It has always been a dream of mine to open my own ice cream parlour.
Pastel coloured-booths, tall sundae glasses with trickles of hot fudge sauce cascading down the side, the glug of thirsty bubbles as a scoop of ice cream plops into sweet, fizzy soda and happy, vibrant couples, families and small gaggles gathered around, brandishing spoons and ready to delight in the very same thing.
I'd been wanting to visit Ruby Violet, a modern London parlour (just down the road from Tufnell Park station) for way too long when I finally decided last Friday to beckon a handsome gent to join me in a warm evening rendezvous after work. I didn't reveal where we going until I pushed him through the doorway.
Grinning and licking our lips, we advanced to the counter to survey the treats on offer.
And what treats there were!
Ruby Violet offers an astonishing array of delicious, unique flavours, making small batches on a daily basis and striving to use seasonal produce. There's chocolate rosemary, liquorice with blackcurrant ripple, peach and rosewater sorbet... the list goes on!
After much deliberation, I went for a scoop of fig, walnut and honey and a scoop of apricot sour cream, all topped off with a good drenching of hot salted caramel sauce and a wafer.
My companion truly took his time and eventually elected a heady concoction of Belgian chocolate, blackberry and raspberry liqueur and meringue- with lashings of hot fudge sauce, frozen raspberries and peanut brittle.
They certainly didn't last long!
Clutching our tummies, we wiped the remains of sauce from our chins and smiling at each other giddily, as people so often do after finishing a bowl of ice cream, gave a huge huff of a sigh.
"What a nice idea for a Friday evening" he said.
"What a nice idea for ANY evening" I replied.
Open until 7pm weeknights and 10pm on Friday, I suggest you waste not a second more and get ye gone to Ruby Violet where there is magic aplenty waiting for you at the bottom of a tall sundae glass.
