Ike's Place and Birite Creamery

We decided a that freak heat wave was the perfect time to contort ourselves into unnatural positions at Yoga to the People, and after sweating more than we ever had before in our lives, we felt like we deserved some sort of gratuitous reward. And reward ourselves we did! Trekking to the Castro, looking truly haggard, we dreamed of too popular for their own good, soon to be evicted, Ike's. Having called in our order that morning after getting a busy signal for the first six tries, we avoided the typically heinous line at and only had to wait fifteen minutes or so to get our Ex-Boyfriend sandwich with dirty sauce (which both sounds and tastes depraved). We blasphemously settled on the steps of Mission Dolores to share the unholily good combination dutch crunch bread, salami, bacon, avocado, and cheddar. Rosie was formerly of the opinion that the Can You Smell What Barack Is Cooking sandwich (rib-eye steak, barbecue, smoked gouda) couldn't be topped, but was soundly proven wrong. It was pretty much the tastiest sandwich ever. Upon seeing a woman impatiently dragging along a comically reluctant Scottie dog, Rosie commented pathetically, "I feel like I am that dog, and the woman is Life." We still cannot fathom how Palo Alto could possibly appreciate Ike's like SF can. Oh well.

The next stop was Birite Ice Cream, which predictably had a wait time proportional to the soaring temperatures. It was completely worth it however, to get our salted caramel, toasted coconut, and creme fraiche ice cream and hunker down in the blissfully air conditioned shop to eat. Cheney very accurately characterized Birite as ice cream you eat not to feel refreshed, but as an indulgence perfect for when you want to eat your emotions. She thought it was a bit too sweet, and that Ici's creme fraiche muscat was superior to Birite's. Rosie is still a die-hard Birite groupie and adores the pure intensity and creaminess of the salted caramel. She dreams one day of buying powdered sugar-dusted, chocolate covered salted caramels from Fiona's Sweet Shoppe, crushing them, and sprinkling them over ice cream. We then went home and took naps like healthy people who practice moderation.