Hot and Cold

There are a hundred reasons I'm happy that we've gotten a break from the frigid weather here in Nashville, but one of the top ones was to finally be able to visit Hot & Cold over in Hillsboro Village for the Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. The place and the ice cream were every bit of everything I've heard and more.

The Jeni's ice cream is amazing. The flavors are bizzare-wonderful. And they're expensive. However, for your $4, you can get a small cup that has a reasonable portion of up to two flavors (for only $1 more, you can get a third flavor). Not bad. The $10 pints seem a bit steep, but there's a lot of good stuff packed in there. We got a pint of the Bangkok Peanut (peanut butter, honey, toasted coconut, cayenne pepper) and one of Sweet Cream and Appalachian Elderberries (a mostly unflavored ice cream base with elderberries and black currants). A little Valentine's Day splurge. Also, pints are the only way to get many of the flavors.

While in the store, I had a small with Salty Caramel and Goat Cheese with Cognac Fig Sauce (both outstanding) and Mr. Eats had the Brambleberry Crisp and Cherry Lambic sorbet (again, outstanding). Very much worth every penny. We had cups, but were very tempted by the house-made waffle cones.You can also have a variety of chocolate sauces, peanut sauce, or espresso served with your ice cream.

I regret that we didn't get any of the sipping chocolate or any of the other very wonderful-sounding hot beverages (including cider). They also serve Las Paletas (and Chiquitas--mini versions of the paletas), which are handy if you don't feel like dropping too much money (and butterfat) on the little ones (ha!).

Hot & Cold is located at 1804 21st Avenue South in Hillsboro Village an iS open from 11am-9pm (I think) every day. I actually ran into the owner while there (he was getting the Roxbury Road in a waffle cone--a good endorsement for that, I'd say) and mentioned that the hours listed on the website didn't have weekend hours listed so I hope that's fixed soon. They ARE open on the weekends, though!