I never need an excuse to eat ice cream but incentive is never a bad thing. So, here is an incentive to head to Humphry Slocombe on Abbot Kinney in Venice….Ice Cream Happy Hour! What more do you need to know other than every Wednesday, between 2pm and 6pm, if you purchase a single scoop, your friend will get a free scoop. Well, perhaps you want to know what you will find at Humphry Slocombe.
Humphry Slocombe opened their first store in 2008 in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Today there are locations in the Mission District and Oakland and last summer, in August 2019, they opened a location in Venice Beach. The compact space has a bright, casual, inviting feel.
The main wall is lined with shelves with branded items for sales, ranging from coffee mugs, tshirts and the Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book to jars of frosted peanuts, bacon flavored brittle, cornflake crunch, bourbon caramel and classic hot fudge.
When it comes to the ice cream, the flavors are creative and unique. There are the best sellers that can be found most of the time. These include Secret Breakfast (Bourbon ice cream with cornflake cookie), Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee (coffee, chicory root and condensed milk), French Vanilla, Blueberry Boy Bait (blueberry jam ice cream with brown sugar struesel), Dark Chocolate Smoked Sea Salt (78% dark chocolate ice cream with smoked sea salt) and Harvey Milk and Honey (raw blackberry honey ice cream with graham crackers). Other flavors include the vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Sorbet (78% dark chocolate with peanut butter and banana puree), Brown Butter, Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple and Key Lime Plum Sorbet.
With so many esoteric and eccentric flavors, it may seem hard to choose. But, the fun thing about Humphry Slocombe is that they invite you to sample every flavor. There are no limits! And, I did not argue.
I tasted each flavor and in the end, I was enticed by the rich creaminess of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Sorbet and am still so impressed that it is dairy free. I also loved the tartness of the Key Lime Plum Sorbet.
For coffee lovers, the Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee is as pure a coffee flavor as one can find.
Once you pick your flavors, there is a range of toppings, including Bourbon caramel, chocolate covered truffles, frosted peanuts, cornflake crunch, aged balsamic and more. Again, so many decisions to make but I can say that if you like the Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee, try it with hot fudge and maybe add frosted peanuts for a fantastic combination!
Remember that you never need an excuse to eat ice cream. And, with so many interesting flavors, there is always a new flavor to enjoy. But, if it is Wednesday, then you have more incentive to head to Humphry Slocumbe for Ice Cream Happy Hour from 2pm – 6pm.
Humphry Slocombe
1653B Abbot Kinney
Los Angeles, CA.