Videoblog: Guinness Ice Cream

On September 19, 2007, in Food and Drink, by peterb

Today I met my friend Kilolo at the newly-opened “Oh Yeah Ice Cream & Coffee,” on Highland Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. While perusing their offerings, I noticed they had something they claimed was “Guinness Ice Cream (Adults Only)”. Skeptical as I always am, I asked for a taste.

And it was good.

I didn’t have a camera. I didn’t have a mic. But I had my MacBook Pro, with its built-in iSight camera. I grabbed it and started recording.


I liked the atmosphere and the approach of the place (even if — sorry fellas — I won’t be mixing hemp fiber into my ice cream for breakfast any time soon). Oh Yeah! is clearly trying to do something a little different. I’ll be curious to see if their marketing push to convince people that ice cream is an awesome breakfast food will pan out. But in the meantime, they’re open from early in the morning until late at night, 7 days a week. They even keep somewhat late Sunday hours, which is almost unheard of in Pittsburgh.

The ice cream, it should be noted, isn’t made there. It comes from several sources, including local ice creamery Dave & Andy’s, as well as an excellent source in Ohio. As the owner began singing the praises to me (part unpasteurized milk, Amish cream) my mind began to wander. How do they make Guinness ice cream? Am I corrupting the innocent Amish who are being forced to handle alcohol? I eventually decided that the likely hypothesis was that the Guinness ice cream was being made only by youths in the midst of their rumspringa, and thus was ethically OK.

In the video, I diss the vegan ice cream (“ku fu”) on general principles, but it wasn’t actually half bad. I just have an idiom to maintain.

This summary of the place, written a day after they opened, is another interesting perspective on Oh Yeah! as well. Give it a read.

 

18 Responses to “Videoblog: Guinness Ice Cream”

  1. Andrew Plotkin says:

    Dude. You get the beer ice cream. And you put chocolate sauce on it.

    If you missed step two, *go back there*.

  2. peterb says:

    The ice cream was served with a dusting of cocoa powder and some flakes of oatmeal. It was a nice presentation.

  3. You can also float ice cream in Guiness or Young’s Double Chocolate Stout.

  4. sarah says:

    Very nice videos! I enjoy learning about alcoholic drinks from you! (and reading reviews of local places). Thanks.

  5. peterb says:

    Thanks, Sarah! I appreciate the comment.

    Apropos of nothing:

    The CEO’s of Budweiser, Coors, Heineken and Guinness were all having lunch together. A waiter approached the table and asked what they would like to drink. The CEO of Budweiser responded: “Make mine a Bud.”. The CEO of Coors stated that he would like a Coors. The CEO of Heineken asked for a Heineken. The CEO of Guinness answered with “Iced tea, please.”

    The CEO of Budweiser turned to the CEO of Guinness and said: “Iced tea?”

    The CEO of Guinness replied: “Well, if none of you are drinking beer, then neither will I.”

  6. You forgot to mention the BEST part of Oh Yeah — They try to sell “healthy” ice cream breakfast dishes. “Healthy,” of course, because they add granola to the ice cream.

  7. peterb says:

    David, I am the king of snark, but I will defend to the death anyone that promotes the idea that a big bowl of ice cream is awesome at any time of day.

  8. Doug says:

    Oh! I haven’t had a Guinness float in ages! You almost make me wish I lived in Pittsburgh!

  9. I like the idea of ice cream for breakfast, but pitching it as “healthy” because it has a bit of granola or avocado in it, is a bit strange, I think.

  10. Doug says:

    What do you mean? Sounds really healthy. Dairy, grains, fruit. Breakfast of champions!

  11. Revence says:

    The ponies. Where are the friggin’ ponies? _Flying_ ponies! X-(

  12. peterb says:

    Oh, the flying ponies are totally on their way. They’re in the same shipping container as the gPhone.

  13. april says:

    Dang, that sounds good. I’m now thinking about buying a pint of the Guinness ice cream and covering it with whisky caramel sauce. I guess it would be like a frozen car bomb, but is that so wrong?

  14. peterb says:

    It is not wrong at all, if you invite me over to have some.

  15. Dudes, this post (actually, crappy software that can’t even generate well-formed XML in 2007) just broke your RSS feed at http://www.tleaves.com/?feed=rdf

    But it seems you’ve now got an ATOM feed at http://www.tleaves.com/?feed=atom so I guess I’ll just subscribe to that…

    Cheers,
    –Jonathan

  16. peterb says:

    I fixed it. I apparently typed the forbidden character “&”, so of course I should have known that I broke the feed, rather than (say) relying on our crappy weblog software to inform me that the feeds it generates don’t validate.

    Madness.

  17. [...] Oh Yeah! Ice Cream – 232 Highland Avenue, Shadyside Although my friends from Tea Leaves and another Pittsburgh blogger, Pittsburgh Needs Eated, have already reviewed Oh Yeah!, once I heard that they serve Guinness ice cream, well, I just had to see this place for myself. [...]

  18. claydog says:

    Chili-heads will love Oh Yeah. I had the butter pecan ice cream with chopped apricots and these crazy-hot and sweet “firenuts” mixed in with habanero pepper powder on top. Freakin’ awesome combo. Hell yeah….I’d do it for breakfast !!