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Go for a dip -- or two -- at the beach
[Times photos: Lara Cerri]
Jenifer Feather watches as her son, Alec, 5, tackles a cone of Superman ice cream at Larry’s Olde Fashioned Ice Cream. The St. Pete Beach shop is open until 11:30 p.m. or midnight daily. |
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 4, 2002
Larry's Olde Fashioned Ice Cream offers more than 85 flavors and several forms of frozen treats. Oh, and don't forget the hot dogs, hamburgers and pizzas.
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Ice cream at the beach is hardly rare or original; ice cream stands there are as common as miniature golf.
Yet Larry's Olde Fashioned Ice Cream on St. Pete Beach still stands out. And that's not because most of the Oldsmar chain failed long ago. The beach place was the first franchise and today it's one of the last wearing the chain's colors of red, white and fading pink. There are a few others (in Orlando's Florida Mall and on the East Coast), now part of a Canadian group that also owns Bressler's and Swenson's.
It's not corporate headquarters that makes the difference but the unslacking effort of owners Dore and Sidney Herman, who have had the store for 14 of its 18 years. Their long hours (open until 11:30 p.m. or midnight daily) and longer menu (more than 85 flavors) make Larry's the beach's answer to Starbucks. It's a gathering place for locals and tourists to duck the sun, chat through the night or even grab a bite after hotel kitchens close.
Much of that time could be spent debating ice creams, and not just flavors from garbage can to tiramisu. If there's a new idea or product of good quality, they've squeezed it in: homemade ice cream, endless yogurts, frozen custard (as creamy as you remember), sugar free, fat free, nondairy soy and now Italian gelato. Cioccolatta alla soya is so dark and rich you won't feel deprived of anything.
Sidney Herman, co-owner of Larry’s ice cream shop, dishes up treats from ice cream to knishes until late into the night.
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Purists can take their ice cream in freshly made waffle cones, but the rest of you may indulge in blizzards, flurries, sodas, New York cheesecake sundaes, fresh fruit mix-ups or try Belgian waffles and crusty homemade pies. (Pastries come from Let Them Eat Cake in Tampa.)
Savory foodstuff is scant but merits the same diligence from the Hermans. The menu is no longer than that at a small bar, but each item is at its best: hot dogs are best kosher, hamburgers are made with ground steak, and little personal pizzas come from a brick oven that makes crispy crust in a flash. Plus they squeeze in deli-classic egg creams and knishes.
It would take more space to add anything else, but I bet the Hermans and their bright-eyed young crew will manage to. They have kept up with most trends, including the rebirth of family-run ice cream parlors.
Celebrate Independence Day with ice cream and buy a cone here or at an independent store or heladeria in your neighborhood.
LARRY'S OLDE FASHIONED ICE CREAM, 6595 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach; (727) 360-4259.
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