New Mid-City shop delivers high-quality ice cream

In the middle of Beverly Boulevard now sits a shop with a calm and welcoming atmosphere. The door to Sweet Rose Creamery opens into a symphony of smells, coming from both the ice cream freezer and the sweets case.

Sweet Rose Creamery got its start when the husband and wife duo of Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan decided that the L.A. area lacked restaurants that are both delicious and down-to-earth.

As a result, Loeb and Nathan set out a few years ago to open restaurants with a commitment to high-quality local ingredients, talented and kind employees and hand-made dishes. They are now the owners of Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Seasonal Kitchen, their farm-to-kitchen, dinner-only restaurant; Huckleberry Cafe & Bakery, a coffee and pastry shop; Milo & Olive, which features a bakery-driven breakfast and small-plate lunch, and Sweet Rose Creamery.

SRC pasteurizes on site and begins every ice cream and sorbet recipe from scratch — and it shows. The ice cream is of the highest quality in taste and in texture. Both the ice cream — with and without dairy — and the sorbet have a perfectly creamy texture and manage to melt slowly without dripping down the cone.

Even the sorbets, which are often tricky for eateries to master, have a creamy texture.  The pomegranate sorbet proffers the perfect tang with just a touch of sweetness.  This coupled with a creamy texture that isn’t normally found in sorbets makes the first bite a pleasant surprise.

Ice cream stores often try relentlessly to create unique flavors, usually to no avail; but SRC manages to create spot-on recipes for flavors such as toasted almond, ginger and pomegranate. The distinctive flavors help SRC to stand out in a crowd, but its versions of ice cream staples are what make it an outstanding shop.

The banana ice cream tastes exactly like freshly baked banana bread — just a little colder. The salted caramel is also a perfectly creamy blend of sea salt and rich caramel and, when served with a sprinkle of coarse sea salt on top, is a delectable treat for those looking for something less sweet. Together, though, the banana and salted caramel create the perfect Bananas Foster-esque delicacy.

The truest test of an ice cream store, though, is their vanilla. And SRC nails it. They steep the perfect amount of vanilla into a thick, creamy base to create a vanilla that exceeds expectations. In a fresh, homemade chocolate waffle cone, the SRC vanilla is nearly unbeatable.

The waffle cone, a welcome change from the traditional cone, is a delectable addition to SRC’s ice cream.  The perfect crunch on the ouside complements a softer inside, which, together, create the perfect bed for any of SRC’s flavors.  The cones, which come in chocolate and original flavors, are handmade every day by the staff at SRC.

The stores feature at least 12 flavors each day, which consist of ice creams, sorbets and dairy-free ice creams. The ice cream freezer holds a wicker shelf with elegant stainless steel bowls for each flavor, making them all the more appealing to sweet-toothed patrons.

Along with their ice cream, their sweets case contains hand-made, made-from-scratch cones and toppings, frozen treats, pies and cakes and patrons can order fruit pops, coffee, sundaes, milk shakes and ice cream cakes or pies, along with fresh pastries made at the Milo & Olive bakery.

The flavors offered rotate every month and the menu changes to place emphasis on what’s in season to continue their commitment to freshness. When they opened SRC, Loeb and Nathan hired Shiho Yoshikawa as the chef and co-owner of SRC. Every week, Yoshikawa shops at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market for organic and locally grown fresh fruits and herbs to make the SRC products.

The friendly atmosphere of the shop only makes customers more likely to return for more ice cream. Loeb and Nathan make a point to hire friendly, approachable staff and it shows.  Customers feel comfortable and welcome throughout  their visits. The staff on Beverly Boulevard offers samples galore and topping suggestions based on their favorite combinations.

The only drawback at the SRC is the spoons. The bowls of the spoons used at SRC are too deep, which leads to residual ice cream left in the bottom after each bite.

Loeb and Nathan opened the original SRC location at the Brentwood Country Mart and, after the glowing response it received, opened a second location on Pico Boulevard. Yesterday marked the opening of their third location at Beverly Boulevard.

This post has been updated to reflect the Mid-City, not Downtown, location of the new Sweet Rose Creamery shop as previously reported.