Ice Cream

Since ice cream is good for you, it's lucky there are four ice cream stores in the Harvard Square area. Their relative merits are often the subject of partisan debate.

It seems that everywhere you turn in Boston you see a Brigham's, including 1420 Mass Ave in the Square and 1702 Mass Ave near the Quadrangle. About 16 regular flavors of pretty rich and pretty dense ice cream are complemented by several "flavors of the month," a standard attraction. A cone will set you back 35 or 45 cents, a pint 95 cents and a quart $1.75. Jimmies (tiny chocolate candies sprinkled on top, out-of-towners) free.

Bailey's, around the corner at 21 Brattle St., offers excellent ice cream--richer, thicker and smoother than Brigham's. And its quiet old-fashioned atmosphere is a pleasant contrast to Brigham's jazzy red-white-and blue decor and canned music. Part of a small chain in business since 1873, the store offers seven basic flavors plus flavors of the month. The chocolate chip is particularly good. All cones are 45 cents, pints 95 cents and quarts $1.85.

Down the street a piece is the controversial Harvard Square Baskin-Robbins at 1230 Mass Ave. More than 400 of the national chain's flavors rotate through this store, with at least 31 showcased at one time. Each month an absolutely new flavor is offered, which is sort of alarming if you think about it. Particularly memorable flavors are bubble gum and peanut butter and jelly. The cones are very small and though a single scoop is still 30 cents, the double and triple scoops have this month gone up to 55 and 75 cents respectively. You can't beat this store for variety but the ice cream sold there has a strangely artificial taste and oddly sticky texture.

Sticky Fingers, 32 Boylston, is a recent entrant into the market and sells Haagen Dazs (cones 40 and 70 cents) and Breyers (30 cents and 50 cents) ice cream. Both brands are rich and reliable, made from good ingredients without preservatives.

If you're willing to take a long walk, hop a bus or drive to near Porter Square you can buy truly delicious home-made ice cream made on the premises of a one-store operation, Steve's Ice Cream, 191 Elm St. The atmosphere is simple and cheery. And Steve has a great gimmick: if you opt for the 50 cent rather than the 30 cent scoop you can have additions such as nuts, crushed heath bars and fruit kneaded in for 5 cents apiece. The store's growing popularity and extensive publicity, however, have resulted in nightmarishly long lines every evening. The New Yorker referred to Steve's as "the closest thing to night life in the Cambridge-Somerville area," and New Times listed it as a "bastion of ice-cream perfection." They may be right, but go in the afternoon.