With the exception of the few months I lived in Washington D.C., I have lived my entire life in the Western U.S. where, to the best of my knowledge, there are no Carvel Ice Cream stores. Nearly my entire knowledge of the chain comes from what magazine and net articles I’ve read about it (and its founder, Tom Carvel) and various pop cultural references like the Beastie Boys’ “Cookie Puss” and Patton Oswalt’s comedy routine. So I’m curious about how good Carvel Ice Cream is? How does it compare with, for example, Dairy Queen or Tastee Freeze? Better, worse, or the same–I’d like to know.
I really liked it as a kid. They had ice cream cakes that we usually had for birthdays. They were probably the same quality as DK, but they had the added charm of low budget local commercials narrated by the owner, who really didn’t belong anywhere near a microphone.
For me, Carvel ice cream is something that I remember fondly from my childhood. The value is purely nostalgic, the last time I had a Carvel cone as an adult, I was a little put off by the chemical “mouth feel” of the ice cream (although at the same time, it was vaguely familiar so it must be the same from when I was a little kid). I wouldn’t feel any special need to take an adult to a Carvel for the first time.
The one area where Carvel holds up is the cookie crumb filling of their ice cream cakes. They have the standard ice cream cake arrangement, chocolate ice cream as the bottom layer, vanilla on top, separated by a layer of cookie crumbs (sort of like the chocolate cookie part of an Oreo). Recently a friend and I spent some time in the kitchen at her son’s birthday party, scraping out the crumb innards of a Carvel cake and commenting on how they really are better than other brands. Other brands’ crumbs seem to get soggy, and Carvel’s stay really crunchy.
Carvel has zero taste. You couldn’t tell chocolate from vanilla in a blind taste. Go to DQ and keep the change (or save it for Coldstone, later in the month)
I remember the Carvel on Atlantic Avenue in Queens (near the BK) had soft serve flavor specials - my favorites were banana and pistachio. The Carvel’s of my youth was the best!
I like them, and loved Cookie Puss and Fudgie the Whale, but was a bit disappointed at first to learn these ice cream cakes contain no actual cake.
I grew up with Carvel and Dairy Queen in the same town, and there have been Carvel stands somewhere nearby through the time I was in grad school. I don’t see them anymore, but the local supermarket still sells Carvel Cakes.
I liked Carvel, although its taste is slightly different than Dairy Queen. Supposedly Tom Carvel came up with his recipe independently of other “soft serve” ice creams by accident, and the result was a hit. His trademark gravel-voiced commercials were supposed to be the result of his being dissatisfied with the advertisements his hired ad company was doing, so he figured he could do as well himself.
It’s not great ice cream, but it’s no more objectionable than any other “soft serve” , as far as I’m concerned.
I will be 33 years old in two days and I still get Carvel ice cream cakes for my birthday. Love the stuff! When I was a kid my parents used to treat us to pizza and Fudgie the Whales when we got good report cards. Miss those days.
You are SO right-i couldn’t understand why he did his own ads-the guy sounded like he was at death’s door!
I miss Farrell’s ice cream parlors. They made a big deal if you finished the plate with like 30 scoops on it - they’d parade around the restaurant banging a drum and tooting horns, and give you a ribbon. Fun stuff for a 7-year-old. My dad had something like 5 or 6 ribbons.
Last I heard, Carvel bought out the Farrell’s company right before they themselves had serious financial problems, and shut down the Farrell’s chain.
Carvel: Passable ice-cream cakes made delicious by the yet-to-be matched cookie-crumb layer, that when mixed with ice cream made it great.
I love Carvel cakes from my youth in NYC. The store on Woodhaven Boulevard was the best! The cookie layer has not been matched by anything I’ve found down south.
I loved the standard shape they used for the cakes. It was a rectangular oblong thing with a swoosh that they would frost differently to get different themes.
Look! It’s a whale! and Santa! And a Leprechaun! And the Easter bunny! And a woman going to the bathroom!
Carvel was the only ice cream store around when I was a kid. Every so often, my family would bring home sundaes on a Friday night. My god, they were good. Their soft-serve was great. I haven’t been within 3000 miles of one in 10 years, though…
Joe
I seem to recall running into a little Carvel place in the Las Vegas airport last fall…I remember getting a vanilla milkshake, which was pretty lousy. Way too much milk, not enough ice cream. All they had was soft serve, I believe, so no ice cream by the scoop.
[Billy Crystal as Tom Carvel/]For Father’s Day, buy your dad the tie cake. . . It’s the same mold as the whale cake. As I am talking to you sir, I am hawking in the vanilla.[/BCaTC]
Yeah, Carvel is just a nostalgic memory for me. Their ice cream definitely falls into the category of “stuff I loved as a kid that I don’t like now.”
After Boy Scout troop meetings we’d all go to the Carvel’s on Bell Blvd in Queens. Great stuff. Much better than Dairy Queen.
The only better soft serve I recall was on the Brooklyn - Staten Island ferry, which we took to get to Pouch Boy Scout camp before the Verazanno Bridge was built. Wonderful stuff.
The soft-serve ice cream itself is nothing special, but the chocolate crumbles in the cakes are terrific.
And what, no love for their Flying Saucers?
Carvel was a big treat when I was a kid. There are one or two locally, and I go there from time to time.
The big selling point of Carvel is its richness. I’ve had other soft ice cream (or frozen custard, as some call it), but no one touches Carvel for the density and smoothness.
It’s all about the crunchies.
You got a ribbon for the Pig’s Trough, which I believe was a 5 or 6 scoop banana split. The 30 scoop monstrosity was The Zoo (they ran around with it on a stretcher, and had an ear splitting siren going), and I’d be damned impressed if your Dad ate one by himself.