Shirl's Gelato/Old Inn on the Green

The Old Inn on the Green is selling their handmade gelato. The Old Inn, in New Marlborough, is an extremely charming place, recommended to me by the owner of Alta in Lenox as they were closed when I wanted to make a reservation in March. There is no electricity in the dining rooms so it is supremely romantic and evokes the original days of the Inn in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Stopping into the Berkshire Coop to pick up some Berkshire Mountain Bakery projects, I picked up a pint on a wim, and nearly had a stroke when it rang up at $7.99.

It is good gelato - creamy, and the pistacio had more nuts in it than I have ever experience before. But worth $7.99? No. Get a scoop at SoHo Creamery and hope the guy at the counter is having a better day.

Obnoxiousness at SoCo Creamery 10-11-09

SoCo Creamery
5 Railroad Street
Great Barrington, MA
www.sococreamery.com

I wasn't even going to write about this, but the service drove me to it. I stopped into SoCo last Sunday when wandering around Great Barrington, lured by a sign promising pumpkin chip ice cream. I went in and asked the young man at the counter was pumpkin ice cream with chocolate chips and his charming answer was, "What else would it be?"

Now, I realize that perhaps this young man may well be a future world-reknown painter, or could be earning his PhD in astrophysics, but for the time being he has agreed to scoop my ice cream. We have all been tricked by peanut butter cup ice cream that has no Reece's, or that evil phenomenon "cinnamon chip" - muffins, bagels, etc. What are cinnamon chips anyway? Was my question so ridiculous?

Anyway, I proceeded to order my kiddie scoop and enjoy a very delicious pumpkin ice cream, but while eating I was forced to contemplate the lack of civility. Ironic from an ice cream store that features a t-shirt of a Buddha with a scoop of ice cream.