Mother's Day Brunch: Dessert

As I mentioned at the end of my post about Mothers Day Brunch at No. 7, later on that same day the family had ourselves some dessert. (In between, we stopped back at my apartment so that my sister and I could help our mother learn how to use her new iPhone; our father really hit a home run with that Mothers Day gift.) We took a walk down to Blue Marble Ice Cream at their location on Court Street in Cobble Hill, not far from my apartment. Earlier that week, while picking up dinner at Nectar (right next door to Blue Marble), I noticed a line out the door around 9pm on a weekday evening, and decided it was high time to give the new scoop shop (formerly the home of a Tasti D-Lite) a try.

Because it was mid-afternoon on a cool day, there wasn't a line, just one family that had already received their ice cream occupying the one table inside the small store front. My brother-in-law and I both ordered small cups of their blackberries and cream ice cream, which was excellent. Very creamy, very fruity. (All the ice cream was very creamy, not too airy.) I didn't actually even finish mine (maybe because of the big brunch we'd had a few hours earlier), and took the extra home to eat after dinner. The guest of honor (i.e., Mom) ordered a small cup of banana chip, which had a great ripe banana flavor, and just a sprinkling of small chocolate chips mixed in. My father ordered... gosh, I can't actually remember. A small cup of ice cream, but what flavor? Caramel chip, maybe? I'm sure he enjoyed it, in any case. My sister opted to go against the grain and have a brownie, then trade some of the brownie for tastes of everyone's ice cream. (We're very good at trading tastes of everyone's food in my family.) She chose the Sweet and Salty Brownie, made with caramel and fleur de sel, which (true to their locally-sourced ethos) Blue Marble gets from Baked in Red Hook. The texture was very rich, almost fudge-like; the caramel and salt flavors were subdued enough that I might not have noticed them if I weren't aware that they were there.

All in all, the dessert was very good, and I definitely endorse Blue Marble as an option after you've had a meal near one of their locations. (They're also in Boerum Hill on Atlantic Avenue between Bond and Nevins, and in Prospect Heights on Underhill Avenue between Sterling and St. John's right near Grand Army Plaza, as well as at the Brooklyn Flea.) Not sure I'd necessarily go too far out of my way to eat there; nothing against them, of course, there's just so many good dessert options in the city. Based on the brownie, I'd also recommend checking out Baked in Red Hook at Van Brunt and Dikeman, not too far from the Fairway and the IKEA.

One more note: be forewarned, it's not cheap ice cream. The small cups were (I can't precisely remember) either $3.75 or $3.95, and the Brownie was, I think, about $3, so for the five of us it came to around $20. If you want better value for your ice cream dollar, you can't go wrong at TJ's.