Dancing Dog is a new ice cream shop on the West Side of Charleston. I personally am always a fan of ice cream, and I think it's the perfect addition to the West Side. 



Their soft opening was during Oktoberwest, and it may or may not have been the highlight of my day. I made my way through a crowd of people to this beautiful, sweet oasis.



The space is long and narrow and has some really cool artwork on the walls that bring in some color. As of now, they're just serving homemade ice cream, but it seems like more food options may be on the way in the future.



The menu for this day included chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, lemon chiffon, oreo, brownie brittle, milk chocolate, raspberry, mint chocolate chip and chocolate chip.



Me - being me - I couldn't choose between chocolately or fruity, so I went with both. I got one scoop of oreo and one scoop of strawberry. 



These flavors were both so smooth. The oreo has big chunks of cookie, and the ice cream was the perfect temperature of cool. It made the texture perfect. Go get you some local scoops and taste the difference.



Grade: A

I have been trying to make my way to What's The Scoop in Point Pleasant for an embarrassingly long time. I love the town, and I actually enjoy the drive a lot, too. My main hurdle is that the ice cream shop doesn't open until 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and I'm an early bird so I'm usually in and out of town before 2 p.m.



Alas, I made my way there this past weekend, and I was very excited to add another Mothman-themed treat to my repertoire and explore the quirky town. 



What the Scoop serves cookie sandwiches, shakes, floats, and crazy over-the-top shakes, too. They also have other special goodies like macarons, banana splits, cupcakes, and waffle cones and bowls. They have a "Men in Black" - lots of chocolate - shake and a "Mothman" - mint - shake. 



As much as I would love to sit and indulge in a giant shake, I looked at smaller options that are more portable. And *voila* there is also the Mothman bowl, which is a waffle bowl with three scoops of your choice of ice cream, topped with whipped cream, two cherries for eyes and two chocolate bars for wings.



Also, lol at these "Mothman droppings" for sale. 



For my Mothman bowl, I ordered three scoops of the "s'mores" ice cream, which was perfection in a (waffle) bowl. I love s'mores, I love Mothman, I love ice cream. You just really can't get much better. Plus, this s'mores ice cream had little marshmallow filled chocolate cups. Try it. 

Grade: A

The Milton Flea Market is an interesting place. You'll find everything from primitive decor and medical scrubs to vape supplies and antiques.



They also have their share of food-related products - like baked goods, jerky and even some fresh produce.



However, there are two places that are more like restaurants or food stands that I wanted to check it out.



First, let's stop at Rocky's World of Ice Cream. They have a permanent set up in a small walk-up space at the market.



On this particular day, they were serving lemonade, shaved ice and other treats to beat the heat.



I went with a lemonade, which was perfect to sip while walking around. Plus, I knew there was more ice cream in our future.



Next up was Fatima's Thai Rolled Ice Cream. This is a really cool find in a flea shop. Rolled ice cream kinda became trendy, but I don't know if there are currently any places serving it in Charleston. So, this was a pleasant surprise.



In addition to ice cream, they have snacks like hot dogs, fries, nachos, pulled pork bbq, etc. 



But when in Rome... so I decided to go with an ice cream. I started with a strawberry base, and then we added maraschino cherries. Side note: Why don't we have more cherries in the store? I want cherries year-round. 



They did their thing by rolling it out on the cold stone, then chopping and rolling up and then topping it with these Pirouline cookie rolls. It was good! 



Have you been?

Travel + ice cream are two of my favorite things. So, I combined the two recently during a trip to Vienna to check out the Frostee Shoppe Too.



The small drive-through shop has more than just ice cream, though: hot dogs, nachos, pretzels and pulled pork BBQ, as well. 



I started off with ice cream and went with a turtle frostee flurry - chocolate, caramel and pecans. I oddly loved that the mix-ins aren't completely blended so there was a chunky texture with some chocolate-heavy bites and pecan-heavy bites for variation.



Then, I went with a soft pretzel with cheese. I'm not sure if I developed like a sensitivity to salt or what, but I cannot deal with this much salt on a pretzel. It just takes over. So I brushed a good bit off, dunked it in cheese and it was all hunky-dory.



And I got two hot dogs, too. One plain with ketchup and a "junkyard dog," which had "everything imaginable." It was pretty much chili, ketchup, mustard, onion and relish. Not bad, but with so many toppings, you barely get any of the hotdog itself.

Grade: B

One small space in Marmet has been home to a few different restaurants, most recently Moo Mama's Ice Cream.



Their menu is small with some specials, shakes, sundaes, and cones. They use Velvet Ice Cream, as opposed to Hershey's, which is what I tend to see most often. 



The specials tempted me, but once I laid eyes on the "Maple Pecan Blondie" specialty sundae, I was sold immediately. 



And check out this super cute kitty who came to keep us company while Dawn and I devoured ice cream.



So, this ice cream was SO good. While it's not homemade ice cream, the toppings took it to the next level. I loved the pecans and syrup and it sure was tasty. If the ice cream was homemade, it would've taken it up a level.



Grade: B

Though I went to Stacked Shake & Sandwich around the time they opened (I was excited!), I have just now gotten around to actually writing about this unique restaurant. 



Specializing in sandwiches and over-the-top milkshakes, this restaurant is as bright and colorful on the inside as it is through the menu items.



For my meal, I went for the "Stacked Signature," which came with ham, turkey, roast beef, bacon, American, Swiss and Muenster cheese with lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo. I like it served cold. It was stacked high with meats, cheeses and veggies - fresh, delicious!



And, we can't forget the milkshake! This was the mermaid shake - vanilla ice cream blended with strawberries and white chocolate chips, poured into a mug with marshmallow covered in candy pearls. It was topped with cotton candy, rock candy, chocolate mermaid tail and whipped cream. 



Oh, and they recently started doing stacked hot chocolate!! This is the campfire s'mores one. Does it get any better?

When there is ice cream, I will, in fact, travel. And, a while back, I headed over to St. Albans to check out the Crafts of the Coal ice cream truck. While they're currently done for the season, they are doing pints to order! I wanted to be sure to share a little about them before I forgot (and as I'm slowly making my way through my blog backlog).



They had been sitting up next to Crawford Field in St. Albans, dishing out cold treats on warm days. The menu had fairly standard ice cream options like vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. But the "WV Pothole" seemed to be their specialty with chocolate ice cream, black-tar fudge and chunks of chocolate asphalt. Sara had this and seemed to enjoy it. 



That might be a bit of chocolate overload for me, so I went with cookie dough and added Butterfinger pieces on top of it! Why not? Combining cookies and peanut butter and crunchies made for a unique, but delicious, combo. 



What would your concoction be?

Grade: A 

It's no secret that ice cream may be my one true love. But one secret may be that most ice cream shops aren't really making their own ice cream. Nay, often it's from Hershey's or some other bulk provider. So when there's an ice cream shop that makes their OWN ice cream. I'm there.



The Little Ice Cream Shoppe in Hilliard, Ohio, does just that. 



And, they have a bajillion flavors. You can check out all of the ones they cycle through on the blackboard wall. And then the current selections are in the cold case. 



As is always my challenge with ice cream - do I go fruity? Or chocolatey? I love both. But it just depends on my mood. 



Because it was a warm day, I went for a fruity choice. I ordered two scoops: one of a watermelon sorbet and one of cherry ice cream. Are you shocked it isn't salted caramel? Sometimes I switch it up.



And, I'm glad I did. This was so refreshing and flavorful. And not flavorful in the artificial, "essense of" way. But in the real watermelon-real fruit kind of way. 



While we were there, they were whipping up a mint ice cream that filled the entire shop with the scent. 



Have you been?

Grade: A