Ice Cream and Krispy Kreme
:: Some months ago, a story appeared in The Edmonton Journal, stating that a Krispy Kreme store would be opening in Edmonton later this summer. Summer is over, and in the location in South Edmonton Common where the Krispy Kreme store was to be built, or so we were led to believe, yet another Tim Hortons store is under construction. When complete, I think it will bring the number of Tim Hortons doughnut shops in Edmonton to 1,233. Certainly there are more important things in life, yes, and I know I don’t need to eat more doughnuts, but having tasted Krispy Kreme products in NYC and Spokane, well, they blow Tim H out of the water. Just my opinion. And Calgary has the only store in Alberta.
A few weeks ago while at SEC, I noticed a number of cars parked around a small storefront with the name, Marble Slab Creamery. Intrigued, I drove across the parking lot to discover an amazing ice cream shop. I ordered a waffle cone with strawberry ice cream, mixed in with real strawberries. When you buy ice cream, it is put on a frozen marble slab, and you can choose from a number of “mixins” to be added to your flavour. The ice cream is made in the store, as are the cones. The business began in Houston TX in October 1983. There are two stores in Edmonton, one in Calgary. What’s intriguing to me is that South Edmonton Common is not an area designed for walking traffic, being nowhere near any homes or apartments. When complete, it will have 2.3 million square feet of gross leasable area on buildout. To get to Marble Slab at SEC, you need transportation. Yet the two times I’ve been there, it’s been busy. So the word must be spreading about this place. I wonder how it will do when winter arrives?
It’s getting harder to deal with my sweet tooth. Marble Slab doesn’t serve my favorite ice cream, butterscoth, but you can choose vanilla and have the staff mix in ingredients to create different flavours. Tonight I had a strawberry milkshake – loved it, and probably absorbed way too many carbs. But life is short.
September 27th, 2004 at 05:49
Good morning Randy: Just read the article about the ice cream parlour. Sounds fantastic. Why not try having the frozen yogurt. You may find you really like it. Less calories. My favorite flavour is maple walnut and I noticed they only had black walnut. Never heard of that one before. I fortunately don’t have a sweet tooth, but when I do on occasion have an ice cream cone, mw is my favorite. Have a great day.
Mom
September 27th, 2004 at 08:34
I had heard that the Krispy Kreme people were not doing so well, something to do with the Atkins diet craze. When a guy at work told me that the Krispy Kreme in the Mall of America was doing poorly I knew it was probably true. His son has friend working there. I only bought them occasionally – at my birthday last year when it was my time to bring the treat. You can also buy their donuts at Target’s, and a few other stores in the area, but you can not get them so fresh unless you stop into the store. And they really are best fresh. They don’t keep well. I still would rather have a cake donut than a glased raised.
After I had them a few times I wasn’t quite as impressed as i was then they were something rare. Doritos were exotic back in the 70’s when we used to go to the states and they were not available in Canada. now that I can get them anytime, I rarely eat them.
Chris Rock does a bit on his new DVD Never Scarred about Krispy Kremes. He said people would not be surprised if he told them that there was crack in those donuts…”I knew something was in there…they were just too good.” People showing up in the middle of the night to buy donuts…”open up, give me some damn donuts.” I also like his observation about 24 hours ATM’s and the drug culture…”who needs $300 in the middle of the night anyway? Why aren’t you in bed?” I don’t do him justice. This is a DVD of his last HBO special…it’s pretty good. I think I still like his 2nd and 3rd shows better but I have not listened to this one as much. Bigger and Blacker and Bring the Pain are both on DVD and great, there is a reason Rock is called the funniest man in america right now. He’s funny and occasionally he’s truely brilliant.
My brother said that they precook the Tim Horton’s donuts and finish them at the stores. That does not sound good to me. I don’t eat many donuts, I have a large enough group of fattening things to eat as it is and really I can’t find that many good donuts here. There used to be this bakery called the MeloGlaze and they had a great 25 cent raised donut. It was light and fluffy. Then one summer they closed for a few weeks and when they reopened they changed the donut somehow. Later they raised the price and I quite going. The same people also moved the donut shop into the back of the store where they make the donuts and in the front they opened a dog bakery. Really, a bakery that has coffee and snacks for people and their dogs. Needless the say it failed and they are attempting to put something else in there.
That’s the story of my life, when it comes to food, as soon as I find something good to eat, someone stops making it or they close the resturant.
When we were in Winnipeg I have some really good ice cream at a little store near my mothers, Tiger Tail, which had some black licorice and orange ice cream swirled together. Yummy. There is a place in St Paul that puts the fixin’s into the icecream, but really it’s not much differeent than Dairy Queen doing a flurry or what ever they call the cup of softserve with bits of broken candy in it. Great for the candy manufactures, a place to sell broken and messed up candy bars.
September 27th, 2004 at 10:41
RE: Marble Slab
I am going to stay away from which is better, but another ice cream shop with the same idea is Cold Stone Creamery. So if you see one of those, the idea is the same
September 27th, 2004 at 23:06
Thanks for the comments. I e-mailed Krispy Kreme to ask about the Edmonton store opening. This is the response I received yesterday:
“Thank you for your email regarding new Krispy Kreme store openings. We appreciate the time you took to share your feedback.
I am glad to inform you that there will be a new store opening in Edmonton, Alberta. Unfortunately at this time, location and openings date commitments
have not been finalized.
So that we can continue to accommodate loyal customers like you, we are working hard to expand throughout the United States and Canada.”
Etc. So, stay tuned! And Garth, you’re right about the Tim Hortons doughnuts – they are partially baked, shipped out across the country, and baked again, or something like that. Yuck.
September 29th, 2004 at 23:19
Cold Stone is better, I hear. And that Marble Slab is very busy due to it’s proximity to the movie theatre. And hungry Home Depot employees 🙂
May 15th, 2005 at 20:52
Knowing a manager of tim hortons i can say that NO they do not half bake anything. every donut is made fresh in store. during the night!!
May 29th, 2006 at 15:42
I heard Tim’s donuts are baked, then frozen, then shipped and subsequently thawed out at the individual stores to be served. What ever happened to the good boxes instead of the dumb flat boxes they have now?