"Bakery" review: Cream - home of ice cream cookie sandwiches

Cream - July 21, 2013 (first visit sometime in May 2013)

Usually a good sign when there's a line out the door

While Cream may or may not technically be considered a bakery, I'm willing to include them in a review, both to publicize a good, local small business and because they make great products.  Cream was founded in 2010 in Berkeley, CA by Jimmy and Gus Shamieh and family. I love places like these that are family-owned and succeed because they make great products.

If you like ice cream cookie sandwiches made with fresh, slightly warm cookies and creamy ice cream, you may already be part of Cream Nation.  If you aren't, you don't know what you're missing.  My niece first told me about Cream a few months ago so of course we had to go there when I visited her.  Cream is perfect for any college town.  The ice cream sandwiches are cheap, you can choose which cookies you want for your ice cream sandwich (can be two different cookies for the same sandwich) and which ice cream you want between the cookies.  They open "late" (noon) and close anywhere from 11 pm to 2 am, depending on the day. Plus both their cookies and their ice creams are really good. And did I mention cheap?? $2 for an ice cream sandwich if you're paying with cash and $2.50 for non-cash transactions

Not the best pic but I had to take it fast before my ice cream sandwich melted

If you just want a cookie without the ice cream, they're something like 3 cookies for less than $2.  Which is what my niece brought me when she came to visit.  If I couldn't have the ice cream, I could at least have the cookies.

It's no wonder there was a line coming out of the shop when we first went there.  Once we got in line, it got even longer.  Inside the shop was a flurry of activity as the counter people waited on the customers. As you might expect in a college town, the counter was staffed by mostly college kids but the customers were a diverse bunch of all shapes, sizes and ages.  Because good cookies, good ice cream and great ice cream cookie sandwiches are universal.  At the moment, Cream is only in Berkeley, CA and (to my pleasant surprise because it's closer to me) in Palo Alto but they have plans to open at Davis and Walnut Creek.  So be on the lookout for a Cream near you.