Family, Food, Kids, Stories, Uncategorized

We All Scream For Ice Cream

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We went to a wedding reception last night at a local brewery in Northeast Minneapolis – Able Seedhouse & Brewery. It was a lot of fun, with indoor and outdoor seating and an excellent food truck dinner.  The most fascinating thing however was watching the continuous stream of folks going to the ice cream shop across the way and the amazing ice cream concoctions that were coming out with them!

YA is not normally a sweets gal, but if she is interested in a dessert, ice cream is the top of the list, far surpassing cake and cookies. So after not finishing the reception cupcake dessert, she convinced me that we should head over to the ice cream shop before we went home.

At 8 p.m. on a Sunday night, the line was out the door of the shop on the second floor and down the stairs. There were four employees scooping and the line did move faster than I expected – about 15 minutes before we were at the counter to order.  As we made our way out, the line had almost doubled in size and was outside the door of the building and out onto the sidewalk!

I had a pretty traditional chocolate/vanilla swirl with some butterfinger crunchies; YA had a huge cone with a combination called the Berry Nice. We sat outside until I was done (since I was driving) – a beautiful night with our unexpected treats.

What are you willing to stand in a long line for?

58 thoughts on “We All Scream For Ice Cream”

  1. We stood in line for roasted NM peppers and a really long line for Westminster Abbey. I don’t mind waiting in line. My father would never stand in line. He was far too impatient.

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    1. I will admit that if it hadn’t been for YA, I would not have stood in this line. I’m not crazy about lines – it’s really the only thing that really rubs me about the State Fair… I usually get my Sweet Martha cookies in the morning before the lines gets too long. Always take a Tupperware with me to put them in!

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  3. I will wait a half hour or so if I get into a favorite restaurant, if the people I’m with are fun to talk to. Or a movie I really want to see if it’s at the Riverview in S. Mpls. If on vacation and I’ve looked forward to some featured place, I’ll probably wait in line because I won’t have the chance again, but a half hour is about my limit timewise.

    What is the name of this place, VS?

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      1. MnNice Cream had a truck at a wedding we attended in Rochester last weekend. Yep, a constant line for ice cream but it moved fast. Just two people working in there as far as I could tell. I had vanilla with cookie dough. Kelly had the twist w/ brownie, caramel and peanuts. Lots of options but we were limited to 3.

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  4. To see the Sistine Chapel.
    Also to shake former President Obama’s hand.
    And since today I’m feeling particularly degusted (sic) with Tr$$p, the opportunity to act out an old Jim Ed Poole joke where a drill instructor says to a recruit: “I’ll bet you can’t wait until I’m dead so you can urinate on my grave!” To which the soldier says, “No sir! Once I’m out of the army, I’m never standing in line again!”

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    1. restroom at the vikings game during halftime with 500 guys that each drank 9 beers is a fun thing to behold. the new stadium amks it possible to do it in only 20 minutes instead of having to wait until halfway through the 3rd quarter to return to your seats. getting out of the parking lot at the old met after a football game with a bunch of drunken vikings fans (common beer theme) was an interesting deal. i was agressive but never scraped bumpers. i have taken to waiting until the end of the mvie credits to see who sang the songs and where the movie credits tell me it was filmed. you watch without thinking about where it was n=but it is interesting to discover it was london or budapest or the olympic penninsula of washington. and the lines are almost always gone when the credits are over.

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  7. i was with a group in italy and the last supper was open to the public during its getting cleaned up. it is a preety hot tourist attraction and the church is know for not being open much. we went out to see it and the line was 100 people long with the courtyard outside the church being where the line was happening on a beautiful summer day in milan. we got in line and the line moved very slowly. the couple of guys i was with were making noises about how this was stupid and we should leave. i made the point that hurrying back to the hotel to drink beer was a sorry reason to miss the one shot they had at seeing the mural. it took a half an hour and the art was wonderful. it was 80% restored and the work was incredible. then we went and drank beer. i dont remember the beer.

    i was in england the summer we bombed khadaffi and the nucular reactor blew up in chernobyl in 86. there were no lines but the guards at the line for the crowm jewels couldnt get it through their heads that the crowd they had been experiencing every day simply wasnt there. they kept saying hurry the line there are lots of people behind you and i said no there arent. look… and they would look and see that no one was behind my group of people but they kept pushing anyway.
    disney was the best example of line training. they would have signs up telling you that you had 45 minutes left to go and when you got there in 40 minurtes you were elated to only having to wait for 40 minutes. the folks over at the other park had lines that were shorter but there signs promised wait times that often missed it by 5 minutes and people were so upset about it. easy to see the right way to do it. disney wins.
    my duaghter took me to thee top of the dome in florence and it was way cool. up a million stairs through some little stairway tot he roof then bak downa nd off to see the painting on the ceiling wher the things you see from the gorund are 9 inches away. the face of the flying saints were the size of a car and the hands were complete with fingernails the size of your head in a very abstract use of paint that didnt look abstract at all when down on the ground.
    i was upset with myseld for nnot waitring to get into the louve in paris when i was there but i was just on time and missed the long lines at the eiffel tower because of the rain i walked throug to get form the louve to the tower. the louve would almost be too much. sensory overload. i remember the story of the guy on roller skates going through the louve saying got it got it got it as he went by and registered the great work of art at a rate of 20 or 30 a minute.
    the lines that drive me nuts are the ones at the new style restaurants. wait in line for 15 minutes during my lunch hour to order a burrito with beans rice salsa and guac. put chees and lettuce on it and let me grab it out of the done pile for phone in orders thank you very much. subway ok. chipotle no

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    1. Chipotle! You’re absolutely right; figure out a better way to do that. There must be a better way.
      I wrote a blog a few years ago about the lines at Taco Bell drive through. The other night I left the theater after rehearsal and as usual, was hungry and headed to TacoBell. The drive through line was 10 cars long and I made a U-turn and went to McDonalds.
      Crazy.

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      1. the dollar menu at toco bell is blow your face off
        even with veggie limitations. the spicy potato taco for a buck its to die for. the cheesy rice burito is to much for a buck. i cant eat these two one diollar items and have room for my favorite. the 7 layer buriito. the price on that went up to be 2 79 or 3 19 or something ultra reasonable.
        mc donalds and bk are ook with a $5 value meal but if im at a spot wher it can be done i go buy a bag of chips (wal mart clancys and aldi chips for a buck are wonderful and raising hell with lays marketing ideas) and a 12 pack of dr pepper or a box of lemon water.
        a bag of chips and a 12 pack of water and a 1/2 a coldcut sandwich with te cold cuts on the side ends up being the best budget lunch on the planet. and the dogs love the cold cuts

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        1. I tend to do the chicken Quesarito at Taco Bell. And chips and cheese.

          McDonalds it’s the McChicken sandwich.

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    2. I completely lucked out at the Louvre. I was there with a well-trained tourist guide and she whipped us into the Louvre and out in about 20 minutes and during that time we saw the Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

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  8. Husband and I worked quite hard the last three days so we could take it easy today. I feel weird and restless, not having much to do, and the following is going through my head (to the tune of “How can I keep from singing”).

    My life goes on in endless toil,
    There is no time for shirking.
    There always is so much to do.
    How can I keep from working?

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    1. I’m trying really hard not to work much today. It is the last day of my vacation that started on the 23rd. It’s been great and I don’t want to mar it by wearing myself out today.

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  9. I’m a patient person, but I won’t wait in long lines for very many things. Although that ice cream looks like a very worthwhile wait. But not to buy tickets, not to buy the cheapest Black Friday deal, etc.

    When my husband started work at MarketSource (they provide staff to sell wireless phones/plans at Target) last fall, we stopped at the Super Target in Otsego on Thanksgiving evening. Two people were selling and activating phones as fast as they could (30 minutes minimum per phone) and there was a huge line. Plus, the store was insanely crowded so I was feeling a bit panicky. I could not imagine waiting in line that long just to buy a phone on Thanksgiving evening.

    Although they had a special deal where if you bought a certain phone you got a $300 Target gift card. Then it *almost* made sense to wait that long, but I’m sure the deal was available for a week.

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  10. When we were in DC a couple years ago, Amelia and I went into the National Documents building to see the Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights.
    We were still kind of figuring out where to go and hadn’t quite gotten to the holding area and the line, when a security guard called to me. I thought maybe she needed to search my backpack or something but she asked about Amelia and opened a side door and let us right into the dome area containing the documents.
    She said to get right up there by the guards and they would make space for her. Well, those guys hadn’t gotten the message, but we still got to skip the waiting and that was pretty big deal.

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  11. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I once stood in line at the Burnsville Daytons box office for 8 hours to get Neil Diamond tickets! I was an adult at the time too, with children who in no way contributed to my folly. After waiting for a couple of hours, it seemed dumb to give up, although if I’d known 2 hours in that I’d be there another 6, I would probably have accepted the sunk cost and split. It was a great concert and I recall thinking during it, that it had been worth it. I would never consider doing that now, for anything or anybody. Unless I believed absolutely that it was the only possible thing that would somehow save the life of a loved one. Neil did write Sweet Caroline for me though. So there’s that.

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    1. Overnight on the sidewalk outside Southdale at Daytons for Bon Job I tix. Thinking back on this, I don’t think of it so much as waiting in line as having an adventure. A very cold Adventure.

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      1. A month ago as I was waiting for 10:00 to get my online tickets for Brandi Carlile, I was thinking about the days I’d be waiting at the doors of Daytons in Rochester and running upstairs to their ticket window.
        I’m thinking it was maybe a Styx concert. I saw lots of concerts and sometimes could phone them in, but a few times I was there and ran for the window.

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      1. It doesn’t happen very often but every now and then I have a day when WordPress doesn’t love me. Bon Jovi tickets.

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  13. The longest lines I can recall standing in are for:
    The Uffizi in Florence,
    The McGarrigle Sisters at Cedar Cultural Center, and
    Silly Wizard at the Half Time Rec
    In each case, the line was about a block long and that’s about my limit.

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    1. Incidentally, if the header picture is representative of the product at MN Nice Cream, it’s not ice cream. Dairy Queen can’t call their product that and neither, quite, can MN Nice, apparently.

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      1. Yes the picture is representative. It is soft serve. But I have more than one friend who will argue that soft serve is a type of ice cream. Yes, that’s right. More than one friend. That should tell you what kinds of discussions some my friends and. I get up to.

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        1. Doesn’t matter what your friends argue. I used to do advertising for Dairy Queen. They couldn’t legally call their product ice cream. They called it DQ.

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      3. Dairy Queen used to be required to post a sign Ice Milk Sold Here. My sister worked at one for 7 years. People would order iced milk thinking it would be milk with ice in it.

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    2. my daughter knew the ropes at the ufizzi and gave me an outstanding tour when we go there. i suggested to her that she stay and give tours for her lifes work, she obviously loved it and was very good at it. the Medici story is wonderful

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  14. I wait in the checkout line at the grocery store.

    Haven’t waited in line for quite a while, but when I was in the hospital, I waited 2 1/2 hours for someone to walk me to the shower.

    There was a bunch of other waiting, too, but that was the most memorable one.

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  15. stayed outside at best buy for the new xbox when it was colder than hell. my son couldnt believe it.
    tickets for dylan, and other at the daytons downtown.
    minnesota twins world series tickets and the parade, meeting jiommy carter, attending obama at the gophers stadium i think, to get into the simon and garfunkle stadium for general seating when they did their first reunion, to kiss the blarney stone, parking at the state fair, getting off the bus at the state fair, taking the 9/11 tour in nyc in 2002, to see the top of empire state building, to see the rockettes (good trips) to go into the basement of the alamo, many many lines

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    1. remember waiting for pay phones at conventions where there were 1000 guys in the convention center and 12 phones and the guy who is on there is talking like an hour to get all his details looked after

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      1. john kerry is the new al gore with an honest sense of betrayal at the reversal of the climate change course. the withdrawal of all that is right is so horrible we need to keep notes of the offenses.

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  20. At the fair, it’s a good policy, when ordering fried food, to go to the booths with long lines and wait for five minutes or so. Then you get something very fresh out of the deep fryer. Don’t ever walk up to a fried food booth with no line. They’ll have some product that has been sitting there cooling for ten or fifteen minutes, and it will be really mediocre.

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