Jeni's Ice Cream, a Columbus, OH Based Ice Cream Chain - 14th and U Street, Open 11AM-11PM Every Day

[KeithA]

10 hours ago, dpamlin said:

So is this place worth the hype?

Yes. Great quality ice cream with good standard flavors and some good creative flavors. Go ask for tastes and you'll probably find several you like. I like the brambleberry. Also there fresh waffle cones or waffle cone pieces are good.

[Bob Wells]

13 hours ago, KeithA said:

Yes. Great quality ice cream with good standard flavors and some good creative flavors. Go ask for tastes and you'll probably find several you like. I like the brambleberry. Also there fresh waffle cones or waffle cone pieces are good.

Thanks -- the Brambleberry looks like it's one of the flavors that H-T carries. I will give it a shot!

[meatwad]

On 12/4/2019 at 10:03 PM, ad.mich said:

This is a good read, but I think there's another piece of the response that isn't discussed. When the scoop shops reopened there was a noticeable shift in the menu a little closer to the middle of the road. Jeni's has always had some out there flavors, but now there were one or two less on the menu to make way for a cookies & cream or rocky road. The shop near me has a perpetual line that's mostly kids and I doubt they're going for the goat cheese and cherries. I'd guess there were some capitulations made in the name of business that helped them stumble on an insanely successful menu formula that has served them very well.

...and the more out there stuff still absolutely bumps. A relative brought a pint of the seasonal cognac gingerbread to a get together the night before Thanksgiving and damn that's some really good stuff. 

You're astute! There are many variations on a theme instead of more one-offs. IMO Jeni's operates on a very high level and the shops do seem *slightly* less magical. Consider that the 35 shops are over half of company revenue. This is compared to e-commerce and over 3,000 retail accounts.

[Pat]

The Jeni's location on Barracks Row is open. I'd only seen one mention of it and wasn't sure it was accurate, but passed by today just before noon and it is, indeed, open.

[DonRocks]

This chain has become a joke.

"Cognac with Gingerbread"
"White Chocolate Peppermint"
"Gooey Butter Cake"
"Texas Sheet Cake"

or how about this one:

"Skillet Cinnamon Roll" (Dark caramel, creme cheese, pastry [?!], and cinnamon (lots of it))"

Spend $10 on corporate crap at Jeni's,
or $15 on the best gelato, ice cream, and sorbet you've ever had in your life at Happy Gyro.
Enjoy whichever choice you make.

I cannot imagine ever buying another pint of Jeni's ice cream again in my life. (<--- Hey, is this why my website has never become popular?) 

[Keithstg]

Told you.

[Marty L.]

I don't think it's necessary to bash Jeni's ("crap"?  really?) in order to exclaim the virtues of Happy Gyro's extraordinary desserts.

I think some Jeni's flavors are very good, albeit overpriced.  For $10 (rather than $15), I'd almost always opt for Reveler's Hour or 2 Amys ice creams, but Jeni's is easier to find at many retail shops.

[DonRocks]

1 hour ago, Marty L. said:

I don't think it's necessary to bash Jeni's ("crap"?  really?) in order to exclaim the virtues of Happy Gyro's extraordinary desserts.

I think some Jeni's flavors are very good, albeit overpriced.  For $10 (rather than $15), I'd almost always opt for Reveler's Hour or 2 Amys ice creams, but Jeni's is easier to find at many retail shops.

It wasn't my intent to damn a Pontiac by putting it next to a Porsche, but if any readers want to treat my post as Invitational Rhetoric, I would urge them to exercise their right of self-determination.

Jeni's feared decline seems to be continuing apace, aided by standing on the shoulders of Giants (*).

(*) 

[reedm]

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I find the Lemon & Blueberries Parfait to be excellent. And yes, Jeni's is expensive. 🙂

[DonRocks]

On 11/16/2020 at 7:30 AM, reedm said:

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I find the Lemon & Blueberries Parfait to be excellent. And yes, Jeni's is expensive. 🙂

Reed, I honestly don't have a dog in the fight either - it's just that I'm seeing inklings of what I've seen a hundred times before.

Their ingredients still appear to be honorable, and this appears to be one of their core flavors.

It's the expansion of ingredients (and by extension, "flavors of ice cream"), plus the exponential increase in advertising - not to mention that they're being found at more-and-more ordinary places - that are the concrete facts that make me skeptical.

You know what? I'll never delete this, so if I'm wrong in a couple of years, I want you all to rub my face in it - seriously.

The "craft beer" crowd - which doesn't want to see that so-called 'craft beers' are by-and-large hoppy crap (yes, crap) - is a precedent for the decline and fall of ice cream.

Does anyone buy beer anymore with confidence? I sure don't. I have no idea what to purchase - you need to be intricately tied-in with the industry to know what's what at this point. I think beer has declined in quality more than just about anything in the past ten years (and I find it so ... galling? amusing? annoying? ... that these so-called "Craft Beer Experts" - who are nothing more than paid shills that don't have jack-diddly-shit for palates, but gleefully accept the beer-companies' accolades - are supposedly "in the know.") They don't know dick. 

You know what? It's the same with Bourbon and Rye. I went to buy some tonight, and wished-to-God I could have texted Jake Parrott for help (I could have, and he would have helped me, but it seems the only time I text him is when I'm in a liquor store and don't know what to do, and I don't want our friendship to devolve into that) - so I didn't text him, and stuck with James Pepper 1776 Rye 100 Proof which is fine (it's good, actually), but I know he could have helped me do better.

It takes *such hard work* to stay current on all this stuff, and to do that while remaining independent? Good luck. I sleep very well at night, knowing that I haven't ever compromised my standards, even though I may be dead-wrong on something - perhaps even Jeni's Ice Cream (but I don't think I'm going to be wrong about Jeni's).