Jul 16, 2004  |  By: REBECCA L. WEBE  | COMMENTS     

CLEVELAND PARK WAS missing not only a bookstore and a hardware store, but also an ice cream parlor. When the shiny new Cold Stone Creamery opened up just in front of the Metro stop, I saw it as a major neighborhood improvement.

Not wanting to face the nighttime crowds, I went on a weekday afternoon. A few people lingered over soupy bowls and waffle cones outside on the sidewalk furniture. Inside, only a single customer was ahead of me. By the time she was done, I hadn’t come close to scanning all the information on the walls listing various concoctions.

At first glance, the ice cream flavors themselves look a bit sedate, but this is because they’re intended as a base for “mix-ins.” The purest choice is sweet cream, the base flavor for all ice creams (including vanilla). Other options include coffee, chocolate, mint and banana.

The friendly young men behind the counter asked if I’d been to any Cold Stone Creamery locations before, and when I said I hadn’t, they cut to the chase: Their specialty is mix-ins. You select a base flavor, which they knead with an ice cream spade on, you guessed it, a cold stone slab. Candy, fruit, nuts, or baked goods are cut up and mixed in to the already softened ice cream.

Steve’s Ice Cream in Somerville, Mass., debuted the mix-in concept in the ’70s, which has become an expected option at any homemade ice cream shop in the Boston area. For novices, the mix-ins will be good fun. If you’ve ever thought up a crazy flavor, here’s your chance to try it. A bonus is that the mixing process softens and warms the ice cream enough so that its taste can be fully appreciated.

I ORDERED WHAT I consider a standard mix-in: coffee ice cream with Reese’s peanut butter cups. The peanut butter cups were so few and chopped so fine that when I got my cup, I thought that they hadn’t included them. After reassurances that the mix-in had happened, I ate it, and could discern a faint taste of Reese’s.

But just as chocolate chips shouldn’t be pulverized to the point of being unrecognizable, so too Reese’s cups should be chopped, not minced. A small (in Cold Stone lingo, that’s the “like it” size) includes one mix-in and costs $3.29.

In addition to the expected bananas, M&Ms, and roasted almonds are choices such as cherry pie filling, double white chocolate chips, and yellow cake.

Birthday Cake Remix is one of the most popular Cold Stone originals, with cake batter ice cream with brownies, fudge, and rainbow sprinkles. I substituted maraschino cherries for the sprinkles, a move that won a fair amount of admiration from the staff.

The cake batter flavor will delight those who love licking the spoon after preparing a box of Duncan Hines. But Cold Stone’s ingredients are not all natural, resulting in tastes and texture that are less than optimal. I was disappointed to see that the fudge was thin and clearly not homemade.

At the moment, Cold Stone Creamery appears to be more popular than the nearby Starbucks. It will probably remain so for those who enjoy personalizing the mix-in process or who like the glossy touches — such as servers who break into song when change is dropped in the tip jar.

At $4.79 for a regular Cold Stone Original (they call it the “love it” size), on subsequent nights faced with long lines, my ice cream partner and I have opted for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s from the grocery store across the street.