Review of Alice's Place Ice Cream on South Main Street in Elburn, Illinois

Take a drive out to Main street Elburn Illinois on a hot summer evening and you will eventually pass by a tiny ice cream shop known as Alice's Place. The first impression of Alice's conveys the dated appearance of a recycled Tastee Freez with a fairly beaten up parking lot. A second glance reveals that there is more than meets the eye as this dated dessert location appears refreshing when exposed to the sea of Dairy Queen and Baskin Robbins spotted throughout the Chicago land area. My family has taken several trips out Alice's Place to catch a quick treat on the picnic tables and watch the trains by. With that in mind, a review was overdue on this ice cream establishment located at 208 South Main Street in downtown Elburn.

Menu

This soft serve location covers most items one will find at a DQ such as cones, shakes, sundaes and malts. Other items include a cup of ice cream with "mix-in" choices of different candies and other sweet treats. This mix in choice is Alice's answer to the DQ blizzard. Alice's also sells prepackaged frozen ice cream desserts if soft serve is not your thing. People looking to get a hamburger or hot dog fix can even squeeze in lunch or dinner before downing a frozen treat. The menu board has just about everything under the sun, though I am not so sure how the staff is capable of making so many different things with what appears to be limited cooking and refrigeration space.

Taste

This evaluation of taste goes no further than the soft serve cone since that is all I have ordered in my six or seven trips to this location. When ordering a cone, there are several variations to completing the order as one has the choice of vanilla, chocolate, and twist. Extra features to this cone include having it dipped in chocolate shell or loading up with sprinkles, crunch topping or candy coating. If you have your own idea of a dessert mix or topping I would recommend suggesting it to the counter help as they will most likely honor it. The taste of this soft serve is as good as one will find just about anywhere. I find the medium cone dipped in chocolate to be just what the doctor ordered. The trick is to eat the cones fairly quickly due to pretty quick melt.

Service

The counter service help at Alice's Place is always spot on. They always process the order correctly and very quick. Even the younger employees that work in the store maintain a cheerful attitude which can be absent of teenagers working at other fast food service locations.

The store does have three to four picnic tables for outdoor seating at the rear parking lot. The parking area is pretty narrow with overflow parking spaces available in an adjacent lot behind Alice's. On some evenings one should be prepared for longer lines courtesy of little league teams or large groups. If the visit involves a long line do not give in to despair as the counter help will process orders fairly quickly; though the holdup may be due to indecisiveness of customers looking at the variations on the menu board.

Overall

One could say these soft serve road stops are a dime a dozen, but I tend to disagree. This particular ice cream shop has a retro feel to it as shown on the signage and the surrounding businesses. This trip back to the good old days is quickly realized when observing the establishments along Elburn's main street that include the likes of an old style meat market, a John Deere retailer and several other mom and pop businesses that represent small town America. If the nostalgic visit is not enough to lure the public, then the low prices and availability of smaller portion sizes will.