Miraculously you have survived the first week of classes, the bookstore rush, apartment parties, fraternity bashes and your new roommate/ex-best friend’s fit over whether the toilet paper should be hung coming over or under the roll.
Your wallet, on the other hand, is not faring as well and looks about as bare as your dorm room walls, while your parents are in the process of leaving a fiery voicemail demanding an explanation for the $130 credit card charge at the local liquor store. Then there’s the pesky question of what is for dinner this evening because you definitely don’t feel like waiting in line at the Student Center for Taco Bell. More Than Just Ice Cream is an answer to the low on cash, but high on standards dilemma.
Under Temple graduate and owner Brian Daly, the restaurant has served scrumptious and healthy meals, mountains of ice cream and mouthwatering desserts since 1990.
Daly, who graduated from Temple with a degree in radio and television and later the California Culinary Academy with an International Chefs degree, designs his menus to be delectable and healthy – ingredients and flavors you will only find at restaurants with entrées double the price than those at his establishment.
“Everything we do here is simple and made from scratch,” said Daly. “Almost everything is health-conscious, except the ice cream, which allows you to indulge.”
The menu prices are just a smidge above a diner’s, but the options are far more creative. Daly said he had the opportunity to work with well-renowned chefs while studying in California. That influence of California healthy-chic can be seen in the diversity of appetizers, salads, sandwiches and entrées with something to please just about anybody, even your picky, Indie-vegetarian friend.
Start with a bowl of classic chili with ground turkey or the vegetarian soup of the day. Prefer your food in solid form? Try the turkey chili nachos or roasted garlic hummus served with grilled pita ($6-$8).
The salad options are as surprising and varied as the class options to fulfill your American Studies requirement.
While More Than Just Ice Cream offers the traditional house and Caesar salad, why not go for one of the more creative greenery options, like the Cosmopolitan salad with grilled or fried chicken, romaine hearts, plum tomatoes, carrots, avocado, mushrooms, roasted peppers, eggs, kalamata olives and balsamic vinaigrette? Yum!
A personal favorite, the chicken salad club with grapes is amazing. Huge chunks of chicken mixed with just the right amount of mayonnaise and juicy, red grapes are a shockingly good combination. You’ll also find sandwiches like lemon tuna salad along with turkey, garden and Portobello burgers on the list, to name a few.
The entrée choices are also delicious, including the grilled double chicken breast topped with sun-dried tomato relish over roasted sweet potatoes and sautéed spinach ($13.50).
More Than Just Ice Cream is a dessert lover’s heaven, offering many flavors of ice cream as well as sundaes, cakes, fruit crisps, brownies and an eccentrically large and delicious apple pie.
Sundays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., More Than Just Ice Cream serves brunch with menus that change seasonally to provide you with the freshest ingredients possible.
The summer brunch menu includes such tasty offerings as the omelet with fresh peaches and Crème Fraiche ($9), eggs benedict with Canadian bacon ($9.50) and blueberry pancakes with whipped orange butter and sausage ($7.50).
College can be rough, money can be tight and you may live in a house with eight other people, but there’s no reason to eat crappy food. Life is just too short for that.
Josh Chamberlain can be reached at joshch@temple.edu.
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