As an adult, I sometimes eat dessert first.  I still feel guilty about it, but it is a choice I am able to make.  This week is Thanksgiving, which has great desserts.  The desserts are usually at the end of the meal when I am too full to enjoy them.  But, if I am lucky, there are leftovers for later.  Because Thanksgiving is all about food (and being thankful!), this week’s blog posts will all be about restaurants or food places.  These are all places we tried out for the first time in the last few months.

I’ll write about “eat dessert first.”  I heard about a new ice cream place called CRMD and we had to check it out.  There are two CRMD locations, one in Short North and one in Lewis Center.  The Lewis Center location is in between our house and John and Jackie’s, so we met them there to sample the ice cream.

CRMD ice cream has some unique flavors and even more unique colors.  The vanilla ice cream was black because it has coconut activated charcoal.  I’m not sure what that means, but Tom, my vanilla loving traditionalist, didn’t want to touch it.  Matcha flavor tastes like green tea.  Cle Brownie Bites has brownie bites in vanilla ice cream, but the vanilla ice cream is orange.  Cookies and CRMD is purple.

You can order lots of different toppings on your ice cream.  One unique way CRMD serves ice cream is on a puffle cone, an egg waffle popular in Macau and Hong Kong.  The puffle cones are made fresh while you wait.  They smell like a waffle cone but are soft instead of crunchy.

Another unique twist to the CRMD at Lewis Center is a hidden speakeasy back bar.  Inside the shop, Jackie opened the Coke machine to reveal a hallway which led to a bar behind the ice cream shop.  That was kind of fun, but we were there for the ice cream.

I got the Cle Brownie Bites and one scoop was enough for me.  John got two scoops – black vanilla and buckeye in a waffle cone.  Jackie ordered matcha ice cream in a puffle cone.  All the ice cream was very good, but it wasn’t as creamy as I like.  Graeters is still my favorite in Columbus.

Tom didn’t order any ice cream.  It was too strange for him.  Instead, he walked down a few shops to Crave Cookies and got a chocolate chip cookie.  He raved about it so much that all of us went to Crave after we savored our ice cream.  We each got a cookie to take home and enjoy.  Just a warning – only click on the Crave Cookie link if you can resist wanting a warm, gooey, delicious cookie.  Just watching their video makes me want to go pick up some cookies.

Although Crave Cookies doesn’t offer a large variety of cookies, their flavors change weekly and seasonally.  The semisweet chocolate chip cookie is only available on Thursdays.  The white caramel choc-o-lantern was only available in October.  Because the flavors available change so often, it is fun to go in and see what gooey goodness is available this week.  I went over to Lewis Center for a women’s group meeting and asked Tom if I could bring him anything.  He immediately responded “Yes!  A cookie!”

Crave Cookies are delicious, but they are packed with calories.  They are not for anyone on a diet or a budget.  Each one costs about $4, with a slight price break if you get four or more.  That being said, they are worth it as a special treat.  They are so big that Tom and I quarter them and make four cookies out of each one.

Evans Farm is a new mixed-use development that we pass on our way to church every week.  CRMD and Crave are two of the shops along “main street.”  It is probably a good thing that Crave isn’t open on Sundays.  It would be too tempting to pick up a cookie every week after church!  But, if you want to eat dessert first, it is a great place to stop.