Annapolis Ice Cream Company (MD - Annapolis)

You have to admire the cajones on someone who decides to open an ice cream parlor on Main Street in Annapolis, considering the town already boasts a Ben & Jerry's, and several local confectioners within 50 yards of their storefront. Not to mention the fact that around the corner sits that venerable Annapolis ice cream institution, Storm Brothers.

Needless to say, it was with much cynicism and trepidation that I walked into the Annapolis Ice Cream Company.

The layout is copied exactly from Storm Brothers, with a few tables up front, a counter down the left side, and a line that snakes around and out the door. It is brighter, more updated and even boasts a flat screen display of "today's flavors" but it is more or less your generic ice cream parlor layout.

The difference is in their ice cream. They have more creative and better prepared flavors than anyone around. I have been twice in the last month and my favorites so far are Apple Pie, Blackberry Cobbler and Chocolate Mint Chip.

Apple pie is their hallmark flavor. Nowhere else is it more apparent that the ice cream you are eating was hand crafted on the premises that day. They literally take a fresh baked apple pie and blend it into vanilla ice cream. The result is that each bite contains bits of apple pie filling and chunks of pie crust that is so fresh, it is still crunchy. Go early - this one tends to sell out towards the end of the night.

Blackberry cobbler is in the same spirit as the apple pie - fresh blackberry cobbler blended into ice cream.

Chocolate mint chip sounds pedestrian, and is anything but. It is actually chunks of peppermint patty, blended into rich, dark chocolate ice cream. This is a unique and surprising "inside out" take on the traditional mint chocolate chip.

I'm sold. After years of believing the only proper way to end a meal in Annapolis was with a walk to Storm Brothers, I plan to change tack and head up Main street instead.