Bloomberg Businessweek (North America)
Food: Adult slushees and other icy desserts to sample this summer
Ice is the hottest ingredient in this summer’s coolest desserts
WASHINGTON SCHOOL HOUSE HOTEL Park City, Utah
Washington School House started life in 1889 as—you guessed it—a schoolhouse. Today, it’s a 12-room boutique hotel with a guests-only restaurant specializing in American standards, including a sweet blackberry granita made with local honey, fruit, and mint picked from the garden. Bonus: Enjoy the tart treat while lounging at the property’s hillside-perched pool. Complimentary for hotel guests; washingtonschoolhouse.com
PIG AND KHAO New York
Top Chef alum Leah Cohen took a traditional dessert from the Philippines (her mother’s home) and made it her own. She starts her halo-halo with shaved ice, then adds flan, shredded coconut, and caramelized plantains. A scoop of purple-yam ice cream crowns the dish, which she then drowns in a mixture of condensed and evaporated milks and garnishes with toasted crispy rice. “It tastes like an adult bowl of cereal,” Cohen says. $8; pigandkhao.com
MARIN RESTAURANT & BAR Minneapolis
This spot features a rotating menu of frozen slushees based on the raspado, a Mexican shaved-ice dessert. Marin’s current iteration combines the smokiness of mezcal and the sweetness of fresh mango purée, plus a bit of heat from ginger liqueur and housemade Sriracha salt. The cocktail is strained over hand-shaved ice into an elegant coupe glass. $10; marinrestaurant.com
BARREL HOUSE AMERICAN BAR Beverly, Mass.
The bourbon cabinet served here blends Evan Williams 100-proof bourbon, syrup from Luxardo cherries, and vanilla ice cream. (No ice, per se, but who really cares?) The inspiration for this adult milkshake comes from the classic Manhattan. “Cocktail bars can often take themselves a little too seriously,” says managing partner and bartender Sean Maher. “These help keep the atmosphere fun and relaxed.” $12; barrelhousebeverly.com
L’APPART New York
Chef Nicolas Abello serves a piña coladainspired palate cleanser before dessert that he says offers “an interplay of tropical spices with classic French cuisine.” The bottom layer is an intense rum gelée; Abello tops that with a roasted pineapple smoothie and finishes it with coconut-milk granita and kaffir lime zest. $18; lappartnyc.com
RESTAURANT 1833 Monterey, Calif.
Pastry chef Ben Spungin introduced pineapple crushed ice with burntcinnamon-stick ice cream to the “secret menu”—usually reserved for locals and regulars—in May. He roasts cinnamon sticks for his ice cream in a woodburning oven. Then he juices pineapples and combines the liquid with lime, sugar, and water, freezes it in sheet pans, and scrapes it into a slush. The acidic, refreshing, sweet pineapple cuts through the richness of the ice cream, which is perfumed with a drizzle of tarragon oil made from local organic herbs. $6; restaurant1833.com