A week or so ago, I decided to spend my morning in Old Town Alexandria. I began with breakfast at Buzz Bakery on Slater’s Lane. My husband and I have been in love with their cupcakes for almost a year but hadn’t really tried any of their other food or drinks.
When I walked in, the café had more people seated inside than I expected for 9 am on a Sunday morning. Luckily, only a handful of people were mulling their decisions in front of me. I made my request of a large mocha, and two scones: one was a caramelized onion & manchego, while the other contained ham, cheddar & scallions. My mocha was good, but ordinary. The scones, however, were heavenly. Both scones amazed me with their lack of a dry or crumbly texture. The caramelized onions really did taste a little sweet, and the manchego was not overpowering. The ham and cheddar matched well in the other scone, and the scallions accented both flavors. In hindsight, I probably would have enjoyed them even more if I had requested that they be heated. After finishing my breakfast, I left Buzz Bakery for the heart of Old Town.
I found a miraculously close parking space to my next destination, and decided it was an omen. The Spice & Tea Exchange on King Street is easy to miss because they don’t have a street-facing entrance. Rather, the door faces another shop right across the walkway from it. When you walk in, a large waist-high display shows off some of the gift ideas for spices and seasonings. All the spices, salts, herbs, peppers, and teas are in large glass jars on shelves against the wall. Little signs posted everywhere encourage the customers to open the jars to smell the products. I followed the signs and began to smell my way around the store.
One interesting note: this shop also sells flavored sugars, and various powders. You can not only find vanilla or cinnamon sugar, since they also carry habanero, sweet onion, and espresso sugars. Their powder selection is equally diverse, containing wasabi, beer, and pumpkin. A kind young lady, Cory, helped me purchase some of the bulk spices. All in all, I came away with grains of paradise, mesquite powder, cardamom seeds, pink pepperberries, berry bouquet herbal tea, purple sticky rice, and bamboo scented rice. Ask any of the employees if you have questions, as they seem to be very knowledgeable about their products.
On a recommendation from Cory concerning coconut-flavored desserts, I went down a couple blocks and crossed King Street to Pop’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Company. The temperature had been climbing, and I reached the shop shortly before noon.
It was packed with people, inside and out, and about 15 people were waiting to be served. I joined the end of the line and began to examine the menu, which was written in multi-colored chalk. A few flavors had been wiped off the board, and it appeared that coconut was one of them. One of the flavors was called “Cleveland Brownie Sundae” and I was curious to find out what made it different than other brownie sundaes. I also noted that Pop’s offered Brown Cows, as well as Coke Floats. A large Banana Split was advertised as serving four people, with a chalk illustration depicting the decadent dessert.
When my turn finally arrived, I asked the young man behind the counter about the dessert. He smiled and said that the flavor was supposed to taste just like eating a sundae, complete with chunks of brownie. I had a scoop of the aforementioned ice cream and a scoop of the yellow cake flavor. I waited until I was out the door and walking back toward my car before taking a bite. The buttery goodness of the yellow cake ice cream was astounding in its simplicity and tastiness. In contrast, the Cleveland Brownie Sundae flavor seemed like nothing special at all (though that didn’t stop me from eating it). I plan to try more of Pop’s ice creams in the future, but I suspect I’ll always end up getting some of their yellow cake flavor.
-TWK
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