Cleveland Jeni's

Jeni's, the ice cream boutique based in Columbus popular for creative seasonal flavors and locally sourced ingredients, has a store in Northeast Ohio. With a couple of detours, it took less than an hour to drive to Chagrin Falls; shorter than the 2-1/2 hour drive to Columbus. Like the Short North location, the store is in a skinny long space and brightly lit with clean lines.

Bug ordered their Chocomole, a sensory playground gone haywire - in a good way. Queen City cayenne ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream, a sprinkle of crunchy cinnamon sugar, peanuts, a salty-sweet chocolate disc with crunchy crushed Fritos, a waffle cone wedge, and a luscious cherry covered in chocolate.

Chocomole

After several spoonfuls of the ice cream, one cannot ignore the delightful peppery tingle folded into the rich Mexican spiced chocolate. According to Jeni's website, this flavor was originally called Mexican chocolate until it was renamed Queen City, a nod to nearby Cincinnati's chili, with its Greek flair (allspice, cinnamon, cloves).

I ordered a scoop of juniper lemon and a scoop of sweet corn with blackberries. The herbal, almost pine-like, clean flavor of juniper leaped out from the more subtle lemon. Sweet corn augmented the very berry blackberries by providing a rounded sweetness.

Juniper lemon and sweet corn with blackberries

We are very pleased that Jeni's is finally in the area. However, I am still torturing myself over the one that got away - the earl grey ice cream sandwich that I saw while we were at their Short North store in Columbus. (Obviously, I checked and didn't find it during this trip.)

- Cassaendra

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
67 North Main St
Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
Tel: (440) 247-2064