The weather has been brilliant lately! Go outside, enjoy the city, and cool down with some ice cream.
Marble Slab is a franchise with over 500 locations around the world. They have 5 locations in Metro Vancouver: 1 in Burnaby, 1 in New West, 1 in Coquitlam, 1 in Langley, and 1 in Downtown Vancouver on Denman Street (which is the one I visited). The former 4 are in pretty boring locations; ice cream will still taste great at the mall, but it’ll taste even better by the beach (the Denman Marble Slab is steps away from English Bay). On a hot day, the line ups will stretch out the door to the curb… but it moves pretty fast.
What’s so special about Marble Slab? Apparently, they are the ones that popularized the mix-in approach to ice cream toppings. Here’s how it works.
1. You choose your ice cream flavour.
2. You choose your Mixin (e.g. Oreo cookies, strawberries, M&Ms, etc.).
3. You choose your cone.
4. You pay for your purchase (this step sucks).
The Marble Slave slave will then mix the mixin you chose (step 2) into the ice cream you chose (step 1) by ways of kneading them together over a cold marble slab (hence the name).
And that’s the result. For the record, peanut butter ice cream + Skor chunks on the left, chocolate amarretto + walnuts on the right, English Bay + Stanely Park in the background.
Ice cream seems to melt quicker on a hot day than gelato so you’ll have to eat fast… which should be no problem because it tastes so damn good.
Filed under: Desserts, Vancouver | 8 Comments
Tags: denman, fixin, ice cream, marble slab
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Btw, I was walking along Denman last night around 10pm and there was STILL a huge line spilling outside of Marble Slab. They must be doing very well. Beach + ice cream is a no brainer though, which probably explains all the other dessert joints on Denman. Off the top of my head, there is a Dairy Queen, Mondo Gelato, Marble Slab, Cookies by George, Beard Papa, Saint Germain Bakery, True Confections, and Cupcakes!
We visited Marble Slab over the weekend for the first time. Over $7 for a Bananas Foster in a dipped cone (banana + caramel + vanilla ice cream). It was handed to me in a half-melted mass so I didn’t have a chance to take a photo. Personally, the resulting concoction was not worth the money or the long line…it’ll be back to Mondo Gelato next time we’re by English Bay.
Though gotta give them kudos for having Ultra Lactaid for sale in case lactose intolerant folks (like me) forgot to bring ‘em.
I was *just* thinking about checking this place out and was thrown off a bit by the comments left on Dinehere. I think I’ll still give it a try though… Didn’t know there was one in Burnaby!
That’s too bad Karen. The stuff really does melt quite quickly. The long lines, hot weather, and young staff probably didn’t help either :) Mondo is great.
It’s strange. Vancouver really is a gelato city. I don’t know why. I love Mondo too, but the ratio of gelato places to old-skool ice cream places seems suspiciously high to me. Maybe gelato fits Vancouver’s Lululemon culture better than ice cream does?
To me, it’s kinda like a fruit smoothy vs. a milkshake. Both are good. A fruit smoothy packs a lot of flavour and a little less guilt… but sometimes you just need the creamy decadence that only a milkshake/ice cream can provide :p
PS: A basic Marble Slab ice cream (i.e. waffle cone + 1 flavour + 1 fixin) will run you about $5-$6. Add more fixins or fancier dipped cones and the price will go north of $7. I agree with Karen; even with crazy inflation everywhere, $7+ for an ice cream cone just seems wrong.
True, Vancouverites do like their gelato. I usually get my ice cream fix outside of the GVRD. If ESR ever does a Winnipeg excursion during the summertime, the BDI (Bridge Drive In) is an ice cream must.
As far as Marble Slab goes, one of the readers at Tiny Bites mentioned that the takeout pints in the freezer behind the usual lineup give you best bang for buck.
You’re making me wonder whether a Vancouver ice creamery hunt is in order…you guys interested?
the best ice cream ever!!!!!!!! :D
Nice blog you got going.
Am I the only one that wishes they bring back Baskin Robbins? It’s hard to find one nowadays around the city.
I recently visited Marble Slab as well…for my review, check it out at:
http://ilovefoodblog.blogspot.com/
OMG – get real people. Marble Slab uses no additives or preservatives or artificial flavorings – they tell you that right up front and and you can TASTE how real and pure it is. No bad after taste and it doesn’t leave you really thirsty. Quality doesn’t come cheap – not when you use high end ingredients. And as for the price – cream, cocoa and sugar prices keep going up (after all, they are commodities – just like Fuel) so how could anyone with a real brain expect that this place would be cheap (if you consider $5-6 cheap these days!)? Just in case you really live in a black hole, check housing prices – EVERYTHING is relative and inflates. That’s why most of us get salary increases every year! If the product is too expensive – stay home, buy a safeway pail of ice cream instead and help keep the lines down for those of us who LOVE quality and aren’t afraid to pay for it! AND stop whining about it.