(Disclaimer — I don’t like the word “kook.” I think it’s lame and archaic. But it fit as the blog’s headline. “Tweakers and Milk” doesn’t have the same ring. -P.Ho)
This past Saturday Darlene, her brother Warren and I went up to L.A. to hit some favorite haunts and while in Sherman Oaks we spotted a new cupcake place called “Puddin’ Out.” I confess I didn’t get the double entendré until today. Whatever. it takes more than a clever name to be a good cupcake shop, and this one wasn’t.
Oh. I get it…!
The shop was cramped and messy, typical of a mom & pop joint in a struggling strip mall. The selection of cupcakes was modest and I’m still not sure of the exact cake/frosting combos. Why? Because the twitchy dude behind the counter appeared to have been dividing his time between selling pastries and building a meth lab in the back.* I got a red velvet cupcake, Darlene a “Boston mumble mumble” cupcake (that’s how Twitchy identified it) and Warren got an “ice cream cupcake” which was just a hard muffin-shaped cookie cup with ice cream in it. None of us were particularly impressed with our choices. In fact, we’ll never visit again.
*Clearly I’m just kidding. But wow — all of us came away with the same hyperbolic scenario. So there you are.
Meh. I’ve had better.
Now, unlike Puddin’ Out, we had actually scheduled a visit to Milk in Hollywood. I’m glad we did. Milk is probably as close to a “dairy” as I’ll get (a “dairy,” to all you Western young’uns, is what “malt shops” in the Midwest were called 50 years ago). Besides ice cream concoctions, Milk offered soups, salads, sandwiches, coffee beverages and a variety of baked goods.
Love the logo.
It was typical L.A.: lots of hipsters paying 20% more than they should for food in a trendy joint. But to defend Milk, their ice cream was pretty damn good.
Counter culture.
Still digesting the cupcakes from earlier, Darlene and I showed rare restraint and split a trio of Milkies (mint chocolate, peanut butter & chocolate and white chocolate/strawberry bonbons) and an ice cream sandwich. The bonbons were good but the sandwich was exceptional. The meriques (the “sandwich” part) were surprisingly sweet and there were Scrabble tile-sized chunks of toffee embedded in the ice cream.
Milkies!
Mmm… texturey….
I’d like to visit Milk again, but with an empty stomach and a serious sweet tooth to conquer. Next on the list would be their grasshopper ice cream sandwich or banana butterscotch bars. And their cookies and brownies looked really good.
Yes, please.
All the while I was there, I couldn’t help but to think of the grade-school rhyme, “Milk milk lemonade… around the corner fudge is made.” Indeed, around the corner of the front counter, they were making brownies and scones.
P.Ho
My Burning Kitchen 
Don't they have pudding too at that cupcake place? Jenn and I were curious about it, but now I guess we can skip it.
Man, Paul, you had me til the poop reference.Next time call me when you come up, I want ice cream sandwiches too. YUM.
i am laughing, still, in retrospect, after reading this. SO FUNNY! The tweaker/twitchy/meth lab stuff… oh, i know the types only too well. Hilarious.Too bad the cupcakes stunk at Puddin' Out. The premise sounded good… pudding in the middle of a cupcake would be dreamy!As for Milk, their grasshopper ice cream sandwich or banana butterscotch bars both sound super. Lookin' forward to when you're tryin' those babies out.i never'd heard that "milk, milk, lemonade" rhyme before… it cracked me up.Hope the other fave haunts you visited proved less "kooky."
whoa, that looks yummy. i wish i were in LA!
you had me at "scrabble tile-sized chunks of toffee." that. sounds. amazing.
I'm not yet convinced anyone in Hollywood actually eats that stuff. Surely all the stuff in the case is for display/torture purposes only, right?
LOL – your description of the guy behind the counter cracked me up.
You're making me salivate…I am convinced that there are few pleasures, if any, better than ice cream.Even though it's a cold winter day in London (there's snow in the north!), ice cream is all I can think about.
jodi — They had a bin of puddings at Puddin' Out, IIRC. If (and it's a big 'if') we go back, I'd try the pudding.justjenn — I'm all about the poop references. We'd love to hook up and explore quirky spots with you! Same goes if you come to town, too!kleopatra — Thanks!marias23 — 'Twas yummy… at Milk. We would've tried a lot more stuff but Puddin' Out was still in our stomachs.grace — The toffee pieces were embedded into the ice cream, so they were a total surprise!bavarian erin — Oh they eat it, but then they hit the "trendy even for LA" gym for 3-4 hours… or just get lipo. I think I was visibly drooling when I took photos of the display case.kristen — Thanks! I'm about 60% sure he wasn't a tweaker. But while waiting for us to complete our order, he was stripping copper wire out of some appliance power cords.Joke.sean — Yeah, for some reason folks in colder climes love themselves ice cream. New Hampshire and Maine had as many ice cream shops as 7-Elevens. Took a whole day to figure out what a "frappe" was, too (don't look at me that way — this was before Starbucks unveiled their Frappuccinos).
I'm off to LA…Why does LA have all these yummy places when no one eats there?
wow your pictures came out really good. what type of camera did you use?
Sharon–I'm thinking people eat out more in L.A.?? Immediately afterwards, they work out for two hours to work it off… I'm just guessing.Melinda–Thanks. The photo was taken with a Nikon D40x.