By Tanya Henry
This week, Posie, the uber hip, chef-owned ice cream parlor in downtown Larkspur, will mark its first year in business. With flavors like Grass Fed and Rose & Rhubarb, Posie is not your mother’s ice cream shoppe.
Black chalkboards with chunky, Scrabble-like lettering denote the store’s offerings, and the sleek open space boasts both a counter with stools and a communal table. Plenty of glass windows, high ceilings and white wainscoting give the room a modern, stylish vibe.
Owner Kyle Caporicci, San Anselmo resident and pastry chef, brings his considerable culinary acumen to his new gig. His résumé includes stints at San Francisco’s Campton Place and Michelin-starred Commis in Oakland. He knows his way around the kitchen—and it should be noted that along with cones, Posie’s menu also includes several baked sweets and a couple of sandwich and salad options, including a grilled cheese sandwich for kids.
But it’s summertime and it’s the ice cream that steals the show here. Twelve different flavors are offered daily, and customers can opt for house-made, gluten-free cones or compostable cups. The Grass Fed flavor includes wheat grass and olive oil. I know—those do not sound like ingredients that should be anywhere near an ice cream cone, but quite remarkably they work. The Pink Panther combined marshmallow, raspberry and strawberry, and was a bit cloying for my taste. Two other flavors stood out as unusual and tasty: A Blueberry Magnolia and a #1 Dad that boasted steel-cut oats.
Along with wildly inventive flavors, Caporicci prepares his ice cream base and pasteurizes it in-house. He says that this gives him creative control to adjust the base for every unique flavor. Since the range of ingredients can vary from rhubarb and fresh mint to violets and olive oil, I imagine that there is a fair amount of tweaking involved.
Prices are high, but then again, not all ice cream is created equal. And quite often these cones boast fresh-from-the-farmers’-market ingredients.
Posie, 250B Magnolia Ave., Larkspur; 415/891-8395.
