There is a war happening in this town. An ice cream war.
San Francisco residents have been debating their favorite local creamery for years, and for those who are looking for a bit of excitement, Humphry Slocombe tends to top their list. Sitting deep in the mission, this tiny ice cream shop can draw a pretty substantial crowd when the weather is nice, so be prepared to wait.
Left: Secret Breakfast, Right: Store window
With flavors like Salt and Pepper and Jesus Juice (red wine and coca cola), Humphry Slocombe continues to experiment with strange ingredients to surprise and excite customers. My personal favorite is Secret Breakfast, which is a bourbon flavored ice cream with corn flake pieces in it. The flavor is amazingly deep for ice cream and has a nice texture with the added corn flakes. In addition to their many unique flavors, Humphry Slocombe is also well known for the richness and decadence of the ice cream itself. They use a luscious mix of local heavy cream and eggs which gives the ice cream the same dense quality of premium gelato.
I tend to be more of an ice cream traditionalist, but I do frequent Humphry Slocombe out of sheer curiosity for the flavors they will be offering that day. They do some pretty daring things as far as ice cream goes, and I’d never turn down a chance to sample a sweet frozen dessert with ingredients like foie gras or candied jalapeno.
You know, despite loving fancy ice cream I’ve never ventured out to Humphry Slocombe (though I’ve had their ice cream a few times – Delessio Market actually stocks 8 or so rotating flavors and that’s right around the corner from me). Did you know their cookbook is coming out pretty soon, and Bi-Rite Creamery’s comes out today!? Sadly, despite having owned an ice cream machine for almost a year I’ve only made sorbet so far (limoncello mint, AMAZING). Clearly some ice-cream making is in order! Unfortunately, Andrew and I temporarily lost our minds and decided to go on a juice cleanse starting this morning, so maybe the ice cream binge will have to wait.
YES! I’m pretty excited about the Bi-Rite ice cream book– I don’t have an ice cream maker either but we should definitely plan to make use of yours when your done w/ the cleanse! Bi-Rite has an amazing flavor called Ricanelas that I’m pretty obsessed with….
Their flavors (and ice cream names) are so fun. They make ice cream an adventure!
It’s definitely an adventure! I taste and taste all the unique flavors but I typically settle on something more traditional.
Secret Breakfast is one of my favorites too, but HS is a bit out of the way for me to go on a regular basis. Wait, that’s probably a good thing.
Then again, I’m close to Scream Sorbet, and Lush Gelato. And just this weekend I was at Berkeley’s Cream, which had a great matcha green tea! I also like to visit Ici and Bi-Rite. I still have to go to Mitchell’s before I can declare a true winner! 
HAHA! Don’t forget Three Twins too!!! They’re definitely one of my favorites along with Straus Creamery.
You’re right, I forgot about Three Twins. I do like them, but it’s harder for me to find their ice cream after their Fillmore/Haight location closed because of a fire. Wonder when it’ll open again?