Dave’s Gourmet Ice Cream

Dave’s Market looks generic — the same convenience storefront you see all the time on the road. It sells, chips, drinks, deli sandwiches, lotto tickets, and all the usual sundries. But if you peek in the corner you’ll see an ice cream counter. It’s from here that the shop owners operate a side project, their liquid nitrogen ice cream company.

Dave’s Gourmet ice cream blends artistry, science, and plain old quality dairy. It starts with Strauss organic dairy products. The science is in how it’s frozen. Instead of cold churning (the usual way), it is frozen quicker with liquid nitrogen. This makes for smaller water molecules (ice chunks), and thus a smoother texture. The artistry comes in the flavors and the assembly of cute frozen treats, such as ice cream bonbons.

Rocky road is chunky with a rich chocolate base.  It tastes really fresh and the marshmallows in it are still soft. Oreo-raspberry is a great idea flavor wise, but fresh raspberries freeze into ice chunks, which interrupt the ice cream’s silken texture.

One of the most notable features of the ice cream at Dave’s Gourmet is its portability. It melts slowly and evenly, making it ideal to carry away. For the road, mini ice cream sandwiches make for tasty snacks. Triple chocolate truffles are richer — dark chocolate chunk ice cream enrobed in a thin shell of fruity chocolate coating. Is there was such a thing as too much chocolate? Nah

Dave’s Gourmet’s award-winning project once was known as NitroKarma, and it began as a freeze-to-order custom project. Eventually it got folded into the store’s brand and turned into a more traditional scoop-shop model.

Because it’s a convenience store, the ice cream is available at the crack of dawn for those who like breakfast Sicilian style.