Denise's Homemade Ice Cream

I really enjoy Denise's ice cream, my favorite flavors are the chai tea, the ginger snap, peppermint/candy cane (not sure what they're calling it anymore) and my all time favorite is the carrot cake, with real pieces of carrot cake/icing mixed in.  

It's delicious and I love the owner, he's really quirky.  He's always super nice to me and my husband when we come in.  Haven't had too many chances to go lately as I have been super swamped with work, but when I get the chance I bring home a pint of the carrot cake.  

The wait staff can be hit and miss, depending on the day, but all in all it's a good experience. :)

Let the Ice Cream Wars begin!

If any Ice Cream is good Ice Cream, then how can one separate the good from the great? Denise's secret is in the name itself. HOMEMADE Ice Cream. Small batches with unique flavors means Ice Cream packed with fresh ingredients. Take for instance, my favorite flavor. Banana. Sure it's not too daring, but this is made with REAL bananas. No artificial banana flavoring here!

If comparison between Jeni's and Denise's must be made, I'll say this. Jeni's palate is much more refined and delicate, combining flavors you would never expect in Ice Cream. Denise's takes flavors we already love and elevates them to a whole new level. Example, the Chai Tea Ice Cream. Everyone loves Chai Tea! Milk, honey, sugar, tea, and spices in a creamy Ice Cream blend is a sure thing.

Denise's is also slightly cheaper than Jeni's, with their scoops of Ice Cream about double the size of Jeni's.

I'm not taking a side on the Ice Cream Wars. I'm a passive observer who loves all kinds of Ice Cream.

Denise's Homemade Ice Cream gets a lot of comparisons to Jeni's. That's a little unfair and not particularly apt. Jeni's boutique ice cream flavors are like designer fashions. Denise's actually gets a little closer to another C-bus ice cream titan, Graeter's.

With flavors that range from Burnt Sugar to plain old, delicious chocolate, Denise's toes the line between being populist (Graeter's) and being chic (Jeni's). Denise has her own Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip. On the other hand you can also find flavors like Guinness Stout and Red Bean. One of my favorites is the Chai Tea, which tastes like a really great Chai Latte.

The sorbets are also very good. I love that they have Black Raspberry and Red Raspberry. And they're both great.

The atmosphere isn't as good as either Jeni's or Graeter's. The interior of the Clintonville shop has little flavor at all. Too bad.

Not bad, but not my favorite.  The servers were very eager to try to find the perfect flavor to follow my Indian lunch (4 hours ago).  I don't like Indian desserts, that's why I came for ice cream.  I don't care for mango or pistachio.  I did appreciate the attempt at pleasing me from the get go.

I knew I had to try the guinness ice cream.  I didn't like it.  I also go to try the sugar free vanilla. it's called something else.  They warned me that it would be bland.  See, they don't know me very well.  I thought it was perfectly refreshing.  Sometimes the simplest of flavors is the best (especially following the complexity of an Indian meal...even if it was 4 hours ago).

As mentioned before, the flavors here are so-so-- mostly traditional with a few creative flavors thrown in.  The ambiance of the place is open and welcoming no matter if you are by yourself or with friends and family.  If anything, there's more seating here than at Jeni's.

Since I'm a sucker for green tea, I got the green tea flavor.  I got bored of it before I finished my single scoop. Despite this small disappointment, Denise is worth a second visit since a few other flavors seem enticing.

Following Piece of Cake we made our way further down the street - what better to go with cake than ice cream?  While Jeni's is usually the only choice for frozen sweets in Cbus, the word of my friend earlier in the morning told me there was another - one called Denise's that now sat where the disappointing Maggie Moo's once stood.  Walking up to the small entry way my sister noted that she felt like she was cheating on Jeni - but onward we pressed.

Entering the shop I was surprised at how roomy the store actually was - myriad seating options to match the myriad flavor choices on the board.  From carrot cake to cucumber, chocolate to yuzu, and burnt sugar to black licorice - the menu was at least thrice the size of Jeni's and the flavors equally compelling.  Stepping into line each of us asked for a taste of something different and were instantly impressed by the variety of tastes and textures.  Amongst items tasted by myself were burnt sugar (an interesting concoction that taste like a bitter yet salty caramel,) cucumber (really did taste like an icy cucumber,) and honey fig (wonderful, exactly like it sounds) while my family members opted for others.  Unfortunately, unlike Jeni's where samples come with smiles and suggestions, the samples at Denise's came from a sourpuss who kept asking "do you know what you want to order yet?" as though we were likely to sample and skip out.  Not one to normally feel uncomfortable I must note that her repetition was actually quite offensive and she was lucky we didn't simply skip out.  Making our selections we made our way to a table (note, there were only 2 other couples in the whole store.)

Selecting a 2-scoop option of White Russian and Buttered Sweet Corn my first taste was that of the Sweet Corn and I have to admit I was impressed - without a doubt better than the Jeni's sweet corn with blackberries and possibly third only to Humphry Slocombe's Secret Breakfast and Balsamic Caramel in San Francisco.  Heavily textured with pieces of corn yet buttery, complex, and sweet - like creamed corn but better - amazing.  Next up, the  White Russian and yet another winner.  Complex and creamy with heavy hints of Kahlua  and vodka that were tempered well by the sugar and sweetness - a truly pleasant mouthfeel and a very hearty flavor.

Like myself, the rest of my family agreed that their flavors were as good (if not better) than those at Jeni's and my sister particularly loved the Guiness while my aunt raved her sorbet.  With that said, we all also agreed that the customer service was borderline offensive and that we'd be hard pressed to return when the people at Jeni's are much more overworked yet much more pleasant.  Ice cream is ice cream whether it is gourmet (Denise's) or not (Graeter's) and ice cream is meant to be fun.  While I certainly won't be shunning Denise's quality for Graeter's trans-fatty mess and loud indoor playland, at least the servers at Graeter's are friendly.

If you want great homemade ice cream in flavors that are mostly familiar, Denise's is the place to go. While they might offer competition to Jeni's, they're not quite the same thing in my mind: Jeni's is far more exotic and different- Denise's offers some of that (like salty caramel) but also offers plenty of more regular flavors, too- almost any flavor you could think of, basically.

Denise's ice cream is damn delicious, too. I tend to overindulge- many more scoops than I can really stand, sometimes in banana split form. If you think you can handle that kind of size, go for it. Fresh bananas. Lots of toppings to choose from. Good times.

There's no reason to choose one or the other, Denise's or Jeni's. They do two different things very well and they both deserve to be visited by any true ice cream head in town.

For the first few years of Jeni's Ice Cream's existence, I can remember reading articles about Jeni's and Denise's being in some unspoken competition (because they both offer strange flavor combinations). Well, if that were the case, then it's clear who won.

While Denise's may not be featured on television, or opening a new location every week, they do ice cream okay. They have more booze-flavoured ice creams than Jeni's at least. lol.

A few years ago a drunk driver drove through the front of the store. The storefront was boarded up for what seemed like months. I'm sure that didn't do much for business.

I'd hate to see Denise's close, but unless you live in the area, you should honestly just go to Jeni's.

We never got a chance to try the ice cream - the customer service was so horrid, that we ended up walking out before ordering.

We had Entertainment book coupons that were about to expire, and wanted to use them to purchase 2 pints - which would qualify under the "menu item" that the coupon was good for. The older lady behind the counter told us we could not do this - since my husband wouldn't be able to eat a sundae (and we were going to buy them for later consumption anyway), my husband said "never mind" and walked away into the dining area. I was still waiting to be waited on (planning on getting a cone, sans coupon), but she was being so rude and snarky and confrontational and argumentative to my husband that she completely ignored me and the other 4 people behind me in line. I'm a very patient person, and usually, as a customer give a lot of leeway to those behind the counters, but this woman was so unbelievably out of line with my husband that I got disgusted and left.

I proceeded to go to my normal haunt, Jeni's, where I got fantastic service and delicious ice cream, as usual. I would have loved to try Denise's, as I've heard good things about it and the list of flavors looked interesting, but the treatment we received will ensure that we will never darken their doorstep again.

I have eaten a lot of ice cream in my day, but I have never seen a place with as many imaginative flavors as Denise's in Clintonville.  Guinness, Bailey's Irish Cream, Mint Hot Chocolate (with a dash of cayenne to give it the heat), Killer Chocolate, and White Coffee (with local favorite Stauff's coffee in it) are some of my favorite highlights, but even their standards are of high quality and are excellent.  

They are friendly, fast, and always ready with free samples if you want.  Great parking for cyclists is a plus, too.  Plenty of comfortable seating inside and a great location top it all off.