The Pearl

Although our ice cream adventures have been focused on finding great ice cream near home, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get ice cream at our favorite place in LaCrosse, WI, the Pearl. We call the place Pearl Street Ice Cream shop since it is located on Pearl Street in downtown LaCrosse. If you haven't been to LaCrosse, it is a beautiful river town with a nicely restored historic downtown. The Pearl is an ice cream shop, old fashion candy shop, and now a coffee shop as well. It has been since 1993 and continues to have lines out the door on hot summer nights. The shop is placed in one of the historic old downtown buildings near the river, with a 1930s soda fountain counter on one side and a candy counter filled with an assortment of candies from Big League Chew to homemade chocolate fudge along the other side. At the back is a bit of seating, but the joy of this shop is to enjoy your ice cream at one of the outdoor tables and people watch!

My kids LOVE this ice cream place because it has the most horrific colored blue ice cream which tastes a lot like Fruit Loops and is appropriately named Blue Moon. They would eat this ice cream out of an old shoe they love it so much. Not to mention that while they wait in line they can dream of all the candy you might buy them if you were in a generous sort of mood. I like this place because the price is fantastic, at a $1.80 for a regular single scoop, and the adult friendly flavors are also very good. We had a large group and so we enjoyed sampling the Chocolate Peanut Butter (very good), Carmel Cashew (my favorite), Butter Pecan (good), and Coconut Chocolate (very good).

Another reason to love The Pearl is Oscar. Oscar is the 88 year old-time soda jerk who works the counter and makes the ice cream and candy. He decided that the Pearl needed to continue making homemade ice cream as the shop continued to grow and expand instead of getting ice cream from a wholesaler, so he attended classes at UW and began making the Pearls wonderful ice cream flavors. Seeing Oscar at the counter makes the Pearl have a real small town, old fashion feel and adds to the joy of each visit.

After you over-indulge in ice cream, you are just a short walk from Riverside Park where you can enjoy the river views, fountains, concerts, and community events. If you are really lucky, you may just get a view of the Riverboats as they come up and down the Mississippi. The kids love the park for its fountains, spacious lawns for running, and the "stage" where they love to put on their own impromptu concerts. Even some of our best photographs have come from lawns of Riverside Park! It is a wonderful place to visit winter, summer, spring or fall for it seems there is always something new to see and do.