National Ice Cream Day & Cincinnati

Photowalking in the Queen City

I’m screaming today for my favorite holiday—Sunday is National Ice Cream Day, and I’m celebrating with the release of the latest episode of Photowalks, in the Queen City of Ohio, Cincinnati.

Cincy was another stop on the recent midwest tour (Chicago/Battle Creek/ Detroit/Cleveland/Cincinnati and Columbus) where I focused the Photowalks cameras, finding in “The Nati” great old art deco buildings, historic neighborhoods, new friends, views to die for from across the river, one of a kind chili and then there’s that local ice cream.

I have hit 118 locations (so far) for episodes of Photowalks, from worldwide locations like Sicily, Paris and Barcelona to domestic ones, from Amarillo to Zion National Park, and I’ve had a cone in every last one of them.

Yet it was in Cincinnati where I had the best ice cream ever, thanks to local institution and apply named Graeter’s. (Even Greater than my former no. 1, Nielsen’s in St. George, Utah.) No less an expert than Oprah Winfrey once expressed similar sentiments.

What’s different? Graeter’s makes their ice cream in smaller batches, making it denser, and it does something a little unusual with their chips. Per Wikipedia, it adds melted chocolate mixed with vegetable oil at the end of the stirring process, and that results in chocolate chunks of different sizes.

Or, as Barb Cooper from Cincinnati Food Tours put it, “It’s basically like having a chocolate bar floating around in the ice cream.”

Yeah!

So you get this amazing burst of unexpected chocolate goodness in your mouth, and boy is it a thrill. In the photo collage above, the top right photo (me in the hat) is at Graeter’s, where the flavor in the cone is chocolate cherry chip. Blackberry chip is its no. 1 best-seller.

I’ll be celebrating the holiday today locally, in Los Angeles. Can you name the location?

Wouldn’t it be Great if every day was National Ice Cream Day?

Jeff

P.S.

Huge thanks to Dwayne Slavey, the chief photographer for WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, for helping me out with his incredible photography skills for the production of the latest Photowalks episode.

P.S. II: We have a Cincinnati podcast too! LINK