Makhaila serves the finest ice cream around at Tic Toc!

It’s been fun writing these blogs for Cool Off 2012, a review of area ice cream shops we love to patronize.  Selecting one as “the best” is not only difficult . . . it’s impossible.  They each have remarkable ice cream and concoctions to come back for. But we’ve saved what we think is our favorite for last.

Our go-to place for the creamiest ice cream, most interesting dessert creations, and the best back-in-time location, is the Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor in Loudon, Tennessee, about 25 miles from Knoxville!

Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor — downtown Loudon

Nestled in an old building on the corner of Grove Street, Tic Toc makes you feel as if you’ve come to the right spot to cool off, but you’ve done it in a way-back-when kinda place.  Only open 12 years, Tic Toc has quite a following, judging from the lines out the front door and the review in Southern Living praising it as a destination for quality ice cream, shakes, floats, and sodas.

We first encountered the Tic-Toc when we set up our antiques on the grounds of the Loudon County Courthouse for the Antiques on Mulberry show each fall.  Those long, hot days sitting in the sun talking to dealers and customers made us look around for something cold and satisfying.  When we asked where to go for an afternoon treat, one of the dealers pointed us to the Tic Toc! Our son, Jeff, remembers it fondly, too, since we treated him to a double scoop cone for helping us repack the van for the return trip home.

Bob and Mary Jones, who’ve owned the shop for seven years, use only the finest ingredients — fresh cream, Madagascar vanilla, hand-chopped chocolate chunks, and other great add-ins. They flash freeze each of the 24 flavors so there’s not even a hint of freezer burn. You can really taste the difference.

Big scoops of this creamy, rich goodness mound up and over sugar or cake cones or hand-made waffle cones.  It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Or maybe it does.  Lots of great ice cream assemblages await.  Here are a few we’d love to try:

• Black and White — Chocolate ice cream covered with marshmallow topping, whipped cream, chopped nuts and a cherry!
• Dusty Miller — Vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate syrup, marshmallow topping and a dusting of malt!
• The Yukon Gold Rush — Coffee Bean ice cream with hot caramel syrup, whipped cream, and a cherry!
• The Cardiac Arrest — 5 scoops of ice cream, 4 toppings, whipped cream, and 3 cherries on top!

So many choices . . . so little time!

Interesting ice cream names make you want to double or triple scoop or come back for more:  George Washington Cherry, Chattanooga Chocolate, Blackout, Plantation Praline, Rainbow Party, and Loco Coco!

Two other best sellers are the Affogato — vanilla ice cream topped with piping hot espresso — and The King — a banana split made with peanut butter crunch ice cream!

The shop features a wall of photos marking memorable moments and people who’ve made the trip to the now-famous Tic Toc, the little shop that not only could, but does!

Panels of photos in the background record the history of the Tic Toc.

Bert noted, as just about any man would, that the young ladies serving these creamy delights were another reason to make a stop at Tic Toc!  (Not only beautiful, these girls know their ice cream!) But I reined him back in to focus on the purpose of our visit and to sample his favorite flavor:  Butter Pecan. (The girls told us that was one of the most popular flavors at the store.)

Morgan and Emily — just two of the friendly servers at Tic Toc

So, drive on over to Loudon, a quaint Southern town with a great little ice cream shop.  You’ll find the Tic Toc catty-cornered from the Loudon County Courthouse and just down the street from one of our all-time favorite antique shops, The General Store!

It’s a great place to “sit a spell” and cool off in style!

Two happy customers relaxing on The Square in Loudon eating Tic Toc ice cream!

What’s to Like: Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor

• Delicious ice cream made on site with the finest ingredients
• Ice cream treats like sundaes, special desserts, shakes, floats, and sodas
• Friendly service by people who know their flavors and the history of Tic Toc
• Old-time charm from tin ceilings to nostalgic photo boards
• Bragging rights to having eaten at a place with high commendations by Southern Living, Urbanspoon, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and  WATE
• 1501 Likes on their Facebook Page

Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor

504 Grove Street

Loudon, TN 37774

865.408.9867

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/68/731552/restaurant/Knoxville/Tic-Toc-Ice-Cream-Parlor-Loudon

For reviews of the other Cool Off 2012 destinations featured in this blog, go to the top of this post and look at the right-hand column.  Thanks!

Joy hands me a SMALL soft serve at Original Freezo on Central!

It’s June 20th!  Summer has officially begun, according to the calendar. But in some places (Knoxville included) it began when the first convertibles went topless, and we started sweating at the half mile mark! So to keep your cool this week, Bert and I are making the ultimate summer sacrifice by visiting favorite places for cold, creamy, yummy treats in and around K-ville!

First up — Original Freezo in Knoxville’s Happy Holler!

The Freezo on Central sells ice cream fantasies . . . and more!

We came here for nostalgia — after all, how many ice cream stands built in 1942 are still standing?  (Bert and I both grew up in Louisiana, and our dads pulled up the family station wagons to these bastions of cool treats, lined up at the window –a manly, fatherly thing to do, you know — and ordered cones, shakes, and banana splits for the fam. Great memories!)

Well, the new owner, Darrell Dalton makes sure you can still get these goodies all summer long!

Joy, the pretty-smile girl who made our day, told me they whip up soft serve right on site in their Electro Freeze machine!  (Does that name sound like something out of a Grade B science fiction movie, or what?!) Well, no matter.  You can order fancy, schmancy treats like hot fudge cake, brain freezers and pineapple sundaes, but just give me the pure delight! Oh, OK.  Dip it in chocolate if you like that hard shell coating on your frosty cone!

It’s just a fun, old-fashioned place — you can sit in the back of the parking lot at a picnic table or stay in your car! Doesn’t matter.  You’re coolin’ off and smilin’ the rest of the day!

And, by the way, if anyone knows the name of that little Freezo Guy on the side of the building, let us know!  He’s another reason we like lickin’ our soft serves and smilin’ back at the Original Freezo!

What’s to Like: Original Freezo

• Nostalgic old-fashioned drive-up ice cream stand
• Creamy, extra-tall swirls of soft serve in a cone
• Three flavors of dips for your soft serve: butterscotch, cherry, and chocolate
• Friendly service by happy people like Joy! (After all, it’s in Happy Holler!)
• No frills.  Just come as you are.  Order.  And lick fast to catch the drips!

 Original Freezo

1305 N. Central Street

Knoxville, TN

Like ‘em on Facebook: Click here!

<a href=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/68/731083/restaurant/Old-North-Knoxville/Original-Freezo-Knoxville”><img alt=”Original Freezo on Urbanspoon” src=”http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/731083/minilink.gif” style=”border:none;padding:0px;width:130px;height:36px” /></a>

Check back in the next few days — we’ve got more favorites to share with you!

And we’d love to hear from you:  What’s YOUR favorite cold treat place???