Second Helpings: Ice Creameries, Part II

"Second Helpings" offers tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week's entries were updated by Erin Mosow. For quick, reliable information about Austin eateries, check here.

Barton Creek Square Mall

2901 Capital of TX Hwy. S., 306-8551

Lakeline Mall

11200 Lakeline Mall Dr., 335-5722

Both locations open Monday-Saturday 10am-9pm; Sunday noon-6pm

If this is the "Ice Cream of the Future," I won't be eating much ice cream in the future. Dippin' Dots flash-freezes their ice cream in a super-cold manner that allows it to maintain the consistency of little dots not unlike those in a capsule of Contac. The result is certainly novel, but not enough to justify such high prices for such small portions.

Swensen's Ice Cream

Highland Mall, 6001 Airport, 451-1601

Barton Creek Square Mall, 2901 Capital of TX Hwy. S., 327-0939

2525 W. Anderson Ln., 453-7054

All locations open Monday-Saturday 10am-9pm; Sunday noon-6pm

Established in 1948 in San Francisco, Swensen's does its best to re-create an old-timey soda fountain atmosphere in ubiquitous mall settings. Their 30-plus flavors offer plenty of variety, and a gooey hot fudge sundae makes a much more inexpensive indulgence than most mall goods. Swensen's also has lowfat ice cream, sugar-free ice cream, and even cholesterol-free frozen yogurt for the calorie-counting set.

TCBY

Four locations in Austin

From one store in Little Rock to more than 3,000 locations today, TCBY ("The Country's Best Yogurt") is the largest frozen yogurt chain in the world. TCBY offers soft-serve frozen yogurt, hand-dipped frozen yogurt, hand-dipped ice cream, and sorbet. Many of the frozen yogurt flavors are fat-free, and a handful are sugar-free. TCBY will top your confection with everything from hot fudge to Gummi Bears. They also serve sundaes, splits, shakes, and smoothies.

Smoothies Paradise

Barton Creek Square Mall, 306-0590

Daily 10am-9pm

This little mall outlet serves up frothy smoothies in your choice of variations, and they also scoop several flavors of Texas' favorite Blue Bell ice cream in cups to cool you off during shopping sprees.

Kevin's Cookies & Deli

816 Congress, 472-2388

1501 S. MoPac #140, 327-6888

Both locations open Monday-Friday 7am-5pm

www.kevinscookies.com

Kevin's is a bustling deli serving up breakfast pastries, sandwiches, soups, and salads. They're also known for a signature line of gourmet cookies and scoops of Blue Bell ice cream's greatest hits such as cookies 'n' cream, pralines 'n' cream, chocolate mint, and triple chocolate. Try one of the fruity smoothies with fresh fruit for a little less sugar.

Slicer's

3616 Far West Blvd., 345-9466

Daily 10am-3pm

Slicer's has been one of Northwest Hill's favorite sandwich shops for years. Part of their popularity has to be because they're scooping eight different flavors of Blue Bell ice cream every day. There's chocolate and vanilla for purists and strawberry cheesecake if you're feeling adventurous.