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Could this weekend have been it- the last beautiful weekend in Seattle? I certainly hope not, the weather has been amazing and as a Colorado-by-way-of-California transplant, I'm grateful to have gotten so much sun since we moved! Since we'd heard great things about the Capitol Hill neighborhood, we decided to go explore the area. It was a gorgeous day; the Sunday farmer's market was in full swing and we stopped by some fun neighborhood hangouts. We wandered through some furniture stores, visited Elliott Bay books and tried some beer at Elysian Brewing Company (I'm sad to report that we tried the seasonal sampler and didn't find any beers that we liked- I'm hoping that maybe I'll like their regular beers better?). But, as usual, our primary mission: to sample the neighborhood ice cream shop.
With its high yelp ratings, it was clear that Bluebird Microcreamery and Brewery was our best bet. Bluebird completely fits in with the hipster vibe of the neighborhood, featuring some funky flavors alongside the classics, as well as a handlebar mustachioed server and a weed trade magazine. We were the only people there on the Sunday afternoon when we visited (to be honest, I was shocked by how empty the whole area felt- I'm used to the Castro in SF, which becomes an absolute disaster zone on a nice Sunday afternoon). Since business was slow, we didn't feel bad about sampling a selection of flavors.
Bluebird has a nice mix of classics, like Theo chocolate, vanilla and peanut butter, in addition to some more original flavors like chocolate pudding, peanut butter and jelly and marionberry. They've also thrown their take on salted caramel into the mix. Like Molly Moon's salted caramel, this one was way, way over the top with the salt. To be honest, I hated it; while it was salty and sweet, I felt like the saltiness was absolutely overpowering and made the ice cream almost inedible. I had much better luck with the more traditional flavors I tried; the chocolate pudding was delicious, preserving the very particular taste of pudding (where does that come from?!), while still being rich and complex. The peanut butter ice cream was slightly chalky, but nicely nutty; paired in a split scoop with the chocolate pudding, I got a delicious peanut-butter cup-like concoction. Forrest went for the marionberry and salted caramel; the marionberry was fresh and fruity, but ice crystals made it lack the creaminess of some of the other flavors.
Overall, we really liked Bluebird- I thought that the flavors were interesting and well-executed and the ice cream was creamy, rich and smooth. I'll definitely make another visit! One other consideration- the portions are very generous at Bluebird (they serve the ice cream in a tall cup, rather than a more traditional ice cream bowl), so it'd be easy to split if you wanted to spend a little less.
Very excitingly, there's also a Bluebird in Fremont that I'm looking forward to checking out in the near future. :) Our final numerical ratings:
Texture - 8
Flavors - 8
Cone - n/a
Execution - 7
Taste - 7
Ambiance/service/etc - 9
39/50
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