FoCo Joe at Home: Smitten
Full disclosure — we killed two solid hours in the neighborhood. Hayes Valley is nice! We first went to San Francisco’s flagship Warby Parker store, where we both enjoyed shopping for some sleek new frames. Then we went into an interior design store briefly — for my mom’s amusement. We passed a cute-looking macaroon shop, but I won’t devote this column to those macaroons as the small bites we tried left something to be desired. Thankfully our stomachs both had enough will power to stay the course. Onward to Smitten!
The last time I went to Smitten was my senior year of high school, during the store’s early days. Smitten rapidly and justifiably garnered a lot of buzz, not only for its killer ice creams but probably more so for its Brrr(TM) machines, which use liquid nitrogen to chill the ice cream at exceptionally low temperatures. The store — a repurposed shipping container with tarp walls — is symbolic of the “old-fashioned made new” theme. My mom and I were blown away by our strawberry balsamic ice cream. The light, almost whipped texture felt like a far cry from the creamy, rich sweetness of traditional strawberry ice cream. The balsamic flavor was there, but barely. It was a strawberry show, hands down, and we weren’t complaining. The treat was a sweet ending to what turned out to be a very pleasant mother-son outing, despite the city’s rolling and unrelenting weekend fog.
Wishing everyone a fun and safe Green Key!