Super Serve‘s Tahini-Coffee Soft Serve with Milk Crumble and Cornflake and Pretzel Crunch, $7, 562 Dundas St. W.
The dish
Start with Super Serve’s coffee-tahini twist ($5.50 for a cup or cone, $1 extra for a waffle cone), a harmonious combination of Hatch coffee and tahini created by manager, baker and recipe developer Sidney Mountfort. There’s an undertone of earthy, bittersweet nuttiness that settles on the tongue after the initial hit of sugar. Despite being dairy-free (all of Mountfort’s seasonal creations are vegan), the soft serve has a luxe texture from a blend of rice and coconut milks (you don’t taste either).
For toppings, Mountfort and I came up with a combination of milk crumble, a shortbread cookie crumble made with milk powder and white chocolate, and cornflake and pretzel crunch (toppings are 75 cents each). The milk crumble mellows the coffee, while the cornflake and pretzel crunch adds a savoury, crispy contrast and a subtle peanut butter finish to the tahini.
Super Serve’s two soft serve machines aim to please everyone: one is devoted to classic chocolate and vanilla dairy soft serve for purists, while the other is reserved for Mountfort’s seasonal creations (as if she doesn’t already wear enough hats, she’s also a university student).
The restaurant
Shortly after I wrote about eight of my favourite soft serve places in the city, readers recommended I also check out Super Serve, a three-year-old, seasonal shop.
“Soft serve is a really interesting medium for putting flavours together,” said co-owner Owen Walker, who first came to prominence as a bartender. “Similar to a cocktail, you need balance and body (in soft serve). What flavourings and toppings you can add to give dimension? You can add a fresh Ontario raspberry compote add acidity to the depth and bitterness of tahini and coffee.”
As for the “New Fashion Hairstylist” sign out front, it’s a tribute to the hair salon that used to be there, as well as its late owner, who also used to own the building. “He was truly the sweetest guy. He was known as the Perm King,” said Walker, who is also a partner at perpetually popular spots such as Pizzeria Badiali and Quetzel, as well as the just-opened French restaurant Les Incompetents in St. Catharines.
What else is on the menu
The underrated hit at Super Serve is the Super Cookie Sundae ($7.95), which is worth ordering for Mountfort’s cookie alone. Two generously sized cookies with gooey, brownie-like centres sandwich a swirl of vanilla soft serve drizzled with salted caramel.
“We use Callebaut dark and milk chocolate chips, and the inside is very fudgy because we use a lot of egg yolks and powdered sugar that makes it custardy in the middle and super crunchy on the outside so you always have that fresh-baked texture,” she said.
A light dusting of salt flakes on the cookie rounds out the sundae, balancing the caramel sauce. The aforementioned raspberry compote is best enjoyed in the vegan Feature Super Serve Sundae ($7.95), which consists of the coffee-tahini soft serve twist finished with two little brownie bites.
Explore the area
This is a prime foodie starting point. Directly north is Kensington Market, where I still like to get groceries. Global Cheese (76 Kensington Ave.), Sanagan’s Meat Locker (176 Baldwin St., be sure to pick up some $3 sausage rolls) and Blackbird Baking Co. (172 Baldwin St.) are an essential holy trio for summer picnics. If you’re still in a soft serve state of mind, head to Sunny’s Chinese (60 Kensington Ave.) which just started serving Ontario corn soft serve. Head west towards Bathurst for the Market 707 shipping container food market for Omusubi Bar Suzume’s seasonal Japanese rice balls (a sure bet in our Top 100 Under $100 guide) and NomNomNom Poutine for the closest thing to getting your gravy and cruds from a roadside stop in Quebec. In the other direction is Chinatown where New Sky Restaurant’s new and expanded dining room (444 Spadina Ave.) has a separate chifa menu specialzing in Peruvian-Chinese cuisine.
