Shakedown Ice Cream

Back in the day, I was a very spoiled girl.  As were all my co-workers.  You see, we worked for a tech company, that fed us lunch daily, and this included desserts.  Not just any desserts though, all were made in-house by an extremely talented pastry team, lead by Chef Amy.  Our daily offerings included some cult favorite chocolate chip cookies, multiple plated treats (cakes, puddings, etc, etc), and, house made ice cream and sorbet, multiple flavors, each made daily.  Like I said, spoiled.  Of course we didn't realize it at the time, and the same goes for the daily sushi, regular Dungeness crab fests, and the like.

Approaching the dessert stand daily was always an exciting moment, and trying to pick just ... two items (please, who can pick just one?) was always agonizing, particularly when the ice cream flavors were always so fun. I knew Chef Amy had a magic touch, and when she left after some number of years, the impact she had made was even more obvious.  So I was thrilled when I found out that she left to follow a passion that centered around ... ice cream.  She went to open her own ice cream shop.  I couldn't wait to check it out.

Unfortunately, Shakedown didn't last that long, but I did manage to visit once for ice cream, and once to have Chef Amy craft an incredible ice cream cake for a team party.  I can't wait to see where she pops up next ...

The Space

Shakedown was located in the Tenderloin, not a neighborhood I sought out, and not the sort of area you necessarily wanted to hang around, but in some ways, this was part of the appeal.  I had to make a mission out of going to Shakedown.

Register and  Pints.

Shakedown did not have a large space.

Inside was the counter with a single bay of ice cream, a little area behind for prep, minimal seating on the side, and the end counter where you pay.  This area did double-duty with a couple seats too and houses a small freezer with pre-packaged pints (in glass mason jars!).

What it lacks in space though it does make up for in being nicely designed: check out the purple walls, the artwork, and the live plants.  Plus, that counter is stunning!  It seemed almost out of place given the nearby surroundings.

Seating.

And here you can see the entirely of the seating section.  As I said, small, and minimal seating.  The only available seats are counter seats along the window, I think 5 total, plus the two at the register.  I was able to easily get a seat, but I'm curious what this is like when they get busy, as the street outside isn't exactly nice for loitering around and enjoying ice cream ...

Ice Cream Counter.

The counter displays all 10 flavors of ice cream available in a given day.  Yup, only 10.  I believe they always have a few staples (vanilla, coffee, and Pennsyl-tucky), since those are required for the signature shakes, and always have one non-dairy, but besides that, the flavors rotated all the time.

Prep Station.

On the side is the assembly area for shakes and sundaes.  This area houses blenders, toppings, and a station for bruleeing bananas (!).  While I was there, another customer ordered a shake that had bruleed bananas (uh, yeah, these aren't normal shakes), and I watched the staff member grab a banana, slice it, top it with sugar, and pull out the blow torch.  So much work goes into the shakes in particular, but wow, they looked amazing.

Special Ice Cream Cake

Every year, we have a tradition of sending our summer interns off with an ice cream cake.  The year before, one of my co-workers arranged for a pretty amazing cake from Mitchell's (review soon!).  But in 2017, it was my turn to get the ice cream cake.

My first thought was Carvel, which I realize sounds ridiculous, but, is totally the cake I grew up with, and always had for my birthday.  Is the ice cream good quality?  Of course not.  But I adore the crunchies inside.  I pondered going a few steps up and getting Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's , or even another Mitchell's cake.  But I knew I could do better.  Good ice cream cake starts with good ice cream, right?

I approached Chef Amy to ask if she made ice cream cakes, even though I didn't see them listed on the Shakedown website.  She said that they don't generally make cakes, but, she does for special orders on occasion.  I quickly asked for more details.  She said to pick a cake (vanilla or chocolate) and a flavor of ice cream, and then to decide if I wanted it coated in buttercream or meringue.  This sounded great, except I had a few issues.

The first?  Well, I couldn't pick one flavor of ice cream.  I narrowed it down to about 10, and even that was hard.  The second?  I didn't really want a cake layer.  I wanted it to be Carvel-style, with two types of ice cream, separated by something crunchy.

So, I asked for exactly that.  I also asked Amy to pick my flavors, to choose two that would be complimentary from my giant list, since I couldn't possibly decide myself.  The only thing I did pick was the meringue on the outside, since that sounded like more fun than buttercream.

So my first encounter with Shakedown was not with just getting a scoop at the shop, but rather, with getting a custom, off-menu, ice cream cake.

Custom Ice Cream Cake. $100.

My other request was to have a goodbye message for the interns on top, which she was happy to do in chocolate.

I brought a co-worker with me to pick up the cake.  He, uh, certainly questioned where I was leading him at one point.

I expected the cake to look stunning, but, even so, I was just as blown away as he was.  It was gorgeous.  This photo was taken after I transported it back to the office, so it was slightly worse for the wear, but I assure you, it was awesome.  Toasted fluffy meringue on the outside, crispy Cocoa Nib Florentines sticking out, and a double decker.  It was *very* hard waiting until the next day to break into it.

Toasted Meringue Coating, Butter Brickle Ice Cream, Cinnamon Toast Brunch Ice Cream, Cocoa Nib Florentine.

It was also very hard to slice such a massive cake!  I'm not sure the others really appreciated what a fine job I did.  The cake was two tiers of two layers each, separated by the cocoa nib florentine crunch between the layers (but not between the tiers).  I didn't quite realize the makeup of the cake when I started slicing.  If I had, I probably would have opted to slice just the top tier, aka, a layer of each ice cream and crunchies, rather than trying to slice through the entire thing and manage to slip these ridiculously tall slices onto plates.  I did a noble job.

So, how was it?  The meringue on the outside was fluffy and sweet, quite tasty, although it did deflate a little in the day I had it in the freezer before serving.  Certainly not the chef's fault though, and the toasted merinque was beautiful.

I loved the cocoa nib florentine in the middle, super crunchy, but, I actually wanted a thicker layer, as you can see here, the cake is mostly just ice cream (which is of course basically what I asked for, since I didn't want any cake cake).  Plus, I still had Carvel in mind, and, Carvel nicely loads up the crunchies in the middle.  The use of nibs was a good choice not only for the crunch, but for the bitterness, given that the rest of the cake was just sweet ice cream.

And then of course, there was the ice cream.  Chef Amy picked two flavors for us, Butter Brickle, described as "Toffee Ice Cream with Crushed Butter Toffee", which was the top layer of both tiers, and Cinnamon Toast Brunch, described as "Cinnamon Toast Infused Ice Cream".

Cinnamon Toast Brunch is one of Shakedown's signature flavors, offered normally on Sundays only at the shop.  Why so exclusive?  Well, taking the practice of making everything in house, they actually make the bread, to make into cinnamon toast, to soak into the ice cream base, to make into the ice cream.  It sounds like quite the process, and they only do it as a special to honor the biggest brunch day of the week, Sunday.

To be honest, I think the Cinnamon Toast Brunch was a bit lost on me.  I appreciated the creativity behind it, and the crazy work that goes into making something starting with baking the bread, but, I didn't really taste the cinnamon, or anything toasty about it.  It really tasted like plain, albeit sweet, ice cream, particularly when combined with the other elements of the cake.

The Butter Brickle was my favorite, an even sweeter choice due to the toffee base, and I liked the little bits of toffee studded throughout.  Just like the florentine though, I found myself wanting more of the crunchy element, bigger chunks.

Both of the ice creams were clearly high quality, super rich, super creamy.

My co-workers loved this cake.  I was having a hard time cutting reasonable sized slices from the cake, and was a bit worried I was giving people way too much.  I had nothing to fear.  They cleaned their plates.  And then, slowly, one by one, started sheepishly asking for a second slice.  Some asked for a third.  There was a small amount of the cake left, that I promised to save for a few people who weren't able to attend the party, so I put the slices into containers and put them in the freezer.  The slices didn't last a day, as my co-workers somehow found where I stashed them, and took more, without asking!  Doh.  It suffices to say this was a pretty big hit.

Ice Cream

After that ice cream cake extravaganza, I obviously had to return to try the regular ice cream.  The menu is what you'd expect: ice cream, sundaes, and shakes.  Not much more.

Ice cream is available in 3 sizes to eat there (a cute, actually reasonably sized junior scoop, a single scoop, that is actually quite large and can be made up of two flavors, and the "biggie"), plus 1/2 pints and pints to take home.  Scoops are available in a cup, or for $1 more, you can add a housemade buckwheat waffle cone or bowl.

If you want to spice it up, go for a sundae, available in 3 sizes (1 scoop + 2 toppings, 2 scoops + 3 toppings, or 3 scoops + 4 toppings, all served in their buckwheat cone bowls, and all include whipped cream (aka, it doesn't count against your toppings).  Toppings are numerous, and, you guessed it, all housemade.  For sauces, you can opt for hot fudge or hot butterscotch, regular chocolate sauce, marshmallow topping, or two types of caramel (salted caramel or whiskey caramel).  For crunch, go for candied pecans, peanuts, coconut flakes, or crumbled "Oreo-style" cookies.  Go crazy and add brulee bananas.  And don't forget the housemade sprinkles, available in rainbow or chocolate.  The whipped cream most certainly does not come from a can.

And finally, the shakes.  The shakes are a labor of love, and, priced accordingly ($10-12).  While you could just get a chocolate shake, the shakes I saw being made all were far more elaborate.  For a single shake, I watched multiple types of ice cream (5 scoops total?), plus a slice of cake, go into the blender.  And the results were stunning, the clear cups had drizzles of syrup around the edges, the shakes were thick and loaded with stuffs, and the toppings were even more spectacular, with whipped cream, more sauces, and, uh, chunks of pie on top.  I watched two different shakes being made during my first visit, and each took nearly 5 minutes.  But wow they looked incredible.  And, um, awful for you.

As I mentioned, they only serve 10 flavors a day, which actually, for me, is a good thing.  I struggle with narrowing down my ice cream choices, and I always want to try all of them, so, this at least limited me.  And yes, they do let you sample, and have bins for sample spoons right on the counter.

On my first visit, I was able to easily rule out two flavors because they had coffee in them, one because it was sorbet, one because I had it previously in my ice cream cake, and the simple vanilla.  Which left me with 5.  I sampled 4 of them (technically, I got Ojan to sample two, and I sampled two, but, uh, I tried all 4).  Sampling didn't really help, in that I liked all of them.  So I made Ojan pick.  I was grateful that I was allowed to pick two flavors to make up a "single" scoop. 

Single Scoop Sundae: Purple Reign and PB&J, Hot Fudge, Candied Pecans, Whipped Cream, Rainbow Sprinkles. $7.

I decided to go big, and get a sundae.  This way I could try the ice cream AND a bunch of toppings.  I went for the smallest sundae, which comes with 2 toppings (not including whipped cream), and is served in a buckwheat waffle cone bowl.  Or, at least, it usually is.  When I arrived, they had no waffle cones, nor bowls, which was heartbreaking, since I had read so many positive reviews of the cones.  To make up for it, I was offered an additional topping for free.

For toppings, I went for one sauce (hot fudge), one crunchy element (candied pecans), and sprinkles, because I adore sprinkles, and I couldn't wait to see what their homemade sprinkles were like.  The sundae was just as beautiful as the shakes I saw, and again, made with such care.  The nuts were evenly distributed, the hot fudge and whipped cream applied generously, and just look at those sprinkles!

The hot fudge was thick, good hot fudge, but honestly, it wasn't anything particularly special.  If you like hot fudge, by all means, get it, and I appreciated that it was actually hot and thick, but, uh, I am in love with the hot fudge from JP Licks in Boston, and this wasn't nearly as magical.  I'd skip it next time.

The candied pecans were super candied, really crunchy, absolutely coated in sugar.  I liked having some crunch, but, like the fudge, I found them actually unnecessary.

The whipped cream was standard homemade whipped cream, aka, not just from a can.  Light, fluffy, sweet.  And plenty of it.  Too much perhaps?

The sprinkles I loved.  Loved, loved, loved.  I had the choice of chocolate or rainbow, and went for rainbow.  They were obviously larger than commercial sprinkles, which made them actually noticeable when you ate them, a bit of crunch, and bit sweet.  I'd certainly get these again.

As for the ice cream, while I got a "single", I was able to get two flavors, and went for PB & J and Purple Reign.

PB & J:

"Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Concord Grape Jellies."

I wish I had a photo where you could see this flavor.  I assure you, it was unlike any other PB & J ice cream ever.  It didn't just have a jam swirl, instead, it had actual jellies, like, cubes similar to a pate de fruit, studded throughout.  It was incredible.  The peanut butter was rich, the ice cream was creamy, and the concentrated cubes of jelly were incredibly flavorful.  This is one of the best peanut butter ice creams I have ever had, and I love peanut butter.

Purple Reign:

This was a special not on the regular menu, in honor of Prince, served on the anniversary of his death.  It was made with ube (purple potato) and marshmallow fluff.  I adore ube and I adore fluff, and this was a good combination, the sweet fluff a nice compliment to the less sweet ube.  I appreciated that you could actually taste ube in it too, and they didn't shy away from letting the potato shine.  It was also a stunning purple flavor.

That said, I didn't love it nearly as much as the PB & J.

Overall, this was a good sundae, and I was very happy.  However, I made a note to myself that, as awesome as the toppings were, they just weren't necessary here.  The ice cream is just good enough on its own.  I recommend the sprinkles though, because those are just too amazing, and I still want to try the waffle bowl.

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Other flavors

Jacker Crack:

"Popcorn Infused Ice Cream with Swirls of Dulce De Leche and Crushed Peanut Brittle."

This flavor had my name all over it.  I love popcorn and I love caramel corn even more.  Add in some peanut brittle too?  Um, yes!  Sweet and salt, yes please!  I tried a sample on my first visit.  It was delicious, very sweet though, the dulce de leche was very, very sweet.  I didn't quite taste popcorn though.  I really did like it, and loved the crunch from the brittle, but ultimately picked another flavor.  I'd still be happy to try a real scoop sometime.

Pennsyl-tucky:

"Pieces of Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie Swirled into Bourbon Ice Cream."

This might be their most famous flavor.  Through in some bourbon, and the masses go crazy, right?  For good reason.  I tried a sample of this one too, and I loved the boozy bourbon element.  I may have picked it, but since I was sharing with Ojan, and he couldn't have alcohol, I ruled it out.