Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous Ice Cream in San Francisco

Barking Up Artisan Treats in the Dogpatch

The Single Guy is developing a tire around his waist. I blame it on all these new cupcake shops, pizza places, and yes, ice cream treats! The latest contributor to my downfall? Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous ice cream shop in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood.

I visited this month-old, contemporary ice cream shop last weekend after my blogger friend Foodhoe and I went to the crawfish boil at the Marina. Driving by all the baseball fans heading to a game at AT&T Park, we arrived at this corner spot right across the street from Serpentine restaurant.

The place is so new there’s no clear signage out front, but the floor-to-ceiling windows give a clear look into the crowd of people sitting down and licking their ice cream cones.

Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous is actually Ian Flores and Annabelle Topacio, two restaurant veterans who have worked for such fancy-pants places as Spago and CUT in Los Angeles and Postrio in San Francisco. In these early days, you’ll see them behind the counter scooping up their hand-made ice cream (and showing off their ink as well, mostly on Mr. Miscellaneous).

The space, a former sandwich shop, actually has several tables to sit and watch the Muni T-line go rumbling by. (I didn’t feel any air-conditioning when inside, so the exposed windows letting in the Dogpatch sun can warm up the place; I guess that’s a good trick to get people to buy more ice cream!)

Along with a variety of unique flavors, there are also treats like brittle, peanut butter malt balls and cookies displayed at the counter. But on this day, I was just focused on the ice cream.

The flavors changes daily, but already emerging as a signature flavor is the aptly named “Ballpark,” which is made with Anchor Steam beer and mixed with chocolate-covered pretzels and peanuts. I got a scoop of that along with the tres leche.

The tres leche was just OK and tasted mostly like sweet vanilla. (Looking back tres leche probably isn’t an adventurous selection despite its romantic name, feeling like you’re traveling in Mexico or Latin America.) I did find the texture to be creamy and rich. For the Ballpark, the beer flavor wasn’t very noticeable, but it was nice to get the saltiness of the pretzel mixed in with the ice cream.

You get a better view of the Ballpark flavor in Foodhoe’s cup, who also tried the flavor. See the lovely mixture of ice cream, nuts and pretzel bits? In a way, I felt liked I got cheated out of the full experience of the Ballpark with my scoop which didn't have as much pretzel bits and was primarily vanilla-like.

Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous also offers up quite the selection to build a sundae, including all the works like cherries and pineapples. And I’ve heard that the home-made vanilla cones are light and crispy, so I may have to get a scoop in a cone next time I’m in the neighborhood.

Foodhoe and I both agreed that the ice cream was top-notch. But with all the artisan ice cream spots in the city (namely Mitchell’s, Bi-Rite and Humphry Slocombe), we felt Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous was just a solid neighborhood spot and not a destination ice cream shop that you’d travel far and wide for. But then again, I don’t own a car, so maybe car owners don’t mind the drive to check out quality ice cream. Just beware of the spare tire. ;-)

Visit Foodhoe’s blog to see her pictures, but don’t let at the crowd shot because you’ll see me somewhere in there with my spare tire visible!

Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous, 699 22nd St. (at Third), San Francisco. PH: 415.970.0750. Open Tue.–Sat., 11:30 a.m.–8 p.m., Sun., 11:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

More creamy posts:
Make Your Own Ice Cream at iCream Cafe
Three Twins: Ice Cream for the Earth
What's Up at Fenton's