Scoops Westside

On the west side of Los Angeles, not too far from the glitzy restaurants that Hollywood stars frequent, sits a tiny little ice cream shop that serves up some really unique flavors.

You know me and ice cream. It's something my body has been accustomed to having ever since I was about two years old. I'm a sucker for creative ice cream flavors, and I seek out cool places that aren't afraid to be creative.

What's even cooler about this place? It's run by a fellow food blogger - a person who decided to give up his day job as a commercial bank analyst to pursue his passion for all things food.


Meet Matthew Kang. Matthew write the LA-based food blog Mattatouille. I first met Matthew at the Community Dinner at the first ever Foodbuzz Festival in 2009. Matthew took a huge leap at the end of 2010 by quitting his day job to focus full time on opening up his own ice cream shop. Scoops Westside just passed its 1-year birthday a few months ago, which is a testament to all the hard work Matthew has put in this past year!

When Bryan and I arrived, we had a really hard time trying to decide what to order. As a huge, huge fan of grape nut ice cream in Boston, I knew I had to try the famous "brown bread" ice cream. The original brown bread ice cream is made from grape nuts and is probably similar to the ones I've had out east. The version at Scoops Westside, called brown brown bread ice cream, takes grape nuts, coats them in brown (?) sugar, and the mixes them with dulce de leche ice cream. What results is a sweeter, more intense, rich, and caramel-y ice cream chock full of grape nuts.

It was fantastic, though potent! I can see it getting too sweet for me if I eat too much, but the mixture of flavors works quite well.

Bryan got the pistachio honey, which was quite nice with a strong pistachio flavor.

They have so many other types of interesting flavors. The lavender honey ice cream had a lovely floral fragrance that I loved. It was probably one of my favorites.

I tried their nondairy strawberry lychee and blueberry lavender "ice creams" (I think they are made with soy), which were light and refreshing, but really not at all a replacement for ice cream. Think of it as something completely different, like sorbet or sherbet.

Matthew is a coffee aficionado, and also offers "pour over" coffee from Intelligentsia (as well as other hand-picked artisanal brands, like the Colombian one shown above). I must say Matthew has great taste in coffee (and he's highly skilled in making that perfect pour), because I absolutely loved the flavors of the coffee.

I almost feel like I'm back in the chemistry lab (my former life!) playing around with flasks.

In my haste, I almost missed Joshua Lurie from Food GPS, another LA-based food blogger who hang out here a lot (see top picture). We chatted a ton about the LA food scene, and they gave me some great recommendations for places to visit near the SLS Hotel (Jose Andres' Samm inside Bazaar), which is where I was dining later on that night.

I love the variety of flavors at Scoops, and they change constantly. You can always follow their twitter feed to find out the daily specials. Some more interesting ones that have jumped out at me include unfiltered sake toffee, cheddar Irish Cream, Coconut Wasabi, Maple Black Truffle, Yuzu Basil, Pandan Cheesecake, and Lemon Jalapeno. If I lived nearby, I swear I would stop by every so often just to try some of these crazy flavors!!

In terms of texture, the ice cream is lighter than the heavy cream stuff we have here in the East Coast. Maybe they are more health conscious out there? At the end of the day, I guess I'm a super premium ice cream girl at heart, so I still prefer the thick, almost "doughy" ice creams we have out East. Nevertheless, this ice cream is still fantastic, and kudos to Scoops for offering such creative flavors.

Definitely check it out!

Scoops Westside
3400 Overland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90034