Browns Cow: Bassetts Ice Cream for Hot and Humid Summer Days

Summer in Phoenixville is hot and humid. Sure, we have great restaurants, but who wants to eat hot food when you’re already steamed from the weather? 

Ice cream is always wonderful, but when the heat and humidity combine to the triple digits, ice cream, especially when served in a cool air-conditioned environment, becomes a necessity.

We trouped down to Browns Cow for the best ice cream Philadelphia has to offer: Bassetts (details at http://www.bassettsicecream.com).

Bassetts ice cream is so good that most patrons of Browns Cow just get a cup or cone of their favorite flavor and savor the moments until it’s gone. We were feeling more hard-core. It was time to try the large menu items we’d seen listed on the blackboard behind the ice cream cases, but never actually noticed anyone chowing down on while sitting at the outdoor café tables. 

My cousin Ed ordered the Brown Cow ($4.50). He was delighted to hear that it’s a root beer float with Chocolate Syrup, Chocolate Ice Cream instead of Vanilla, and topped off with Whipped Cream and Chocolate Jimmies. He loves root beer and chocolate so much that
the drink was gone before I could get a sip, but he assures everyone it was fantastic!

My husband ordered a Sundae ($6), which meant that he could order up to two ice cream flavors (he chose Peach and Butter Pecan) and two toppings (he chose Strawberry and Walnuts) with whipped cream and a cherry.

The Banana Split ($6.25) has three ice cream flavors (my friend Sue and I picked Macadamia Nut, Double Chocolate and Pomegranate Blueberry Chunk), as many toppings as one wants (we picked
Chocolate Syrup, Walnuts and Peanut Butter), a split banana, whipped cream and three cherries on top.

We loved it all, but the Peanut Butter topping was especially noteworthy.  Many ice cream toppings are liquid sugar with a hint of flavor—this one was tasted like molten peanut butter with just a hint of sweetness, exactly the right balance if you love peanut butter, which we do.

Warren Brown, the owner, came to sit with us as he does with all patrons when things aren’t busy and he’s not needed behind the counter. He explained that the Peanut Butter topping was so good because he spent a year testing and tasting all the ingredients in Browns Cow’s menu items so that everything had the best flavor he could find.

He also spent a year finding just the right chocolate for the chocolate-dipped waffle cones, which he and his staff dip fresh at the store every other day. The cones come in plain chocolate, chocolate with peanuts and chocolate with either rainbow or chocolate jimmies.

How could I not buy a cone after that? I directed Evan Miller, 18, who had patiently taken our orders and expertly created each of our choices, to fill a small chocolate-dipped with rainbow jimmies waffle cone ($5.25) with Chocolate Chocolate Chip and The WHYY Experience (vanilla ice cream swirled with butterscotch and chocolate-covered pretzels) ice cream. 

Brown, whose favorite flavors include those two, plus Peanut Butter Swirl and Peach, approved. It was the fitting dessert to our ice cream “meal” and since Evan had been so helpful, everyone agreed he should be featured in the photo holding the ice cream cone. Be sure to ask for him if you’re ordering something complicated.

The heat and humidity are most people’s least favorite things about summer in Phoenixville, but if it gives you an excuse to wander down to Browns Cow and order something cold, creamy and crammed with flavor, maybe it’s not so bad after all!

If You Go:

Location:  30 S. Main St., Phoenixville

Cost:  $3.50 to $6.25

Phone:  (610) 933-0695

Hours:  April through October:  Sunday: 2 pm to 10 pm;

            Monday - Thursday: 12 pm to 10 pm;

            Friday & Saturday: 12 pm to 11 pm

Website:  http://www.brownscow.com/

Parking:  On-street parking or Phoenixville paid parking lot

Payments accepted: Cash