The battle rages. Shall we go east or south? Go east and we’ll arrive at the cleverly-hidden Sub Zero Ice Cream. A trip south will deliver us at iconic Bridge Drive-In.

Really, it’s no battle at all. We all win either way. Ice cream is on the menu for supper.

Sub Zero Ice Cream

Whenever I start to rave to Winnipeggers about the parfaits at Sub Zero, they get a puzzled look on their faces and always ask, “Where’s that?”
 
Sub Zero is one of Winnipeg’s hidden secrets. And I do mean hidden. It’s tucked away in a residential area on the east side of the city. It’s at the corner of Brazier St. and Jamison Ave.  and there’s nothing but houses around it.

Whether you employ the help of a GPS or snake your way through the narrow streets of this ‘hood, all of a sudden you’ll arrive at the little white shop with the yellow neon lights. It’s Sub Zero!
 
While this ice cream shop serves cones, splits and shakes, it’s the parfait that’s king here. Step up to the counter and you’ll be confronted with a conundrum. Which parfait to choose? There are 30 of them!

My husband Ivan most often goes for the Peach Cobbler. It’s layers of peaches, hot caramel, cinnamon crunch and vanilla soft ice cream.

Personally, I wouldn’t dare say I have a favourite but if you asked what I like, I’d have to go for the Cherry Blossom. It’s wild cherry topping mixed with crushed peanuts and chocolate cone dip. It tastes astonishingly like the candy bar of the same name.
 
Of course you could get completely kooky and try the Electric Fish. This one features grape, strawberry and lime syrup with candy sprinkles.

Bridge Drive-In

Locals must visit the Bridge Drive-In at least once a summer or they will be kicked out of the city. But anyone with a Winnipeg address would never, ever call it the Bridge Drive-In.

They call it the BDI and everyone knows what you mean. Unless you’re from the country and wonder why on Earth anyone would name an ice cream parlour The Beady Eye, as I did when I first came to town.

The BDI has lots of iconic treats but it’s The Sleepy Beauty that rules. It's Ivan’s favourite and with this monstrosity in hand, he likes to face the crowd (and there’s always a crowd) and exclaim, “And I ordered the small!”

The Sleeping Beauty is served in half a pineapple. The cavity is filled with soft ice cream, strawberry and cherry topping and loaded with half a fruit’s worth of pineapple chunks.

Is it a treat for two? Not really, unless you enjoy getting repeatedly stabbed in the hand with a plastic spoon. But you need to be a little on the hungry side to start scraping the sides of the pineapple. Just ask Ivan.