When all else fails, get in your car or on the train (or walk, if you are lucky enough to live nearby) to the Brooklyn Farmacy for some old school ice cream fountain goodness.
Summer is here big time. My brain is already wilting with the heat and the haze and the unplannedness of it all. But I am doing my damndest just to slow down and enjoy it, rather than fight through these absolutely-no-time-to-myself days.
I have decided that it’s ok to let my kid watch a movie a day if that is the only time I have to get anything done for myself. It’s also ok to let bedtime slip back to 9:45 (or 10:30 as was the case last night) if that means she sleeps in till 9 am. It’s like living in Spain without having to travel.
And above all, it’s ok to have ice cream for lunch… it just is. Especially if you make an adventure out of it and head over to Carroll Gardens (What?? Leave Williamsburg?) to the stupendous old fashioned perfection of a soda fountain called the Brooklyn Farmacy. So named for it’s location in a former pharmacy and decorated with all sorts of ephemera from said establishment, this place is an egg cream lover’s dream. And a mac & cheese lover’s, and and ice cream sundae lover’s and a grilled sandwich lover’s… In fact there is something for just about everyone here. Check out their current menu– it changes seasonally– if you need more evidence.
Located in a former pharmacy, the place feels more like a genuine old neighborhood spot than the Disney-esque tourist traps that seem to be sprouting up like weeds all over Brooklyn these days.
We started a recent visit off with a mountain of their mac and cheese, steaming hot with the most perfect crust on the top. Plenty for the three of us to share and then feel less guilty about the main course… the star attraction… the ice cream.
I stayed super traditional and went for the homemade vanilla with chocolate cookie ice cream sandwich, though they (of course) have all sorts of other combinations to choose from. It is one of my all time favorite forms in which to ingest ice cream and I will almost always order one if the opportunity arises. (And if you’re really feeling ambitious, here’s how to make your own!)
Josh had a good old straight up chocolate egg cream, that was ingested too quickly for me to photograph.
But the piece de resistance, and leave it to my daughter to order it up, was the divine Pink Poodle, an ice cream float made from their homemade hibiscus soda topped with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.
By the time we left the place, it was as if nothing bad had ever happened to us ever and we lived in a universe filled with sunshine, sweetness and light.
And who doesn’t want to feel like that?
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