The idea behind the campaign was to convince people that it’s a great idea to crack open a few $200 bottles of bubbly with your buddies while you throw back a dozen miyagis or gnaw on some pig feet. Not sure who gave this one the green light, but it made for some great afternoons even if the message was a bit hard to swallow.

Cherry Chocolate Port Ice Cream

1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
1 1/2 cups cream, cold
1/2 vanilla bean (about 2 inches), scraped
3/4 cup dried bing cherries, reconstituted in port
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Stir together sugar and starch and whisk in egg yolk, then milk.  Over medium heat, stirring constantly, bring to a boil and continue stirring for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and pour into a chilled bowl, stir in vanilla scrapings, cover and chill.  Once cold, whisk in cream and put in ice cream maker (mine took 20 minutes, but follow the instructions on your own), and then stir in cherries and chocolate before covering and putting in the freezer to harden.

Notes:  scalding milk is simply bringing it briefly to a boil, which will cause solids to separate from the milk and stick to the pan, so they are left behind when you pour off the milk.  To make the cherries, put a cup of dried bing cherries in a cup of good port and let them sit, covered at room temperature for a few days.

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Bitter Orange Jello Slices

• 6 oranges
• 2 cups boiling water
• 6 oz. package of orange Jello
• 3/4 cup cold water
• 1 1/4 cups chilled vodka
• 1/4 cup orange bitters (I used Angostura brand)

1. Slice oranges in half across the navel. Cut a slit in the pith near the navel, where it is strongest.
2. Slide the end of a metal spoon between skin and fruit to remove cleanly and reserve fruit for another use.
3. Bring water to a boil, and remove from heat.
4. Stir Jello into hot water until dissolved, then stir in cold water , vodka and bitters.
5. Set orange peel halves into shallow cups on a tray so that the edges are level and fill with jello liquid to the rim.
6. Let cool overnight in the refrigerator and slice each half into thirds with two vertical cuts.

HeardAbout also has a new iPhone App (and they promised me Android coming soon)

Everything on the menu is reconstructed from century-old recipes. More than a dozen flavored syrups are made with fresh produce and without cooking to preserve the crisp flavors and silky smoothness, and they offer two dozen house-made extracts and over 75 house-made tinctures to be incorporated into a custom frappe, float, milkshake, malt, crush, phosphate, lactart, egg cream or soda. There is no other place creating these drinks in this way, but I expect the success of Ice Cream Bar will launch retro lunch counters and convince cocktail bars all over the country to start in-house soda programs in the very near future.

The amount of effort that goes into every drink is remarkable.  They whip cream in a shaker, and what’s more, milkshakes are made not with ice cream, but by shaking raw eggs and cream with hand carved blocks of ice!

They don’t have a liquor license (although a beer and wine license is pending), but if one were to perhaps, theoretically sneak a flask into ICB, the possibilities would defy the imagination. Having just tasted the entire menu, I recommend the following hypothetical boozey enhancements:

Peche No. 3 (cherry and anise frappe) – St. George Absinthe

Too Good to be True (butterscotch malted) –  Pappy Van Winkle 15 year (keeping in the spirit of the name)

House Built Tonic – Plymouth Gin (it’s a no-brainer)

My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend (roasted pineapple and pink peppercorn lactart) – Malibu (and I feel no shame)

Russel’s Sassafras Root Beer – (going out on a limb here) Smith and Cross Rum

Breakfast Soda (orange thyme crush) – Siete Leguas Blanco Tequila

For Bobby Long (chocolate hellfire phosphate) – Del Maguey Mezcal Vida

Touch of Grey (creamed candy capped mushroom phosphate) – Remy Martin Cognac 1738 Accord Royale(because mushroom soda is already so absurd)

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