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Who: Steph, Evelyn, & I
Where: Scoops Westside in West Los Angeles
When: Thursday at 8:00 pm
The Restaurant: A tiny shop on the corner of Overland & Woodbine, the storefront is pretty hard to find and admittedly a little underwhelming at first. But walking in, you're suddenly transported to the trendy part of Sawtelle, where all the cool kids hang out. Light green walls, wood benches along one side, a table for group conversation in the front, a squishy couch next to small barstools towards the back, a colorful mobile hanging from the ceiling, artwork on all the walls... it's pretty awesome.
When we went, there was parking available and only a short wait. They allow you to try small spoonfuls while you're deciding what to get, and their tiny spoons (real, not disposable, which the environmentally friendly side of me appreciates) are adorable. Instead of the traditional cash register, they put your ice cream on a scale (although I don't think they actually weigh it). And there are complimentary copies of Edible Westside on the counter... the foodie and bookworm parts of me were super excited about that.
What I didn't know until I got home and read through the contributors list... Matt Kang, who runs Scoops Westside and was behind the counter that night, is a contributor in the latest issue (Issue 5, Spring 2013). Congratulations, sir! For a thought-provoking take on dining out and social media, check out this post on his food blog, Mattatouille.
The Food: Evelyn was craving their Brown Brown Bread ice cream like no other. And since I'd never tried it before, I thought I'd give it a go. For my second flavor, I was torn between Vanilla Green Tea and Salty Caramel, but ultimately decided on the former.
You know how we know we're friends? Of all the amazing flavors available that night... Evelyn ended up getting the same combination as I did and Steph went with solo Vanilla Green Tea. Great minds think alike, I guess? That's why I didn't bother to aim my camera at their choices-- all three cups looked exactly alike.
We had our pick of tiny traditional white plastic spoons... or these awesome neon square utentils that were too cool to pass up. You can guess which ones we got!
The ice cream itself was amazing. The Vanilla Green Tea was sufficiently tea-esque (which isn't a word, but it explains things well) and the vanilla mellowed out the bite of the matcha juuust enough so it was perfect. I'm not normally one for green tea flavored things since it can go wrong pretty easily, but this was really good. Evelyn's recommendation of the Brown Brown Bread was spot-on. It's sweet with a little bit of crunch and I pass on that recommendation to try it when you visit.
When we went, there was parking available and only a short wait. They allow you to try small spoonfuls while you're deciding what to get, and their tiny spoons (real, not disposable, which the environmentally friendly side of me appreciates) are adorable. Instead of the traditional cash register, they put your ice cream on a scale (although I don't think they actually weigh it). And there are complimentary copies of Edible Westside on the counter... the foodie and bookworm parts of me were super excited about that.
What I didn't know until I got home and read through the contributors list... Matt Kang, who runs Scoops Westside and was behind the counter that night, is a contributor in the latest issue (Issue 5, Spring 2013). Congratulations, sir! For a thought-provoking take on dining out and social media, check out this post on his food blog, Mattatouille.
The Food: Evelyn was craving their Brown Brown Bread ice cream like no other. And since I'd never tried it before, I thought I'd give it a go. For my second flavor, I was torn between Vanilla Green Tea and Salty Caramel, but ultimately decided on the former.
You know how we know we're friends? Of all the amazing flavors available that night... Evelyn ended up getting the same combination as I did and Steph went with solo Vanilla Green Tea. Great minds think alike, I guess? That's why I didn't bother to aim my camera at their choices-- all three cups looked exactly alike.
We had our pick of tiny traditional white plastic spoons... or these awesome neon square utentils that were too cool to pass up. You can guess which ones we got!
The ice cream itself was amazing. The Vanilla Green Tea was sufficiently tea-esque (which isn't a word, but it explains things well) and the vanilla mellowed out the bite of the matcha juuust enough so it was perfect. I'm not normally one for green tea flavored things since it can go wrong pretty easily, but this was really good. Evelyn's recommendation of the Brown Brown Bread was spot-on. It's sweet with a little bit of crunch and I pass on that recommendation to try it when you visit.
The Conversation: Reminiscing. Mmm... we'd just come from dinner and wandering around Westwood, so we'd already been talking for several hours. I think we discussed whether it felt weird if a boy called you pretty, previous Spring Banquets, how interesting it would be to turn Banquet into a Sadie Hawkins (kidding! well, it was discussed, but we were just kidding!), how one really doesn't need a large portion of this ice cream cause it's so flavorful and rich... and probably a bunch of other stuff I don't remember now. I love these girls.
+ The photo of Steph and Evelyn up there? You can thank my excellent timing that you aren't staring at the awkward, scary face of Steph cause the girl had been making faces at me a moment before. *shakes head*
+ There were a lot of wild lane changes to and from Scoops since Evelyn was supposed to be giving directions from the backseat, but kept zoning out on the job.
+ "I think I'm gonna take a shower as soon as we get back, cause I don't wanna have to use the... the... the wind-machine thingy..." "The hair dryer?" "YESTHAT." -- this is what happens when we get tired.
+ Evelyn pointed out how interesting it was that no one's parents blinked an eye when it came to senior trip this Easter Break. All those years of implied or explicit forbidding of spending the night in the same room/home/area as the opposite gender and no one's parents expressed concern that our entire senior class is spending four days, three nights in a mountain cabin in the woods? I guess we ARE old now. Huh.
+ When I googled Scoops to find their website for this post, I accidentally hit 'Images' and according to pictures from way back when, the prices used to be fifty cents higher. Interesting to note.
+ If you want a bit more background/inside scoop {ha!} on the place, check out the thoughts of the Gastronomer that date back to 2011 or a slightly more updated take from Tiny Urban Kitchen a la 2012.
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Note: Faces are blurred up there because I realized after that I didn't ask permission to photograph inside the shop and felt awkward posting full-frontal face pics of people when they weren't forewarned. Especially when they're looking confusedly into the camera... and it's not the most attractive? Sorry, Scoops! These made me realize that I should just ask beforehand if I can take pictures so we don't have these issues in the future. Lesson learned!
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