frothy pink goodies (and ice cream, too!)
Last night, there was a meeting of the minds in my neck of the woods. Well, okay, it was in San Francisco, but that’s close enough. (It was the city I claimed up till about ten years ago when suddenly people had heard of Napa.) If you came with me to New York City a few months ago, you might remember the epic Monday Sundaes Dafna and I had in the Village thanks to Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. Shortly after, I started following them on Twitter just for fun.
I’d also been looking for crazy ice cream shops on the West coast too, since they’d be much more realistic than NYC. I found Scoops in LA, known for crazy flavor concoctions like Goat Cheese Lavender, and finally…I discovered Humphry Slocombe, right here in the Bay Area. After reading their reviews on Yelp (and getting a good idea of what to expect from their ever-changing menu), I was ready to go! Though several trips to the city had come and gone, somehow I hadn’t yet crossed the threshold. Until yesterday.
Thanks to Twitter, I was able to find out a few weeks ago that the Big Gay Ice Cream boys were headed our way, only to be welcomed with open arms (and a giant rainbow balloon arch:)
by our very own Humphry Slocombe.
Making things even more fun, they were joined by Glinda the Good Witch from SF’s Beach Blanket Babylon,
Jane Wiedlin of the GoGos,
(who recently wrote a Big Gay Ice Cream theme song, available on iTunes), and several gorgeous drag queens – what else?
To commemorate the soiree, the joint forces created a sundae specifically for the evening: The Tranny Smackdown, consisting of pink strawberry ice cream, shortcake, dark chocolate sauce (“smeared mascara”), Amarena cherries (“smeared lipstick”), and a rainbow supplied by Trix cereal on top. Though it sounds delicious, I’m not going to pretend I passed up the chance to sample the crazy flavors of HS just because BGIC was in town. But, it certainly looked delicious!
After braving the line (which I understand to be a regular Sunday evening occurrence), we were immediately charmed by the simple yet quirky decor:
and the sunny dispositions of the boys behind the counter (who were more than happy to let us sample a flavor or four before ordering).
Our final selections?
Honey Thyme, Candied Ginger, and Brown Butter,
and Honey Thyme with Secret Breakfast (cornflakes and bourbon – delicious!) Now, I know they don’t look like much, but I kind of prefer that. I’m not all about what it looks like, so long as it’s tasty – and it was. We also tried the Salt & Pepper, but for my money, the salt to pepper ratio was just a little too high. Next time I’ll get there before they sell out of Chocolate Smoked Salt. All in all, it was a quick trip but well worth the traffic we had to suffer through just to get there. It was great to see BGICT in the city, even just briefly, and I’m equally thrilled to have found Humphry Slocombe! 
a glittering orb of gayness
This morning I woke up in Portland from a deep sleep. (Which, after sleeping fitfully the night before due to my still-sore, recently-tattooed arm, was a blissful feeling.) As I type this, I’m now back home in my room in Napa. It was a long fun day. Different fun from yesterday’s full day of Portland-ish good times (as in “outlandish,” since you can’t hear which syllable I’m emphasizing when I type), but a blast nonetheless.
Unbelievably, Jen and I managed to get up, packed, and out of her parents house before 11 am. Our first stop was Voodoo Doughnut Too so I could bring goodies back to work with me
(well, and because neither of us had been to this awesome pink location,
and didn’t feel we needed much of an excuse to snack on the deliciousness that put bacon-maple bars on the map). Aside from the voodoo dolls and bacon-maple bars I promised to bring back with me (unfortunately, I couldn’t buy a dozen because they only do that if you call at least 24 hours in advance to place orders for those: their two most popular), I personally couldn’t decide between the Mango Tango I loved so much on my last visit, and the No Name,
a chocolate doughnut with rice krispies (they were stale, but to be honest, you won’t care much if this happens to you) and peanut butter. This location is awesome; Jen and I both preferred it to the original because it’s a lot more spacious, has a big funky patio,
and crazy little brightly-colored “VD” trailers all over its lot:
Oh, and I think we each considered buying the “I got VD in Portland” bumper sticker, though neither of us actually left with it.
Before leaving Portland we grabbed some actual sustenance at a decent Thai place (used to be Jen’s fave place with her fave dish, but the ownership and name have both changed, so the dish is just a shell of its former self…still, not bad) and chai at Starbucks before rolling out of town around 2pm. As we got back into the car I noticed this sign for a cute thrift shop:
It brought a smile to my face. Not long after we’d settled into our 10ish hour drive, we ran across this awesome RV:
The “no sniveling” made us both laugh, and we’re both Harry Potter geeks, so I was sure it reminded her of Severus “Snivelly” Snape, too. Turns out, she thought it was funny because her stepdad often tells them not to “snivel.” Nice.
The rest of the day and drive went fairly uneventfully, with Jen and I taking turns playing our favorite music for each other. Somewhere around the last few hours our Queen-fest led our conversation to Adam Lambert (via the rumor that the band had asked him to be their front man), and I mentioned how cute I thought it was that my mom had asked me if I thought he was gay (before he came out, of course). Jen thought that was hilarious and adorable, declaring him a “glittering orb of gayness!” to which I added, “that can be seen from space!” The studio versions of my favorite of Adam’s covers (“Mad World” in particular) led us to play our favorite cover tracks for each other for the rest of the drive. She’s left a trail of YouTube videos of a few she didn’t have with her on my Facebook profile, and I can’t wait to check them out. In the meantime, however, reality beckons…I have to work all day tomorrow (lunch and dinner). Boo. That means it’s time to publish this post, wrap up this episode of Dexter, and get my butt to bed. Goodnight, and thanks for sharing the trip with me!
who needs shampoo when you have david bowie?
What. A. Day!
Seriously, though, today was like a marathon of fun times. We didn’t get a move on out of Jen’s parents’ house until close to 1, so our first stop was coffee and a quick bite on our way to the few areas of the city we didn’t have time for yesterday. We had heard that there was a zeppelin around town today, and were excited that we could see it from the freeway. After a bit of debating whether it was a blimp or the zeppelin we were looking for, we realized it was no blimp (you should’ve seen the thing turn around lightning quick!)
Our day led us to my fave, Farm, where my twinges of guilt for not trying somewhere new were overshadowed by my love of their food. Alas, life won when we realized they only serve dinner. Instead, Jen took me to the Hawthorne neighborhood (which is now the fantasy neighborhood for both of us) and we popped into Bread and Ink Cafe for happy hour.
$5 cocktails certainly made me happy,
even with this ridiculous truck parked just outside the door:
Aside from yummy salads I don’t need to detail for you, the gnocchi
and the black bean cakes
were both delicious!
Once our bellies were full, we wandered through a few of the cool shops on Hawthorne. The first, a vintage thrift store where we insisted on trying on silly things:
It’s also where I discovered these
great “cholo” socks I wanted to buy for a guy I know who happens to love this style and love when people smile. (I resisted.)
We decided it was time for a quick sugar high, and couldn’t pass up a chance for a scoop of the best ice cream we know:
(Told you we had fun today!) We had to eat quickly because it was melting, and then wandered into a few more cool little shops where we found fun kitschy stuff I’ve never seen before. (For example, the plastic plate you can press into your toast in the shape of the virgin Mary, appropriately – or inappropriately? – named “Holy Toast…) It always makes me happy to find pieces from my old friends at Jedidiah anywhere, but you can’t believe how excited I get when I see it outside of California:
At this point, we had an “appointment” we were nearly running late for, so we headed across the street to McMenamin’s Bagdad Theater for the 6:00 showing of Labyrinth
You can’t even begin to imagine how excited I was to see this movie on the big screen, for several reasons. First, Jen has told me great things about McMenamin’s, and I was dying to see for myself. Second, I love any place where I can have a beer/glass of wine/cocktail and take in into the movie with me. Also, and perhaps (hopefully!) most obvious, the movie is freaking fantastic and as such, I’ve had a massive crush on Mr. Bowie since I was a little girl. Yup…I even like his teeth and this crazy wig/costume he wears:
The movie was better than I’ve ever seen it before (so much fun in a theatre full of others who love it), the beer (a pint of Ruby for each of us) was great, the whole experience was top notch. I already can’t wait to go back! If I lived here, I’d be headed there again on Friday when they’re showing Dirty Dancing…
As we headed to RingSide to meet Jen’s friend (who works there as a bartender), we were both in the mood for a little Best of Bowie
where Josh soon met us for a quick drink. Best cocktail they were serving? The “Laura Palmer,” a sweet tea vodka-based drink made with lemonade: sweet and clever; I like it! Oh, and not to be missed: the gorgeous and sexy velvet wallpaper:
As we were driving home to crash after a long fun day, we were discussing relationships. One of us is stressed about a current situation. I decided to turn Best of Bowie back on, prompting Jen to comment, “oh, I forgot all about this! What better way to wash a boy right out of your hair?” Truer words were never spoken, my friend.
(My apologies for the poor quality of my photos of this trip, at least so far. Two days straight I’ve forgotten my camera at the house and had to rely solely on that of my iPhone 3GS…it’s so-so at best, so that I’ve gotten anything decent is a miracle!)
