Sweet Jesus, Toronto

I adore soft serve ice cream.  I grew up in the land of soft serve cones in the summer, and I just don't understand why San Francisco does not really have this.  I miss it.  There is nothing like licking even a simple vanilla soft serve cone, with rainbow sprinkles, in the sun.

When I visit my hometown in New Hampshire, it is a daily requirement that we get soft serve, at Dairy Twirl or Ice Cream Fore-U.  There are still few other places that have this simple soft serve that I love.  And then I visited Montreal, and learned that soft serve culture was alive and well there, with a focus on quality dips and toppings, like Chocolats Favoris or the even better La Diperie.  I was hopeful that Toronto would prove similar, cuz, you know, another city in Canada ...

My research quickly brought me to Sweet Jesus

"Sweet Jesus was born out of a love for experimentation. As leaders in the confectionery game, the goal is to combine conceptual thinking with high-quality ingredients and products, in an effort to make something that tastes and looks, unlike anything you’ve ever seen and had before. Toronto born and globally grown; Sweet Jesus is the little ice cream shop that wouldn't quit. "

Sweet Jesus is a moderate size chain with locations in Canada, 2 of which were within a 5 minute walk of my hotel or office in Toronto.  I visited my first, and last, days, even though it was *not* ice cream weather.

I had a mixed experience at Sweet Jesus.  The staff ... certainly not the best.  They clearly were bored with their jobs, didn't really like customers or talking to people, and generally would prefer if no one entered the shop.  But they did their jobs.

The ice cream was fabulous, exactly the kind of soft serve I love.  The creations? A mixed bag, one I adored, one I really disliked.

Still, I'd go back.  I just wish they had more flavors (only vanilla or chocolate base), or custom options.

Just follow the cones.

You can tell that Sweet Jesus doesn't offer "average" ice cream, the moment you see the signs out front.

Exterior Bench.

The storefront is otherwise nondescript, with a turquoise bench out front, which turns out to be the only seating, and a color I'd see a lot of.

Interior.

The shop I visited is tiny, basically just an ordering counter, space for 1 staff member to move around, and little else.  Not really any seating, which is a bit unfortunate in the winter when I visited.

They do still try to make it attractive, with plants, and everything following the turquoise color scheme, including the straws and spoons.

Offerings

The main attraction at Sweet Jesus is the "Pimped Out Soft Serve", ridiculously designed ice cream creations, using vanilla or chocolate soft serve, or vegan coconut soft serve, as the base with some very, very interesting toppings, 4-6 on each one.

The menu is rounded out with some equally elaborate hot chocolate (something to keep them in business in the winter?), coffee drinks, shakes, and packaged cookies made by another vendor.

Counter & Menu.

Sweet Jesus is ... an opinionated ice cream shop. You cannot create your own. You can opt for one of their pre-designed creations, or you can get it plain. Two sizes available, "Kids" or "Regular", cake cone, sugar cone, or dish (or upgrade to waffle cone), and that is it.

I sampled the vegan coconut ice cream out of curiosity, but I'm glad I didn't order it, it was far too ... coconuty for me.

The regular ice cream however, both the vanilla and chocolate, were quite good, very creamy, just, great soft serve.

O'Hungry. Kid's Size. Cone.

"Vanilla soft serve, peanut butter sauce, caramel sauce, chocolate peanut crumble, chocolate sauce."

My first visit I went for my top choice, no question.  The O'Hungry.

It used vanilla ice cream as the base, and it was perfectly creamy, just plain vanilla, sorta like McDonald's soft serve vanilla, but I mean that in a good way.  It melted nicely, it was creamy, but it really was there just to be a base anyway.

A base for ... such incredible toppings.  Yes, I know this looked ridiculous (as did I attempting to eat it, I'm sure), but it tasted amazing.  And yes, it was a bit difficult to eat.  My addition of the caramel corn certainly didn't help matters!

The peanut butter sauce, caramel sauce, and chocolate sauce were exactly what you'd imagine.  Perfect combo of sweet, chocolatey, and peanut buttery.  They dripped all over, and infused every bite, in great combination.  I loved the sauces on here.

And but before the sauces were added, the whole thing was rolled in chocolate peanut crumble, and that was amazing.  It added texture, crunch, and, well, tons more chocolate and peanut flavors.  My caramel corn was entirely unnecessary, but I still welcomed it, and I'm glad they let me add it, even though its against their policies.

I normally don't eat ice cream cones (they just taste like Styrofoam, are often stale, etc), but I love licking cones, so I always get them, but this was an exception.  The cone was actually tasty, more like a wafer cookie than dry stale standard cone.  I surprised myself by eating it all.

I enjoyed every last messy bit of this.  I really appreciate the catcher around the cone, so all the bits that fell off weren't wasted.  So much love for this cone.  I'd get another in an instant.

Birthday Cake. Kid's Size. Cone. Sub Vanilla/Chocolate Twist.

"Vanilla soft serve, cream cheese icing, birthday cake bits, rainbow sprinkles."

So I returned my last day in Toronto, when the temperature went back above freezing (I'm not joking, it got so cold!).

This time I opted for an even more ridiculous looking one: Birthday Cake.  I was fascinated by the thought of cream cheese icing on a ice cream cone, and I just love rainbow sprinkles.  I did NOT realize it would actually come with a birthday candle, lit, on top!  I turned around to pick up my ice cream and was quite surprised.  The staff are clearly bored with people's reaction to this though.

I blew out the random candle, threw it out, and felt wasteful.  But I'll admit, it was a little fun.

For this one, I actually had them use the chocolate and vanilla swirl, after sampling the chocolate and liking it quite a bit.  Again, the ice cream was really wonderful, both flavors the perfect texture, so creamy, and the chocolate a mild chocolate in a nice way.  Wonderful base.

But then ... my toppings.  The O'Hungry was a huge success on the topping front, but this was not.

I never found any cream cheese icing.  I'm not sure where it was.  What I did find was a ton of the birthday cake bits.  Why I thought I'd like this is a mystery to me, really.  They were ... just chunks, in various sizes of stale dry birthday cake.  I hated the texture.  I hated the dryness.  I hated it.  The sprinkles (and likely the cream cheese icing?) were lost in it.

I knocked off all the big chunks, and pulled out my emergency backup toppings (sprinkles, heath bar bits, chocolate chips), which of course I had in my bag.

I still loved the ice cream, but sadly, the toppings on this was just not winners.  The cone also tasted kinda stale.