaton. "The taste of our ice cream is absolutely out of this world."\nCold Stone Creamery makes all of its ice cream on site and offers waffle cones and bowls, cakes, smoothies and shakes.\nLocated near Borders Bookstore, Maggie Moo's, 2636 E. Third St., has been in town for about two and a half years. Its hand-dipped premium ice cream had four of its flavors -- chocolate, dark chocolate, strawberry and vanilla -- voted No. 1 by the National Ice Cream and Yogurt Retailers' Association. \nThe small store offers a few tables inside, but many take their treats outdoors. A unique feature at Maggie Moo's is its frozen counter. The employees scoop the ice cream onto the frozen slab in order to hand blend the mix-ins of choice.\nIn addition to the cakes and ice cream, Maggie Moo's offers nondairy sorbets in mango and raspberry. Occasionally other flavors of sorbet are also available.\nNeannie's Café, at the corner of Sixth and Madison Streets, is a family-run Italian cafe offering covered outdoor seating, Eight tables are placed around the cafe, which has clean yellow walls sparsely decorated with grape vines. \nThe gelato, made on site, has a texture similar to sorbet. It is less firmly frozen than ice cream but more intensely flavored. Gelato's cream-based flavors have only 4 to 8 percent fat and the fruit flavors have less than 1 percent fat. The fruit flavors are water based and vegan-friendly. \nBesides the fresh fruit, all of the ingredients for the gelato are imported from Italy, including the dishes. Other cold treats at Neannie's include frozen granite, which is similar to an orange and lemonade-based slushy with flavors that include pina colada. \nIn addition to gelato, Neannie's Café offers sandwiches, soups and other desserts. \nTeri Ryan, owner, named the cafe after her grandmother. All of the employees are members of Ryan's family.\nThe cafe will be closed June 12 through June 23 because the family is taking a vacation together, just as they have done every summer for the past 10 years.\n"It is great working with family," Ryan said. " We don't even fight."\n-- Contact staff writer Maurina Paradise at paradise@indiana.edu.