Lake Street Creamery

I cannot say how sad I am that this truck is no longer in business. They quite possibly had the best ice cream ever! The doughnut icecream was delicious. Their milkshake selection was also just absolutely yummm.
I wish they would open back up!!!

Lake Street Creamery closed its doors at the end of March 2012. They were in the process of opening a Brick and Mortar shop and had spent a small fortune in the preparations, the deal went south because of the landlord. They may eventually recover the money in court but these unfortunate events spelled the end of one of my favorite food trucks.
I am a big fan of food trucks and I am always seeking out trucks that I haven’t tried before and therefore rarely eat from the same truck twice, Lake Street Creamery was one of the very few trucks that I went to more than once and would seek out. They had an excellent product, unique flavors, and one of the most attractive trucks out there.
Other trucks have gone out of business but this is the first time that hearing the news made me feel a little sad. I’m going to miss Lake Street Creamery.

I just knew I had to try this truck the moment I saw it. A long line inevitably requires patience to wait, but it also means that the wait would be worth it.
At around 8:30 or so at night, we hopped in line. There weren’t too many flavors on the menu, yet everything looked so tasty and extremely creative. A foodie acquaintance decided to sample the donut and the pancake breakfast flavors (and later went on to comment that both lived up to their names and were surprisingly very good), but the five of us ended up sharing a scoop of the California Zephyr and the Aztec Sacrifice.
It didn’t take long at all for our ice cream to come out, and when it did, we claimed it and hurried over to the nearest vacant stretch of concrete to sit down, shut up, and eat.
Both flavors are so obviously made in-​house and so distinct from each other. The California Zephyr is an earthier version of vanilla with hints of lemon and mint mixed into the ice cream. Refreshing and simple. The Aztec Sacrifice, boasting Ghirardelli chocolate, chiles, cayenne, and (so they claim) the blood of a thousand virgins, is a unique spin on what would be ordinary chocolate ice cream. This flavor was more popular among us, mostly because it had a delayed kick. What I mean by this is that after a bite, you could count to five and — whabam! The chiles and cayenne hit you, but not overpoweringly.
I would love to try every flavor from this truck, because the Lake Street Creamery does not serve ordinary ice cream. The ice cream is original, and the minds behind it are modern culinary Picassos.

The sole reason why I wanted to catch this truck is because of their kitteh eating ice cream video. THIS IS THE ONLY REASON WHY
See why, yes?
They’re setting up shop in Burbank soon (time TBA), so you won’t have to chase down this ice cream truck deliciousity anymore!
Get the Donut ice cream. It literally tastes like a scoop of a cinnamon sugar doughnut batter. If you like donuts (which you obviously do), you will absolutely love this.
I also got the Don Draper, which I would probably skip next time, but I swooned over the idea of a gloop of caramel on top of bourbon-​y vanilla ice cream. Really good the first couple of bites, but after the ice cream melted it tasted like melted vanilla/​alcohol = yuck.
Like that it’s served to you in a waffle bowl
Like that the texture of the ice cream isn’t too chunky, so it was soft and refreshing
Like the choices of unique flavors
Like the friendly staff
Love you, kitty I never met :*)
**I caught Lake Street Creamery at JapanLA’s Kittens & Ice Cream Art Show event, so this review is appropriately themed toward the kitty**

So after months of anticipation, the truck was somewhere conveniently located and I FINALLY got to sample the Don Draper & Donut… and HOLY CRAP, I don’t know what kind of devil magic they do to make their ice cream taste EXACTLY like a cake donut, but it does… To be honest, I am more blown away by this than the Don Draper flavor (vanilla, bourbon, caramel, and liquid smoke) I’ve been pining over.
You did not disappoint Lake Street… and now I must have more.

***While Lake Street Creamery’s ice cream texture is not as good as LA’s best ice cream shops, their unique and satisfying flavors (like Donut) make it a good ice cream option and a food truck worth tracking down if you are an ice cream fan***
I am not the biggest fan of food trucks. It is partly because I have drive to get to them. And while I do not mind driving for food, I have often found that the food trucks are putting out food that I can just as easily find in one of my neighboring areas (just as good quality/​flavors and maybe even better).
I have been more satisfied with the dessert trucks though. I liked Buttermilk’s red velvet chocolate chip pancakes even though the melted chocolate made the pancakes too rich. While I was not a huge fan of Coolhaus’ cookies, I thought their ice cream was decent. Lake Street Creamery is another sweets truck and they put out good some and unique flavors of ice cream.
While Lake Street Creamery does not feature that many flavors, each flavor is something that is hard to find elsewhere (like Black Jack, Pancake Breakfast and Donut). The Donut is the best flavor I’ve had here. It does taste like a powdered cake donut. I remember that Apprentice episode (from season 2) where they made a donut flavored ice cream and I imagined then what it would taste like (and the Donut flavor at Lake Street Creamery is pretty much dead-​on).
I also had the Pancake Breakfast recently and it was good. The ice cream had a cake and maple syrup flavor. There were two garnishes. There was a sprinkling of fresh ground coffee on top of the ice cream. A little bit went a long way. The coffee flavor was strong and good. There were also bacon chunks mixed into the ice cream.
The bacon chunks were quite thick, meaty and not very crisp. It had quite the chew. I felt the thickness of the bacon made this ice cream a little too meal-​like. Overall, the Pancake Breakfast was a good and tasty flavor though I think if the bacon was candied or at the very least crisp, it would have been better.
Lake Street Creamery really delivers on a lot of their unique flavors and this is what really sets Lake Street Creamery apart from a lot of Los Angeles’ ice cream shops. Especially LA Creamery. LA Creamery’s flavors sound unique too, but they lack intensity (they don’t really taste like their given names).
The one slight negative at Lake Street Creamery is the texture. It does not have that nice dense and firm creaminess that really makes the ice cream at Carmela, Sweet Rose Creamery or even Haagen Dazs good. Lake Street Creamery’s ice cream texture is still better than the too soft or too whipped options you will find at several other LA ice cream parlors.
Service was pleasant and good (has been on each of my visits). Pricing is about what you would expect to pay for gourmet ice cream though they do serve a more generous portion than a lot of those other gourmet ice cream parlors.
While I’m not a huge food truck fan, Lake Street Creamery’s unique and satisfying ice cream flavors (I like Donut, Pancake Breakfast and Holiday Chocolate most) make it a truck worth tracking down if you are an ice cream fan.

The SM Food Truck Lot tonight took me from disappointment (No Reservations and Don Chow) to light at the end of the tunnel (Global Soul) to THERE IS A GODDESS (Lake Street!)!
Beth is that goddess, because her ice cream is heavenly: D.
I had a triple scoop ($ 8) of:
Donut
California Zephyr
Key Lime Pie
The creamy limey bite and crust chunks in the Key Lime Pie went so well with the lemon zest and mint in the Zephyr, and Donut is always packed-​with-​donutty-​flavor-​awesome. I also tried Ciara G’s Thin Mint with Aztec Sacrafice, and they were great too!
I’m feeling slightly ice cream sugar comatose as I type this, and my jeans are tight around my ice cream belly, and all I feel is bliss…

Wow! Is there anything that bacon is not good in?
We stopped by this truck at the DTLA Art Walk last night. None of us had ever heard of it, but do we ever not want ice cream? So we decided to try it out.
The lady who took our order was warm and friendly. I ordered a scoop of the Pancake Breakfast ice cream — pancake batter, maple syrup, coffee, and bacon. Too weird NOT to order. My friend ordered the Donut, and another friend ordered Aztec Sacrifice — chocolate with chiles. Other options were key lime (special) and a few others.
The ice cream came out as soon as we ordered it, in waffle bowls. OMFG it was delicious (and I don’t even say OMFG). My weird combination went together surprisingly well, with thick chunks of sweet, high quality bacon complementing the other ingredients. It really tasted like I put my IHOP breakfast in a blender, but with great results. The donut ice cream tasted like a powdered donut, and the Aztec Sacrifice was rich, creamy and indulgent, with a bit of heat. The ice cream quality was fantastic.
Prices were $ 4 for a scoop in a waffle cup. We thought it was steep at first and jokingly compared it to $ 1 scoops at Thrifty, but the portions are pretty large. Also, the quality blows Thrifty out of the water.
One thing we thought was funny was that the waffle bowls were meant to be environmentally conscious, but they gave us wooden spoons. Save some trees, but cut others down! I didn’t much like the spoons, as you couldn’t lick them and they were uncomfortable on your lips.
I want to go back to this truck. Where is it when I want some Donut ice cream for breakfast right now?

Awesome

Donut flavored ice cream? Sugar cone waffle bowls? Somebody pinch me! Fat kid flavors like this only exist in my dreams! This big blue truck puts all other «ice cream» trucks to shame. You’ll never crave a choco taco or a big stick after you have the Lake Street experience. Some of the flavors include:
Salty Scotty– My favorite! A new and improved version of butter pecan
Don Draper– for all the alcoholics; tastes like straight up frozen bourbon
Donut– Think Hostess Crumb donettes from the high school vending machine, but on steroids! YUM!
I’m ready to go back to try the Aztec Sacrifice… I curious to know what ‘the blood of a thousand virgins’ tastes like. And they have the coolest float pairings I’ve ever heard of. You can taste the high quality ingredients and the rich creamy consistency seems too good to be true. The fact that they’re eco-​friendly gives me yet another reason to stalk them… I’m saving the world, duh.

Yum! Yum! Yum!
The Aztec Sacrifice is divine! Excellent Ghiradelli Chocolate with addictive spiciness. The best of both worlds.
The service was great, and other flavors were very intriguing (including the Don Draper). I hope I run into them again soon!!!

Well Ciara G took the cake. I have to say the 1^st time I tasted the Pancake Breakfast ice cream my mouth busted a you no what, One of the best Icecreams ive had. It was like I took a bite of pancakes drenched in syrup with a piece of bacon on my fork, then washed it down with coffee. Disco on your tastebuds.
I had the Aztec sacrifice and it has a nice kick at the end note, and the donut taste just like a donut, You can create your own float of madness here to, pure wrongness. I had there special banana-​rella ice-​cream, mixed with a chocolate soda! nuts, then my friend dropped a scoop of her pancake breakfast in it, OMEFFING it was like a chocolate nutella banana pancake with bacon in it. some sick Elvis meets Bob Marley in heaven creation! Imagine that!

BACON… for breakfast… is logical.
BACON… for lunch… is reasonable.
BACON…for dinner… is acceptable.
BACON…for dessert… is debatable… BACON with ICE CREAM… is not. exactly. normal. BUT… EXACTLY. what makes ME. HAPPY.
Pancake Breakfast muthafu*kin BACON Ice Cream Dessert… FOR DINNER.
So I haphazardly stumble upon this truck in the parking lot of a Best Buy in the City of Industry no less. (Special thanks to Ciara G and Michelle T for the heads up!) Immediately call up the wife and ask her if she’d like to join me in having ice cream for dinner. We’re adults right?! I’m allowed to have whatever the fu*k I want for dinner!
Order up the Pancake Breakfast (cakey, satisfying flapjacks, pure maple syrup and real bits of BACON sprinkled with fresh ground peaberry coffee) single scoop for me and the Don Draper (vanilla ice cream with caramel, bourbon, and smoke) single scoop for the wife.
Bear in mind I have NEVER been a big fan of ice cream or sweets in general but when you add bacon to something you usually have a good chance of getting my attention. The pancake breakfast had the delicious flavors of maple syrup atop a buttery pancake interspersed with real bits of bacon… this smooth concoction is topped with finely ground coffee for a terrific blend of flavors… www.yelp.com/biz_photos/6­rvRaxATPPJk-40BWLydoQ?userid=3-t_uaPKVQQmOUAIu7C-PA easily one of the most uniquely satisfying ice cream scoops I’ve ever had. The wife and I also agreed the waffle cone is fu*king fantastic. All it needed was MORE BACON… yeah yeah, it’s an addiction… so what?
I had a taste of the Don Draper and loved the bourbon flavor mingling with the vanilla and caramel… didn’t get too much of the smokiness, but also quite ridiculously inventive.
The bottom line?
GO HERE.
HAVE BACON ICE CREAM.
FOR DINNER.

When an icecream brings tears to a buddy’s eyes, i’ve gotta try it! I’d been on the fence all day about making the drive through the not so secret shortcut called MarVista to make way to the Asianville that is City of Industry, so i can fulfill my craving of Lake Street Creamery. When i saw Jin’s sweet tweet a few days back about a new cherry flavor, it had been teasing me and when it became available just 30 min away from work, i decided i better get on it, before it becomes unavailable. Ciara tried it earlier the same day and shed tears of joy and nostalgia.
Cherry Royale didn’t get me as emotional, but it was dang good. i shared some with my mama and she loved it. what i loved more, was when i had my mom try the Donut and i asked her what flavor she thought it was, and she was like «cream puff?» and i’m like «doesn’t it taste like ur favorite old fashioned donut» and my mama rarely cusses, but her face expression said «By Golly, it really f*cking does!». priceless!
Salty Scotty– i had a sample and it’s swoony.

BEST
ICE CREAM
E-​V-​E-​R
period.

Look at some of the delicious ingredients LSC uses in their ice creams:
Pure Maple Syrup
Real Bacon
Ghirardelli Chocolate
Fresh Myer Lemon
The Blood of a thousand virgins
Wait…What the hell is that? This better not be some satanic ice cream, Ciara! What kind of stuff are you into anyways?
It’s OK folks. The awesome people of Lake Street Creamery were just joking around when they wrote that one of their ice creams contained this ingredient… At least I hope they were joking around!
I have wanted to try the LSC truck for quite some time. During the summer months I tried so hard to chase them down but was unable to. So when the fantastic Ciara G put together an early morning ice cream social and invited fellow Unilocalers Michelle T, Hugo C, Isabel F and Jenn G to go along, nothing in the world was going to keep my fiancé and I from attending. In fact, it was freezing cold and raining cats and dogs when we all arrived at the LSC truck, but the terrible weather was not enough to keep us determined Unilocalers from getting our ice cream fix.
LSC menu consists of some of the most unique flavors of ice cream I have ever seen. Just look at the three scoops I had.
Pancake Breakfast– This flavor tastes just like it sounds. It’s like they took a plate of pancakes drenched with maple syrup, a side of bacon and a cup of coffee and threw it all in a blender creating this amazingly delicious ice cream.
Donut– Again, it’s like they took a bunch of glazed donuts, threw them in a blender with some milk and hit the liquefy button. This ice cream really tasted like a freaking glazed donut.
Aztec Sacrifice– This spicy concoction is made with Ghirardelli chocolate, chilies, cayenne and the blood of a thousand virgins. Who knew virgins could have such an amazing, spicy flavor, because that’s what this ice cream had.
Besides being amazingly delicious, their ice creams are smooth, creamy and have such an awesome texture. Ciara is right when she said that LSC ice creams pretty much ruined all other ice creams. I consider myself an ice cream aficionado and LSC are some of the best I have ever had.
Besides my three scoops, I also had a float made with black cherry soda and their «Tears of the Yeti ice cream», which is ice cream made with white chocolate and real coconut shavings. This float was actually really good. The Yeti ice cream was the best coconut flavored ice cream I have ever tried. My fiancé got their Bananarella and Chocolate Soda Float, which was also wonderful. Their Banarella is an ice cream made with bananas and Nutella and is easily one of the best tasting banana ice creams I have ever had.
The ladies who were working the LSC truck the day I visited them were extremely friendly. They were more than happy to let us sample their ice creams and answered any questions we had about their products. The prices were good too.
Whether its hot, cold, raining or snowing, if I come across the LSC truck again there is nothing that will keep me from stopping by and picking up some of their wonderful ice cream. Their stuff is that good.
Thanks again Ciara for putting together this ice cream meet up.
It was a blast!

Yay! I finally got to try @lakestcreamery. Thanks so much to Michelle T. for letting me know that the Lake Street Creamery truck would be at the South Bay Crate and Barrel store.
I have to admit that I was kinda hesitant to go to Lake Street Creamery truck because it was raining all weekend but my curiosity got the best of me. A bunch of my Unilocal friends were going and I had to see what this ice cream truck was all about.
I got there right when the truck opened. I soon saw a bunch of my Unilocal friends: Michelle T, Ciara G. and Isabel F. Soon after, we were joined by Hugo C., Kimberley R and Craig R.
Since it was my first time to try Lake Street Creamery, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted. I was torn between getting a single scoop of ice cream for $ 4 or a float for $ 6. I heard good things about the donut flavor and the aztec sacrifice but I also was curious about their special flavors of the day of banana-​rella and the tears of the yeti. At the end I decided on getting the popular flavor donut. I was curious to see if it really did taste like a donut like what everyone said. I ended up trying that flavor via the glazed donut float. When you order a float, you pick out and hand the soda. Glazed donut comes with the crème soda.
My order came out pretty quickly and soon I was enjoying a Lake Street Creamery treat with my Unilocal friends in the rain hehe! The donut ice cream definitely did taste like a donut! Incredible! It matched well with the crème soda. Although the float was good, I think that next time, I want to try just the ice cream on the waffle cone. This way, I can really taste the ice cream flavor and all its yumminess hehe :).
Although it was rainy and dreary day, the Lakestreet Creamery trip was well worth it. I’m glad I was able to try out their yummy ice cream and see my cool Unilocal friends once again :).

Couldn’t wait for dessert to end my night at the DTLA Artwalk. Thank god for short lines and dessert trucks like this one!
Ordered a double scoop (one scoop of their special white chocolate/​coconut and one scoop of their popular donut). Both ice cream flavors were great, especially the white chocolate/​coconut combination. I was craving a donut but now I’m not, thanks Lake Street! Believe me, it was good too!
Portions are generous here so beware of the double scoop haha!

I don’t generally follow any dessert trucks because I am not a big sweet eater. On my limited daily bites, there is simply no room to spend one on sweets.
However the menu both intrigued me and enticed me. So I found myself a willing body that would finish the ice cream after I took one tiny little taste.
I could not decide between Black Jack & Pancake Breakfast. However, since I was not the one eating most of it, I had to let that person make the decision between the two that I lusted after. So I ended up tasting the Black Jack.
I have to say, it reminded me of the old Black Jack gum that I used to love. The flavor is right on. It was quite good.
One day, when I am not restricted on bites, I will most likely come back to this truck and order one all for myself.
But until then… I will seek one who is unafraid to devour all but a tiny taste of the Breakfast Pancake flavor ice cream.

If I ever have another child, in honor of Ciara G. and Lucy Y. will be naming this child either «Ciacy» or «Luara.» I’ll even have them as godparents after the experience I had tonight thanks to them.
No the three of us did not have an UYE at a questionable location but I finally got to experience Lake Street Creamery.
If you are not aware, Ciara G. and Lucy Y. both rank this ice cream slightly below the discovery of bacon and depending on which creation they have, could even be a tie.
I’ve been wanting to try Lake Street for a while but have had two factors working against me; where I seem to be they are not and I’m lactose intolerant. The first can be changed but you know what they say about the other (a moment on the lips and then another moment before it turns into colon-​blow) so there has been a risk/​reward in my head. Tonight at the Awesometown Food Truck Festival, I was throwing caution into the wind and going for it.
We stopped by the truck early on for a sample and were given the Bananarella. Damn… it had the perfect creaminess and flavoring. I was tempted to order a pint and have them hold it but figured I’d just get it at the end of the evening.
We got into line two hours into the festival and 20 minutes later, were able to place our order. The banana was sold out (major grumble) so sampled the Black Jack (black licorice) but opted against it going with the following:
Don Draper (vanilla, caramel, bourbon and hint of smoke) — the Mrs loved this and couldn’t get over the way the flavors blended.
Donut (who the hell knows but it tastes like a cake donut) — the kids kept repeating «how do they do this?» and «can we get back in line for more?»
California Zephyr (vanilla, lemon, mint) — when I handed this one to mom, it took me a second to realize all the flecks were mint. When you put this in your mouth, you would get the taste of lemon and when moved it to the other side of your mouth would get the vanilla. Just leave it there and mint was strong.
Pancake Breakfast (pancake taste with bacon, syrup and sprinkled coffee) — this was mine. I couldn’t believe that in one bite would have coffee, small bits of bacon and the taste of syrup. These went so well together it was like having a happy little ménage à trois in my mouth.
The waffle cone was perfect and this I did share with the kids. A little.
Beth is cooler than the ice cream itself and everyone we talked to was genuine and friendly as hell. While in line, as busy as they were, the kids climbed up on the back bumper to peek in and Beth glanced over to give them a wave and a smile.
They had also never seen a wooden spoon which I explained are only used by the best ice cream makers in the world. I don’t think that one was a lie in the least after what we had tonight.
And when that Salted Butterscotch comes back around, I’m buying two pints. In addition I’m getting two of the banana and two of the… well…you get the idea.