Hollywood Cone
Hollywood Cone takes the larger-than-life attitude associated with the place it’s named for and applies it to “mutant” shakes and “titanic” eighteen-inch-long sundaes, including an over-the-top $77 “Best Picture” shake.
With such an outrageous concept you’d surely think this is some sort of international chain landing in Toronto for the first time, but it’s an Oshawa original.
The business started out as a food truck with huge lineups, and now they pack their shops in Oshawa and Whitby, and their soft serve product is made with real milk fat, not whipped oil.
Talk Nerdy To Me ($14.99) is one of their mutant shakes, a strawberry pop rock shake that explodes in your mouth, rimmed with pop rocks and topped with cotton candy, sour belts and a packaged lollipop that belies the way much of these shakes should be picked apart and saved.
It would be a great experience for those times when you can’t decide between, say, funnel cake, soft serve, and a shake. The Funnel Cake Shake ($13.99) doesn’t force you to choose, a strawberry shake topped with a full funnel cake, powdered sugar, ice cream, strawberries and strawberry sauce.
Reese Where’smyspoon ($8.99) is from the banana split menu, vanilla ice cream and a halved banana barely peeking out from under a mountain of peanut butter cups, peanut butter chocolate sauce, Reese’s Pieces and Belgian chocolate drizzle.
All this taken into consideration, it is possible to actually order a plain cup or cone of vanilla ($4.99): I actually saw someone accomplish this with my own eyes.
Upgrading your cone with “Night at the Movies” toppings at no extra cost is tough to deny, though, and this feels like an ice cream you dropped at on the theatre floor in the best way, allowing you to enjoy caramel corn and crushed peanut M&M;’s along with creamy ice cream and sticky Ghirardelli caramel sauce.
Creamy cheesecake is tough to resist, too, and also includes graham cracker crumbs and your choice of strawberry, cherry, blueberry or chocolate sauce.
The entire experience is completed with Hollywood touches like a functional Zoltar fortune telling machine and a red carpet in front of a full-size baffle wall that’s perfect for selfies or foodstagrams.
Jesse Milns