It didn't seem right to let National Ice Cream Day without an ice cream related post, and in a way, Worthington's Cookie Dough Creamery is the perfect candidate, at least from a historical standpoint.
National Ice Cream Day dates back to 1984, when a Joint Resolution of Congress started the scoop digging on this annually tasty day for both ice cream purveyors and their sweet tooth customers alike. It was also 1984 when ice cream juggernaut Ben & Jerry's took up a customer's suggestion and started serving the combination of their vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough at their scoop shop in Burlington, VT. As they even admit, the combination seemed like a "no-brainer", as millions upon millions of kids (and probably many thousand parents) have sneaked away gobs of cookie dough for tasting from the mixing bowl prior to baking.
I admit to having a obsession with this flavor when the company finally released it in pre-packed pints in the 1990s. At times, I would eat only the vanilla ice cream so I would be left with the hunks of the dough at the end, saving what I thought was the best for last. At the time, I (along with many others, I suspect) probably would've been a sucker for a pint filled with triple or even quadruple the dough chunks.
Well, it's 2016 now, and cookie dough lovers now have places like Cookie Dough Creamery to satisfy their mixing bowl dreams.
Surviving a not-optimal opening date of February, 2016, Cookie Dough Creamery seems to be hitting its stride during the warm months of Central Ohio's summer season; plenty of customers were buzzing around on my initial visit. While the more traditional soft-serve twist in a cone is available, the main concept this creamery offers melds two seemingly disparate concepts from the worlds of frozen yogurt and Mongolian barbecue.
Like their fro-yo cousins, this soft-serve-oriented eatery offers a multitude of frozen confection flavors plus toppings to add to your cup. And like a Mongolian barbecue-style restaurant, Cookie Dough Creamery allows you to fill your cup as high as one dares, but without a weight/volume limit. The pricing here is based on the size of the cup you initially purchase.
The Creamery offers four types of cookie dough in trays, scoops at the ready; they are the first items you encounter after you pay. Of course, I wanted to try them all on my first visit, which led me to discover two things - the dough isn't the most easily scooped material, and it's very easy to get more dough than you expected in your cup.
The latter fact is not so much of an issue, especially if you're a cookie dough fiend. The former fact might be slightly more problematic - your cookie dough ends up in clumps, and if you scoop it in first, it pretty much stays planted at the bottom of your cup (see the picture below.) Again, this probably isn't much of an issue for many, but for me, my experience with those Ben & Jerry's pints made me wish I had it more evenly spread out through my cup. On future visits, I'd try out a layering tactic, putting some soft-serve in the cup first, followed by cookie dough, more soft serve, and so on.
The cookie dough is, not surprisingly, on the sweet side. For me, the peanut butter (just a little hint more of the savory) or the chocolate chip (a bow to tradition) will be my future go-to flavors (sugar cookie and Oreo are also available.)
While the cookie dough may be spotlight attraction (pre-packed containers of their dough are available for takeout, along with cookie dough bon bons), the owners are proud of their use of real soft-serve ice cream base as opposed to ice milk, rotating four year-round flavors with a limited-time special flavor. In another nice touch, Dole brand dairy-free/fat-free soft-serve options are also available.
For me, the vanilla works as a relatively neutral base for everything else, which mirrors my fro-yo strategy of taking a less sweet base to balance out my sweeter add-ins. But then again, this mixing and matching really adds to the fun of a place like Cookie Dough Creamery. Finding your own ultimate nirvana mix of cookie dough + soft-serve ice cream + toppings could be a rather tasty and sweet lifetime quest indeed.
Cookie Dough Creamery
7227 N High St, (Google Maps)
Worthington, OH 43085
(614) 547-0660
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