Vanilla Icing

Double Decker Coffee & Company

The first time I visited Asheville was eight years ago when the children were still quite small. Immediately I fell in love with the city as the four of us traipsed all over but as the sun went down and the city darkened and cooled the mild desire for coffee that I possessed turned into a raging caffeine withdrawal headache.  I tried to suppress this obnoxious need but my eyes rapidly scanned the street back and forth looking for a coffee shop, a cafe, a late night diner or for goodness' sake even a convenience store! to get a cup of the evil, addictive black brew that my body wanted so badly.  No such luck.  I stumbled stupidly in a caffeine craving trying to pretend that I didn't desperately desire  the noxious brew that was responsible for my severe addiction.  Rick stopped and in a fog I continued past him for a few steps before he called me back.

'Michelle?  Do you want a cup of coffee?'   

Yes!  I looked back at him.  He was paused at the gate of courtyard that had a big red double decker bus parked in it. I sniffed.  Oh yeah, I could smell coffee .....and it was coming from the bus!  Sweet beautiful bus beacon of coffee nirvana....I'll always love you....no matter the time of day.

An oasis in a hot city, Double Decker Coffee & Company has mist sprayers that cool everyone off-

 

                              even the smallest of dogs--                               

                               in their shaded courtyard.

But wait, there's a lesson to be learned: Sometimes coffee comes on buses.

Crunchy Taco Shells

Tacos are an often requested and often denied dinner item around here.  The thought of soft tacos makes me grumpy and I won't make them for my family.  I'm a crunchy taco sort of girl and yet I rarely have one of those 'taco kits' with the neatly stacked pile of cardboard crunchy shells.   Tristyn asked for tacos yesterday and it was on the tip of my tongue to turn him down because I didn't have any taco shells.  I opened my mouth and Tristyn cut in 'Can't you make taco shells?'  I closed it again with a snap.  Yes, why not?  I set about looking for a how to fueled only by coffee and a sudden but strong desire to have tacos for dinner that night.  I didn't find anything that was suitable; all the recipes were telling me how to make what goes inside store-bought shells.

I decided to wing it.

Cheat River Race 2011

Every year, at the beginning of May, white water kayakers and a few canoe & raft paddlers come to Albright, West Virginia for the Cheat River Race.  It's one of the events of the weekend that benefits Friends of the Cheat, an organization that raises awareness and funds for the Cheat River.

Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor

Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor in the Strip District of Pittsburgh is an old-fashioned gem that I happened to come upon one fateful day when Rick and I were driving from Piccolo Forno in Lawrenceville looking for dessert.  Our intention had been to cut across downtown Pittsburgh and go across the river to South Side but when we spotted Klavon's we came to a speedy stop.

Klavon's has a lot of 'new-fangled clothing'--neon lights, bright colors, and bold murals--over it's old bones, but inside, it's almost as if time has stood still.

Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor began as a pharmacy in 1923 but was eventually changed to serve Pittsburgh's own Reinhold's Ice Cream.   Most of the decor is original: woodwork, soda fountain, the flooring, light fixtures and even the banana split dishes!  Old apothecary bottles and other antique pharmacy items still line the old shelves.

Even the service was old-fashioned!  When we stepped up to the counter to place our order, there was none of this 'hurry up and order so I can get back to texting someone on my phone' vibe that you get from other ice cream places.  The server took our orders and chatted to us about the ice cream parlor until our questions had been exhausted.  

Klavon's serves its ice cream the way ice cream should be; simple and delicious.  (I do not support the current trend of seeing who can make the wackiest ice cream and then who will eat it and declare it delicious when really, it's not.)  Single or double scooped cones, Banana Splits, Tin Ceiling Sundaes, Egg Cremes, Milkshakes, and Root Beer Floats are just a few of the old-time treasures you will find at Klavon's.  The ice cream they still use is Reinhold's even though a little bit of research revealed to me that Reinhold's was bought by another company.  But as long as the recipe stays the same and it's still made locally, Pittsburghers will always call it Reinhold's because that's the way things are done around here.

Rick and I chose traditional sundaes, me with chocolate sauce and him with strawberry sauce.  Basic and wholesome, the flavors of the sauces served to heighten the freshness of the ice cream before melding together with it to make that perfect sundae you enjoyed once when you were a little child.   And if that doesn't invoke childhood memories, when you go up to the counter to pay your bill the array of old-fashioned candies-lemonheads, candy buttons, candy lipsticks to name a few-will jog your memory as you point to the candies you adding to your purchase.  And you will be adding at the very least one or two candies; I'm sure no one can resist.

Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor has its own parking lot which many of our suburban friends who are unused to city parking will find to be a relief.  The bold mural on the wall proudly marks the perimeters of the lot and invites you to pull up and come right in.

And could you imagine if you lived at the top of Klavon's?  Oh my!  Ice Cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  Well....Klavon's does serve soups, salads and sandwiches.  Just in case you DO want to be boring good and have one of those things for lunch-- but then you MUST have the Super Bowl Sundae for dinner.  You might want to bring seven or eight of your closest friends to help you out with that one.

 

Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor

2801 Penn Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA  15222

(412)434-0451