What to Eat in Birmingham

As we recently noted, this town has a serious deficit of homemade ice cream. Other than a chain or a local place that uses mass-produced ice cream, if you want to go out for ice cream, we know of only one option: Lichita’s.  We do love Lichita’s, and as we recently told you, it will be in the Pizitz building. And after my original post, several readers pointed out that Big Spoon is a fantastic small batch ice cream operation with a pop-up schedule that can be found here.  But in a city of this size, I’m confident we can have more than just one or two options.

Which is why we were so psyched to hear that Pixie Ice Cream, who we’ve been following from afar, was going to have its first pop-up in a long time last weekend at Seasick Records. (Pixie does not have a brick and mortar location, so waiting for these pop- ups is key.) This is the same Seasick records that hosted last weekend’s Hero Doughnut pop-up. Seems like this record store is quickly becoming a foodie destination.

Here’s the signage for Seasick, which is located in that little strip mall in Crestwood:

When we got there, a small line had formed in the record aisles:

Here are there offerings.  We immediately noticed: so many flavors!  Seems like a lot of time and effort went into this endeavor.

When we finally arrived at the front of the line, we asked for some guidance. For our vegan readers, we had to try the toasted coconut. We were told that the cinnamon is also a top seller. Butter pecan is always my favorite, so we added that to our list. As we love all things peanut butter, we ordered the peanut butter and the peanut butter chocolate chip.

A tangential note: I love that they come in a portion controlled quarter cup package. No one needs more ice cream than that in one sitting…. unless of course you are on a mission to try as many flavors as possible…. but I’m getting ahead of myself.

We left Seasick and sat on a bench outside the antiques store two doors down. There, we unpacked one by one:

First, peanut butter. Thick, creamy, rich peanut butter in an ice cream.  Delish.

Then that borboun butter pecan. Strong borboun taste mixed with the sweetness of ice cream and the heartiness of pecans.  One of the best ice creams I’ve ever tasted.
Well, hello there!

Next, cinnamon.  Heavy, creamy, sweet, hearty cinnamon. That’s the best we can do to describe it. Absolutely fantastic.

Peanut butter chocolate chip was that incredible peanut butter ice cream with what we thought were pieces of shaved dark chocolate.  Gave the ice cream a fantastic texture and a hint of chocolate flavor.  Love.

On to the vegan toasted coconut. A coconut milk base (we believe, at least, based on the taste). Hearty, almost nutty pieces of toasted coconut mixed in. Totally satisfying. Very rich. Would have certainly never known it was vegan, except that it tastes like it has a coconut milk base-something that we absolutely love. Reminded us of coconut milk ice cream we’ve had at this awesome vegan ice cream parlor called Lulu’s in Manhattan: high praise. We both agreed that Pixie’s toasted coconut is one of the best ice creams, vegan or otherwise, that we’ve ever tasted.

I insisted that we needed to try more flavors, as many as possible without seeming (too) ridiculous. Mr Foodie humored me and back in we went. After a quick back and forth, we left with another bag full of little ice cream cups. We ran outside and tore in:

Maple. Similar in some ways to the cinnamon. A uniformly rich and hearty sweet, syrupy flavor.  Amazing.

  The Bailey’s mint cookie flavor was very complex and hard to describe. Crunchy from the cookie, sweet from the sugar, and very slightly liquor-y (and definitely minty) from the baileys. Wonderful.

Port wine cherry. Basically wine flavored ice cream with fresh cherries. The cherries gave the ice cream a thick texture, while also adding a tartness. Yum.

As you’ve probably figured out, we didn’t eat all of the ice cream. We ate one or two bites, put the lids on, and brought eight little half eaten ice cream cups back home. Our only regret is that we didn’t buy more. Last night, we polished off half our supply.  Good news: we have half left (glass half full approach), and, it held up very well in the freezer.

So Pixie people: when’s the next pop up? We’re rationing what we have left but we won’t make it till the end of the week. It’s a serious ice cream situation, and judging from the line, we’re sure we’re not alone.