When you think of ice cream, you usually think of ingredients like milk, cream and sugar…but how about integrity, honesty and sincerity? Gracie and the Dudes in Sea Bright, New Jersey, not only serves ice cream, sorbet and other yummy treats made with only 100% natural ingredients, but the shop happens to be owned by Brian and Michelle McMullin, two of the nicest people you will ever meet. Brian and Michelle are passionate about ensuring their products are made with 100% natural, highest-quality ingredients – and they are equally passionate about making sure you don’t have to empty your wallet in order to enjoy that quality!
(Photo courtesy Gracie and the Dudes)
The shop is named after Michelle and Brian’s three children (Sadie has since arrived, and they plan on adding her to the name soon), who are their inspiration for providing homemade, 100% natural products. The McMullins are truly wonderful people, who have their customers’ best interests at heart. They value integrity and good, old-fashioned neighborly values over profit, and are committed to serving the highest-quality, best-tasting products possible.
Let’s face it, though – it’s all about how the ice cream tastes, isn’t it? You can be the nicest people with the best of intentions, but an ice cream shop needs to serve yummy ice cream…and Gracie and the Dudes does exactly that! Practically everything they serve is homemade – not only the ice cream, sorbet and frozen yogurt, but also the hot fudge and bourbon caramel sauce (seriously…BOURBON CARAMEL SAUCE!).
The oatmeal cookies in their Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie ice cream are homemade, and the biscotti in their Amaretto Biscotti are also homemade…if there is a cookie, brownie, or even granola in their ice cream, they are all homemade! And every single ingredient in Gracie and the Dudes’ ice cream is 100% natural, from the fruit to the peanut butter!
Blueberry
Zagnut
In addition to rich, creamy ice cream, Gracie and the Dudes makes fresh fruit sorbet, made with only fruit, sugar and water, and the creamiest homemade fat free frozen yogurt! I absolutely loved the sorbet – instead of bright red cherry sorbet that tasted like an overly-sweet popsicle, Gracie and the Dudes’ cherry sorbet tasted and looked like the fresh cherries it was made from.
The most unique flavor I tasted at Gracie and the Dudes was their Cono’s Special Espresso:
See all those little specks in the ice cream? Those aren’t vanilla bean flecks – this espresso ice cream is made with both brewed espresso and the actual coffee grounds from the espresso! I know, it sounds crazy – but it tastes amazing! If you like those little chocolate-covered espresso beans sold in candy shops, you will LOVE this ice cream!
Gracie and the Dudes also sells these incredibly decadent ice cream bars:
Chocolate cake (homemade, of course!) is topped with vanilla ice cream, then cut into a candy bar shape, enrobed in chocolate, and served with Gracie and the Dudes’ incredible caramel sauce. I only sampled one, but a typical order is made up of three of these decadent little bars topped with warm caramel and whipped cream for dipping!
As if all of this wasn’t enough, Gracie and the Dudes also offers something that most ice cream shops wouldn’t even dream of…wedding cakes! Not typical rosette-and-shell-border-trimmed ice cream cakes that happen to be served at a wedding, but beautiful, unique wedding cakes that are made from Gracie and the Dudes’ fabulous ice cream!
(Photo courtesy Gracie and the Dudes)
Think about it – homemade, 100% natural, highest-quality, delicious ice cream, made by people who truly have your best interests at heart – do you really need another reason to go to Gracie and the Dudes? And by the way…when you do go…be sure to try the Cono’s Special Espresso or the Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie!
Would love to visit this someday. Super yummy looking
these flavors sound soo good, and all natural too! Fabulous!
I promise myself not to read another Random Cravings’ post while hungry
Ice cream sounds decadent!