Ice cream dream
There's something delightful about licking a cone of ice cream, something that makes you want to run off giggling like you're 12, even when you're closer to 30.
Retail ice cream shops are still a dime a dozen these days, and there's bound to be one just a hop away from your house. But if you consider yourself an ice cream connoisseur, you'll be willing to travel for Capannari's, a sweet spot-hitting shop in Mount Prospect, housed in an old-school colonial house built in late 19th century.
The history
Still sporting its original beams from when it was a general store, the property also offers a pretty stone walkway web in the back (complete with a wooden statue carved out of the oldest publicly owned American elm tree in Mount Prospect). Even on the first day of the new season, the house is humming with a constant stream of patrons, most returning for more and many welcomed by name by the charming high-school kids who work here during their summers off.
But let's get to the point: the ice cream.
The goods
Homemade: check. Fresh ingredients: check. Small batches: check. Inventive flavors: check. Seeing as it was still close to St. Patrick's Day when we stopped in, we were delighted to find Guinness, Irish Coffee and Bailey's Irish Cream flavors in stock.
We ventured a few tastes (don't feel guilty; have as many tastes as you like), but that's when we spotted one of Capannari's many premium flavors, lavender honey flavor -- ice cream that actually tastes like lavender!
We settled on strawberry, chocolate chip cookie dough and coconut -- all very soft and creamy creations, almost too sweet to handle. While the strawberry blend came with little chunks of the fruit inside, the coconut was nicely smoothed out, so if you don't like chewing on the shavings, you don't have to.
The cookie dough more than held its own as well, and while we were mmm-ing, we spotted about a dozen other luring creations: Curry Coconut, Jamaican Blue Mountain Java, Frango Mint, Lick the Bowl Cake Batter .…
Other seasonal flavors include: Banana's Foster, Rum Raisin, Crème Brulee, Tiramisu and Amaretto Crunch.
While doing the school-girl dance of ice cream eating and trading back and forth, we scoped out the inside of Capannari's digs.
The walls are filled from top to bottom with photographs of famous people who have stopped by for a scoop of ice cream in the past (think Hillary Clinton, circa May 2007, with a quite curious cyborg-looking red eye), multiple awards and magazine "Best of" mentions (think Chicago magazines and newspapers), and even testimony from the otherwise elusive corporate facet, as well as marks of socially responsible sponsorships (think aid for Katrina victims).
And this place is no one-trick pony, either. Besides rows of sophisticated ice cream flavors, you can also get everything from frozen yogurts and sorbets to milkshakes and sundaes, chocolate sodas and even "doggie dips," vanilla yogurt scoops for your special pet.
Tours of the house are also available. And yes, they include ice cream and toppings -- of course.
The word
Family founder Jim Capannari and owner Katie Dolan Dix obviously know their stuff. Capannari is about as well-known as his ice cream, as the shop is featured in many culinary guides, Food Network events and industry fairs, and the fame obviously reflects in the ice cream. With the start of summer there's pretty much only one thing left to do. Eat some tasty ice cream, people!
Capannari's
10 S. Pine, Mount Prospect 392-2277
Hours: 3 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday; 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday