Columbia Eats: Paradise Ice

Main Street's restoration continues to get more amazing with its latest addition, Paradise Ice, an Italian ice and organic frozen custard shop. While Columbia has a lot of great things going for it food-wise, handmade, local icy treats are one of the few things the capital city has been missing and in dire need of in my humble opinion. Paradise Ice, however, solves that issue with some innovative ideas and just flat-out wonderful flavors.

Tangerine Lime Italian Ice. Wonderful.

I wandered in with some friends this past week and was immediately in struck in awe at the bold flavors on their always-rotating menu. We sampled just about everything that could be sampled, from the rich coffee and cinnamon and decadent apple pie custards to the refreshing, sweet and tangy pomegranate blueberry Italian ice. We even had a scoop of their curious concoction of the week, an Adluh grit and berry custard which had the strangest, yet unusually wonderful texture and taste I have had the pleasure of trying in a long time. Everything at Paradise Ice really popped in flavor and had a wonderful homemade quality to it that made decision-time a real challenge. I ended up going with the tangerine lime, which exploded with huge tangerine flavor, along with some really nice subtle lime. You could see all the bits of lime rind in the cup, which made for a really refreshing afternoon snack to cool down with during another hot and humid Columbia summer day.

Overall, I'm ecstatic about Main Street's new addition. Along with the Mast General Store and the Nickelodeon's grand opening coming in September, downtown Columbia is finally starting to look like a place to be for once, and that's really exciting news. Support local by heading over to Main St. and helping Columbia become a real place to be!