Curbside Creamery (Oakland, CA)

CURBSIDE CREAMERY (Oakland, CA) – What better way to commemorate Father’s Day than with ice cream? Growing up, my dad would often take my sister and I out to ice cream, especially when we would spend the day with him at work in Berkeley. While I’ve gotten more adventurous in my flavors, he’s stuck by his mainstays, but I’m sure he would enjoy Curbside Creamery if I took him.

Curbside Creamery is located in this little alley in North Oakland called Temescal Alley. It’s literally at the edge of a residential neighborhood and 49th street, so it’s a little hard to miss. Both times I’ve come here, I’ve had to go around a couple of times before I found parking, so keep that in mind if you’re coming to the area. However, the Alley is full of a bunch of cute, hipster shops including a barber shop, a succulent plant shop, art galleries, and more. It’s such a cute little area unto its own, I feel like I’m not even in the East Bay anymore.

Curbside Creamery has a bunch of rotating flavors, including a bunch of vegan flavors that use cashews or coconut as its base. You’re more than welcome to sample any of the flavors before deciding on the scoop you want. There a bunch of classics like Mint Chip (which is vegan) to more complex flavors like Bourbon whiskey Vanilla and Thai Iced tea. There are also ice cream sandwiches with cookies made in-house. The flavors rotate regularly, and they have a dairy and a vegan soft serve flavor that changes weekly.

I, of course, during my first visit ordered the Salted Caramel. I tried the Thai iced tea during my sampling session, and it tasted very authentic due to its coconut base. However, I’m not sure I could handle eating a whole scoop of it, so I stuck to a modern classic instead. Their ice cream is fantastic. It’s light and creamy, and I’m glad that the salt doesn’t overpower caramel. It was a perfect balance of salt and sweet.

My friend ordered the cookies and cream, which I had to try, and it was also delicious. It had generous pieces of chocolate and cookie mixed into the cream. During another visit, I also tried the Bicycle Co. coffee flavor, a local coffee company in Oakland, that offers sustainable coffee and delivered on – you guessed it – bicycles. No surprise, that was another winner. I’ve had coffee flavors where it’s too strong and it just feels like I’m having frozen coffee instead of ice cream that is flavored like it. Luckily, Curbside’s is not like that at all.

I can’t wait to bring more people to this little alleyway so that they can explore all of the magical little shops and discover the awesomeness of Curbside Creamery!