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

You may have heard of Girls Night Out in Charleston, which is a fundraiser for the YWCA.



But have you heard of Guys Night Out?



It's a smaller scale event geared toward men that also raises money for the YWCA and Sojourner's Shelter. 



Think of a giant WVU tailgate with huge TVs, an outdoor BBQ, games, raffle tickets and silent auctions. And you have Guys Night Out! 



Located at Oakes Field in South Charleston, the event coincided with WVU's most recent football game. 



I was fortunate enough to be able to hep out and judge the wing contest held during halftime. 



They offer a BBQ buffet before making way for the wings. There were six different restaurants who competed for the title this year. 



They were Red Carpet, Bear's Den, Sam's Uptown Cafe, Tricky Fish, Bar 101 and the Lookout.



One of the smartest things they did was have these little Halloween-themed markers for each wing so you could keep track of which ones come from where. 



I can't tell you how beneficial this could be for pepperoni roll cookoffs, too! 



So let's talk about the wings! My favorites of the evening were Bar 101, Red Carpet and Tricky Fish.



All my fellow judges agreed on the top three - but Red Carpet ended up coming out on top. 



I think Bar 101 had the best balance of a sweet and tangy - it was a delish teriyaki.



And the people's choice was Bear's Den, which was surprising! But nice to spread the love a little.



Have you attended this event?

Who doesn't love a good snow cone? They're fun and nostalgic and serve no real culinary value. But they're pretty.



There's a new Sno Biz location - which is a franchise with a few locations in the Mountain State - in Kanawha City. There are a billion different flavors you can choose from, which of course all taste like sugar with maybe a hint of fruit. That's kind of the point. 



I ordered one to make a rainbow: cherry, orange, lemon, lime, blue raspberry and grape. It kind of reminds me when you mix a bunch of different options at a soda fountain machine - the result isn't a recognizable flavor, per se, but it's enjoyable. That's kind of like this. All of the flavors kind of melded together to be a fruity sweet. And that's what makes it fun.

Grade: B

My friend Sara posted a cupcake fundraiser that was happening, and I am always down to support a good cause - especially when food is involved.



Sugar Shenanigans was offering a variety of different cupcakes, so I wanted to try one of each: chocolate peanut butter (chocolate cake, peanut butter filling, chocolate peanut butter frosting), red velvet (red velvet cake, cream cheese filling, cream cheese), pumpkin (pumpkin cake, cream cheese filling, cream cheese frosting), French vanilla (french vanilla cake, rich vanilla buttercream frosting), apple spice (apple spice cake, vanilla buttercream frosting, topped with apple pie filling) and cookies & cream (white cake with crushed Oreos, cookies and buttercream frosting). 



My favorites were the French vanilla and cookies and cream. Which ones would you choose?

EZ Street in St. Albans is a bar with a large outdoor deck. They also have a fairly large menu for this type of venue, which Sarah and I were excited to check out. 



The interior is dark, but it's was bright and sunny when we went out back. Luckily, there was some shade that kept the sun from pounding down too much.



I ordered a draft beer - a Wild Little Thing from Sierra Nevada Brewing. This giant frosty mug held a sweet and sour beer perfect for summer.



The menu has some good options, and I ultimately went with the "Boom Boom Shrimp" Tacos that have a breaded sweet and spicy shrimp with pico de gallo and shredded cheese in a soft flour tortilla. These were pretty good. There wasn't a ton of the sauce, but I did get some of that flavor, which I enjoyed. 



And then I had a side of hot pepper bites, which are one of my absolute favorites. These had a good bit of breading on them, but they were tasty. I wish every single bar sold these, because they are delish. Where else serves them?



Grade: B