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Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of attending the Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream #SweetUp Event, hosted by Edible Cleveland and the Ohio Blogging Association. And my heart is exploding with happy from this event!
If you’re unfamiliar with the Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream’s flagship store in the heart of Ohio City, here’s the deal:
It opened just recently in the old Moda building. The first floor features an ice cream shop lobby with plenty of seating options. When you’re order your scoops at the front counter, you have full-view of where the magic happens (aka – where they make the goodies!).
We headed upstairs to a big party room overlooking W.25th, ABC The Tavern & Town Hall and on the other side — the ice cream kitchen! Not only was the space beautiful but the layout was awesome. Moosh enjoyed the views and took it all in!
After saying hi to lots of friends, Mike Mitchell, co-founder of Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream, talked to us about his vision for ice cream, sustainability, and the city that he loves — Cleveland.
It was refreshing to gain his perspective on why they will not (ever) ship their ice cream — sustainability. Mike Mitchell’s philosophy is that if you live in Cleveland, you should eat Cleveland ice cream. If you live in Phoenix (his example), eat Phoenix ice cream! The carbon footprint of ice cream being shipped is crazy ridiculous. Could not agree more!
I felt like a complete food-nerd because I was in shock and awe of Mike and his food philosophy. During his Q+A session Moosh kept running through the crowd fistbumping everyone — including Mike Mitchell! They were all awesome sports!
The Agrarian Collective supplied some super yummy + healthy eats. Ari kept signing “More! More!” so it even has foodie-baby’s stamp of approval.
After the Q+A session and the snacking, it was time for our ‘perfect ice cream scoop’ training and official taste-testing! Although ice cream, and in particular Mitchell’s, is my ultimate weakness, I’m in the middle of a 7-day clean-eating cleanse. So I skipped the delicious ice cream.
But Ari didn’t. Nope. Not even a little bit. Kid came to eat!!
Post-ice cream a big storm rolled in and knocked out most of the power down W.25th in Ohio City, which sounded of some pretty serious fire alarms in Mitchell’s HQ! 2 babies in the house, screaming, but we survived! And lucky for us, Mitchell’s has powerful backup generators (the patrons at surrounding restaurants = not so lucky!).
Several minutes later the Fire Department showed up to make sure we were all in the clear. Mr. Fireman, axe and all, was cool enough to pose for a couple of pictures as Moosh looked on admiringly. <3
You would think that after a wild night and tons of sugary ice cream he would have stayed awake all night. Totally, totally, not the case! He didn’t exactly fall asleep on the way home. He wanted me to hold his hand (yes, from the front seat. Awkward angle = ouch. But I loved every second of it) the whole way home. When we got home, I put him straight to bed. We snuggled for a few minutes and there were zero tears; zero fussing. Just one exhausted Moosh.
If nothing else, I walked away with more friends, a worn out baby, and an even deeper appreciation of Mitchell’s AND the city of CLE!
That place looks amazing! I imagine it would be something sort of similar to Jeni’s here in Columbus. Ice cream was my number one craving when I was pregnant!
He was such a good boy the whole time – really a sweet little boy!! It was fun seeing you again. Hopefully it will happen again soon 🙂