Legendary | Worth driving from anywhere

Aiken Ice Cream

Review by: Michael Stern

*** THIS RESTAURANT IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED ***

Detached objectivity has never been a Roadfood priority. When we like a place, enthusiasm takes over and we become fans more than critics. That’s why there are no indifferent or negative reviews at Roadfood.com. If a restaurant doesn’t generate positive excitement, we forget about it, searching instead for one we can love.

… all of which is Part 1 of an apologia for saying that I love Aiken Ice Cream. Part 2 is that Aiken Ice Cream is a family business. My family business. There is no way I can judge it with detachment or objectivity.

I will say that during months of the taste-testing process prior to its opening in August, 2018, I became a merciless critic: of rum raisin that wasn’t rummy enough, of cookies & cream that didn’t have enough cookies, of chocolate that was too sweet or not sweet enough, and of hot fudge sauce that didn’t flow just right atop an ice cream sundae. But now that everything’s perfected – yes, perfected! – I can step back and be the ardent fan I am of restaurants that win my heart.

Rather than offer my extremely biased opinion about what makes each and every flavor so great (YOU must be the judge of that), here are some facts:

* This ice cream is made on premises in small batches – not trucked in from somewhere else.

* It is made from scratch, not using a ready-to-freeze “ice cream mix” that so many ice cream parlors import.

* Whenever available, ingredients are local: local peaches, blueberries, and strawberries, local pecans, cream from South Carolina cows.

* It is low-overrun ice cream, meaning it is not pumped full of air. A pint of Aiken Ice Cream weighs more than a pint of other “premium” brands.

* Need I mention that it is fresh, made throughout the week, without such commonly used preservatives as propylene glycol, glycerin, sodium carboxyl methylcellulose, monoglyceride, diglyceride, disodium phosphate, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, polysorbate 80, and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate?

Please stop in. If you are a Roadfood regular and I happen to be loitering about, I will buy you a cone. (Yes, I pay for every scoop I eat, every day.)