Yesterday I stopped by Lisa G for lunch and got a taste of some delicious ice cream made just a few doors down on 7th Street. Salted caramel with almonds, fresh mint with chocolate, and chocolate with cocoa nibs . . . all delish.
Crave Artisan Ice Cream is now operating out of the space formerly occupied by The Art of Soup, and although it's a wholesale business, not a retail ice cream shop, there are places to get it around town, including the Downtown Phoenix Public Market.
Owner Shannon Dufresne tells me she worked as a pastry assistant for celebrated pastry chef Tracy Dempsey after culinary school, and just really loved making ice cream -- even in her off time.
That led to starting her own business making all-natural, small-batch ice cream from rbst-free Arizona dairy products, local fruit, and other products from Arizona farms, such as Fistiki Farms (Coolidge), Briggs Orchard (Wilcox), Tularosa Ranch (Wilcox), Maya's Farm (Phoenix), Sarah Farms (Yuma), Lost Dutchman Roasting Company (Tempe), and Arizona Vanilla Company (Mesa).
I'm looking forward to trying some of Dufresne's other flavors, including lavender with almond, spicy chocolate, brown sugar, and bourbon vanilla bean.
