Zanzabelle!

This past Saturday, Emily and I took our ice cream testing selves to Zanzabelle. Our adventure definitely started out on an awkward foot; we parked, left the car...and remembered I'd forgotten my crackberry. So we trudged two blocks back to get it, and left to find an ATM...only to realize on arriving there that we'd forgotten to put money in the meter. So we basically did a circuitous route (very complicated, LA is not made for walkers) three times before finally managing to get across the street to Zanzabelle, where our ice cream waited for us.

When we entered the gift shop, we saw many delightful objects: red skulls, miniature soap shaped like baby hands, coloring books, a Rosa Parks pez dispenser - hell, it had everything you could want and more! We decided to purchase some lunch while waiting for the arrival of Savannah and crew. Our sandwiches were delicious, though very chipotle-y; we worried for a bit that we'd look like we'd been crying when our other friends arrived! Fortunately, we managed to clear our heads before the folks rolled up.

Lunch and ice cream commenced. The flavors were okay - chocolate, mint chip, strawberry chocolate chip, salty caramel and cappucino [again, sic] crunch being the two most interesting. I opted for the cappucino crunch and the mint chip. Savannah had chocolate. Emily was daring and put a cone on top of her dish.

I have to say, thus far this was the most typical ice cream we've tried. Very local ice-cream stand - I'd even compare it to a Breyer's or Dreyer's store-bought - generic texture, generic flavor. I believe the ice cream sold at Zanzabelle is Fosselman's, which is supposedly one of the best ice creams in LA. I'd give it one thumb up - good enough to do the job, fine if you're looking for ice cream out with friends, a great shopping experience/adventure, but monetarily I'd recommend saving your money and buying a pint at the supermarket.

All of us later attended a screening of Sex & the City, which I enjoyed quite a bit, followed by some traffic incidents including a fat man in socks waddling across the street in front of an ambulance; getting stuck for an hour in crazy post-Cure concert traffic; and an Asian doctor in hairnet jogging in the middle of the road. So it was an eventful day.

For me, thus far, Scoops is still in the lead for taste, variety, and price. Stay tuned for Emily to weigh in after her excursion back east (insert jealous statements here) to visit good ol' Noho and have some Herrell's!!!

Zanzabelle
2912 Rowena Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039