Want a close in-depth understanding of ice cream AND history? This tour is what you need.
Last week, to celebrate National Ice Cream Day, I gave a walking tour throughout the Mission neighborhood to bring the neighborhood history and the ice cream shops to life. The book, Ice Cream Travel Guide, brings this intention to life for the readers. The reasons that I wrote the book comes from a place where I believe that food is connected to its place. Ice cream, due to its form and process, cannot be (easily) transported. It’s best often fresh from where it’s made. It captures the local ingredients, especially the flavors. Because of the inherent nature of ice cream, as it is throughout America, the idea of having ice cream outdoors on a summer day, we see the neighborhood.
As the ice cream cools down our lips and our bodies, exhaustion decreases. Then we see our surroundings in new light. We see the beauty of the local art. We taste the flavors that captures the local area. We hear the stories from the neighborhood locals where it’s from the local grocer or the resident who sits on her stoop after a long day. We see everything and everyone.
Last week, nearly 20 ice cream lovers showed up for the tour. They included people from San Francisco to New York to China. We walked over 2.2 miles for nearly 4 hours and visited 4 ice cream shops (only a few select ice cream lovers had a full scoop eat each stop). They included Mitchell’s Ice Cream, Smitten Ice Cream, Garden Creamery and Humphry Slocombe. Everybody learned about murals, history of buildings (including the former location of Doggie Diner), earthquake in 1906, and the importance of Mission Street.
And it was amazing. Interested in tours, stayed updated!