Food & Drink

Reminder: Get your free cone of overrated ice cream Tuesday

An actual line for free cone day in NYC, via Guest of a Guest.

Ben & Jerry’s is doing their annual free cone day thing Tuesday, which means you can line up and get a single scoop of mediocre ice cream for free. Far be it for us to discourage you from taking a free handout, and I probably won’t make a lot of friends by saying this, but I think Ben & Jerry’s is terribly overrated, and you should seriously consider if it’s worth the time out of your day tomorrow. The main problem with Ben & Jerry’s is that it has no regard to taste of the ice cream: their big trick is just to cram a bunch of chunks of crap in there (chocolate cows, cinnamon rolls or, very unfortunately, fortune cookies) and pass it off as a new “flavor,” which to me makes it The Huffington Post of frozen desserts. Underneath all the bells and whistles of fancy branding, the ice cream itself is pretty bland.

Not to mention the whole company reeks of that faux-hippie chic thing that causes all those college kids to buy $100 Birkenstocks and $2,000 speakers out of which to blast Dispatch. I dare say any of these local ice cream shops offer you a better-tasting scoop for your skrill. BJs doesn’t have a shop in this part of Brooklyn, so your closest options are Rockefeller Center and Herald Square.</rant>

11 Comments

  1. ….never mind, too, that Ben & Jerry’s indie image is a complete canard. The company was sold years ago and is now owned by Unilever, the largest food conglomerate on the planet, and wages, employee insurance, and the community consciousness of the operation have all taken huge hits. By all means, grab a free cone, and thanks B&J, but for real local flavor, consider scooping elsewhere.

  2. adamcolon

    Ben and Jerry’s is not about pure single flavor ice cream. It’s a fusion of different flavors and textures that come together to produce a unique culinary experience.

    To compare B&J to single flavor local hand made ice cream shops is totally missing the point.

  3. Jonathan Cribbs

    This is, yet again, another situation in which Tim Donnelly misses the forest for the trees, and in doing so, ends up calling me like the walking tragedy that he is with his cell phone from a canyon somewhere, saying the forest I told him about isn’t anywhere to be found. The trees, Donnelly! The trees, goddamnit. Return to the trees. Of course the ice cream lacks a little drama. It’s because they wanna jam all that stuff in there. You can’t have all that tasty crap jammed in there AND have great ice cream! The flavors would clash too much. In Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream is as much a foundation as it is the point. They’re not interested in scoring most of their points with the ice cream because they know they’re gonna drop face on you with all those dang toppings. This is about harmony, Donnelly. Artistic balance. You want ice cream that tastes brilliant by itself? Go find a goddamned gelato cart. But until people know you by your product and your first name (“Hey, it’s Tim from Tim’s 19th Century Gelato Cart! I go there when I’m having a Communistic, seeing red I-hate-toppings kind of day!”) lay off Ben & Jerry.

  4. I am remembering when I wanted to become the food critic for the dbk and no one would let me because I was vegetarian. Then paul vivari started his movie reviews without seeing the movie. Now this!! You know what I mean.

  5. discoprincess

    Years ago there was a B&J on Atlantic Avenue a few doors down from Sahadi’s. I was surprised when it closed down.

    There was another one within walking distance of where I work in Manhattan, but that one close down too.

    I didn’t feel like schlepping all the way to Herald Square; pass.

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