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Jeni's Ice Cream, a Columbus, OH Based Ice Cream Chain - Available at Upscale Grocery Stores, and Now at 14th and U Street in 14UP


Pool Boy

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Bought an ice cream book by Jeni's (local chain that started in Ohio I believe). Made maybe a dozen different recipes - all great. A year and a half ago, got to try some while in Ohio - still great!

I was at the Columbia, MD Wegmans maybe a month or two ago, scanning to see if Haagen Dazs' 'gelato' salty caramel was back in rotation (nope, not sure why but nobody locally stocks it for some dumb reason) - and THEY HAVE JENI's . Bought 4. Have since gotten a few more. More limited selection (we're tried the 5 they have but they are all quite, quite good. Making it at home fresh is better, but not nearly as easy as going to Wegmans and buying some.

mmmmmm

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Jeni's Thread in the Washington, DC Restaurants and Dining Forum [dracisk]

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How do we not have a Jeni's thread yet? My OH friends are NUTS about this stuff and it really does seem to be storming the nation. I can even get it out here in CA at certain stores. If you must have it you can order online and they deliver.

I once attended a Columbus-area wedding that had a Jeni's ice cream bar instead of cake and it was, indeed, splendid. 

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10 hours ago, Sundae in the Park said:

How do we not have a Jeni's thread yet? My OH friends are NUTS about this stuff and it really does seem to be storming the nation. I can even get it out here in CA at certain stores. If you must have it you can order online and they deliver.

I once attended a Columbus-area wedding that had a Jeni's ice cream bar instead of cake and it was, indeed, splendid. 

Seriously, I KNOW! I do not know how my wife found out about the ice cream book she authored, but it is SPOT ON. Every recipe has been a winner so far and I think we have mad a dozen or so. Even better than buying it direct. But buying it is so....so...conVENient! :)

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My wife is from Ohio so several years ago we stopped on the way back at the original location. Pretty good stuff definitely upscale than Graeter's. We use to buy it pretty regularly until their recall and shutdown period. If I remember correctly they cleaned up the issues pretty quickly. In Ohio, they have  many more flavors than get shipped nationally.  

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In a country with constantly expanding fancy-person ice cream options, Jeni's remains one of the best in the country.  They really shine with their summer flavors, too.  The peach jam and buttermilk biscuits flavor is take-down-the-whole pint good, but I fell in love with the buttermilk frozen yogurt options this summer.  The blueberry-lemon and (especially) watermelon flavors were bright, fresh, and pleasantly tart.  Not a lot of things like this on the market - it has the consistency and sharp flavor like what my brain wants me to think a Flintstone Push-Up used to taste like, but I know never did.

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I just bought my second pint of Jeni's Ice Cream at the Whole Foods in Pentagon City! The first was Middle West Whiskey and Pecans. Don't eat it straight out of the container or you might wind up mining for toasted pecans like I did, and before you know it, the whole darn thing is gone. Tonight's selection was Brambleberry Crisp. Delicious. This is my new favorite ice cream. I can't wait to try some of the other flavors.

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Thanks all for the encouragement to buy ice cream for $7.99 a pint. I am on my second pint of brown butter almond brittle. It is so creamy and delicious and I love that the ice cream base is much less sweet than typical. I am justifying that it is still less money than going out for ice cream for a few people? A worthwhile treat.

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On 9/4/2017 at 9:55 PM, ALB said:

Thanks all for the encouragement to buy ice cream for $7.99 a pint. I am on my second pint of brown butter almond brittle. It is so creamy and delicious and I love that the ice cream base is much less sweet than typical. I am justifying that it is still less money than going out for ice cream for a few people? A worthwhile treat.

That's my favorite flavor.  My nearest Whole Foods (Friendship Heights) has been carrying it for years.  I didn't know people didn't know Jeni's was available locally.  What I haven't seen here are their ice cream sandwiches and while I've had Jeni's shipped as a gift, I can't get my head around doing it for my own consumption.  But 14th street should solve that problem, LOL!

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On 9/4/2017 at 9:55 PM, ALB said:

Thanks all for the encouragement to buy ice cream for $7.99 a pint. I am on my second pint of brown butter almond brittle. It is so creamy and delicious and I love that the ice cream base is much less sweet than typical. I am justifying that it is still less money than going out for ice cream for a few people? A worthwhile treat.

Just bought my first pint of brown butter almond brittle at Whole Foods. SO good! Not sure how this fits into my weight-loss plans, but I need to get my calcium somehow! ;)

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On 10/13/2017 at 4:10 PM, Genevieve said:

I have to thank this thread to introducing me to Jeni's, though I haven't been in person yet. Brambleberry Crisp is terrific.

Please check out the outpost on 14th st. It is delicious. There are some flavors that are not available in the shop, nonetheless it is most definitely worth the trip into downtown.

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On 11/14/2017 at 3:32 PM, DIShGo said:

Just bought my first pint of brown butter almond brittle at Whole Foods. SO good! Not sure how this fits into my weight-loss plans, but I need to get my calcium somehow! ;)

My *God* !!!

I had a sweets craving just now, and knew full well that I had nothing in the house.

But then I remembered the single scoop of Jeni's Brown Butter Almond Brittle ice cream that I had accidentally stored in my (very cold) refrigerator. In addition, I had a half-pint of Whole Foods pomegranate seeds, given to me by a friend who left town and didn't want them to go bad.

I poured the pomegranate seeds in a bowl, and then the liquefied ice cream atop them, and had a dessert that I would have paid $15 for at Kinship.

Damn this was good, and I didn't think I had a thing in the house! Better than 95% of restaurant desserts for sure.

And the wine? A 1997 Coulée de Serrant, which made it into a downright special occasion. *Easily* a one-star Michelin dessert, out of nowhere.

Honest-to-goodness, the only thing left in my refrigerator right now is a smoke detector (which wouldn't shut up), wrapped in a package containing my will. Yes, you read that correctly - I had to find something to insulate the smoke detector in, and didn't bother to take the will out of the case. If anything happens to me in the next few days, you know where to look. :o:lol:

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On 11/19/2017 at 6:50 PM, DonRocks said:

And the wine? A 1997 Coulée de Serrant, which made it into a downright special occasion. *Easily* a one-star Michelin dessert, out of nowhere.

Wonders never cease to amaze me how resourceful you are. In my opinion, any occasion with fine wine is a special occasion, especially paired with something as humble as ice cream. Making the ordinary, extraordinary. 

Chez Rocks,

kat

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On 11/22/2017 at 9:32 AM, kitkatpaddywak said:

Wonders never cease to amaze me how resourceful you are. In my opinion, any occasion with fine wine is a special occasion, especially paired with something as humble as ice cream. Making the ordinary, extraordinary. 

Chez Rocks,

kat

Kat,

You are a good, kind person.

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I was excited to try the Pineapple Upside Down Cake flavor this summer. It was fairly appalling, and did not represent any of my favorite parts of a pineapple upside down cake.

It was so bad it soured me on the brand as a whole -- if that flavor was approved, it's hard to trust them moving forward. 

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Interesting that you say that. I was so excited when Jeni's opened in Bethesda. A friend and I went a few weeks ago and we got the Sweet Cream Biscuits and Peach Jam. It was so overly sweet and gross that i ended up throwing it away. Wasn't worth the calories. All of their ice cream flavors look achingly sweet. The lines are long every night, maybe I picked the wrong flavor.

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On 7/18/2020 at 8:18 PM, will_5198 said:

I was excited to try the Pineapple Upside Down Cake flavor this summer. It was fairly appalling, and did not represent any of my favorite parts of a pineapple upside down cake.

It was so bad it soured me on the brand as a whole -- if that flavor was approved, it's hard to trust them moving forward. 

On 7/18/2020 at 9:29 PM, susan said:

Interesting that you say that. I was so excited when Jeni's opened in Bethesda. A friend and I went a few weeks ago and we got the Sweet Cream Biscuits and Peach Jam. It was so overly sweet and gross that i ended up throwing it away. Wasn't worth the calories. All of their ice cream flavors look achingly sweet. The lines are long every night, maybe I picked the wrong flavor.

I find that ice creams that are the simplest are the best and hardest to screw up. I am the kind of person that generally does not like stuff in my ice cream - chunks of this and that dough, whatever - it does not belong in ice cream I eat. There are some rare exceptions involving properly very small chocolate bits and even more rare things when I make ice cream at home. Anyway, that is just another reason not to order complicated flavors of ice cream when out. But that's just me.

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4 hours ago, Pool Boy said:

I find that ice creams that are the simplest are the best and hardest to screw up. I am the kind of person that generally does not like stuff in my ice cream - chunks of this and that dough, whatever - it does not belong in ice cream I eat. There are some rare exceptions involving properly very small chocolate bits and even more rare things when I make ice cream at home. Anyway, that is just another reason not to order complicated flavors of ice cream when out. But that's just me.

To keep this on topic, I will say that I sent a Jeni’s 6 pint gift to my SIL who is an ice cream lover and the verdict was too sweet!

I will say that the packaging was great and the dry ice works it’s magic- no melting in transit!

I did enjoy the Frose served on 14th street last fall though- the right amount of sweetness and the right temperature .

I also like my ice cream pure and devoid of things that need chewing.For me, the temperature had to be just right - when the ice cream is just a bit “stretchy” from cup to spoon. My favorite flavor had been Ben And Jerry’s White Russian .. but alas they discontinued that plain flavor and started adding all kinds of additions.

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2 hours ago, naxos said:

To keep this on topic, I will say that I sent a Jeni’s 6 pint gift to my SIL who is an ice cream lover and the verdict was too sweet!

That could mean the ice cream had too much sugar, or that ... darling, you simply *shouldn't* have!

clutch.jpg

No ... you asshole ... it's *mink* ... you REALLY shouldn't have!

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On 7/18/2020 at 9:29 PM, susan said:

Interesting that you say that. I was so excited when Jeni's opened in Bethesda. A friend and I went a few weeks ago and we got the Sweet Cream Biscuits and Peach Jam. It was so overly sweet and gross that i ended up throwing it away. Wasn't worth the calories. All of their ice cream flavors look achingly sweet. The lines are long every night, maybe I picked the wrong flavor.

2 hours ago, naxos said:

To keep this on topic, I will say that I sent a Jeni’s 6 pint gift to my SIL who is an ice cream lover and the verdict was too sweet!.

You know, I first tried Jeni's about 2.5-years ago, and I thought it was wonderful; I believe it has really changed since then. It also seems like it has become a *lot* easier to find, and apparently this perceived drop in quality / rise in quantity isn't my imagination:

Nov 22, 2019 - "Here's What's Driving the Expansion of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, According to its CFO" by Dan Eaton on bizjournals.com

In the article, the CEO claims that "we have not lowered the quality of a single item" - that would not be in keeping with my experience. I won't come out and say "he's lying," because I have no proof of that, so let's just leave it at, "that would not be in keeping with my experience."

Leave it to a suit-and-tie with an MBA to fuck everything up in the name of making another dollar.

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33 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Nov 22, 2019 - "Here's What's Driving the Expansion of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, According to its CFO" by Dan Eaton on bizjournals.com

In the article, the CEO claims that "we have not lowered the quality of a single item" - that would not be in keeping with my experience. I won't come out and say "he's lying," because I have no proof of that, so let's just leave it at, "that would not be in keeping with my experience."

Perhaps there is an unchanged “single item” The trick is to find it.

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