Bebe Zito - Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club - Cereal Ice Cream made with Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles

Today, I try the new scoop shop in the Lowry Hill/Wedge neighborhood called Bebe Zito.  There has been some buzz about this place for a while.  It was supposed to open in the spring about when the snow melted but that was delayed due to the pandemic.  They finally opened at the beginning of this month.  It's on 22nd Street just west of Lyndale.  I popped in, bought three pints and popped back out.  I will be reviewing those flavors in the next week or two.

Bebe Zito is owned by chef Ben Spangler and his finacee Gabriella Grant.  Spangler has held a number of local culinary positions in recent years, including executive chef at the Farm Table Restaurant in Amery, Wisconsin, the executive chef at the Mercy Bar & Dining Room in downtown Minneapolis and he helped develop the initial ice cream menu at Milkjam Creamery.  I found a couple of interesting news releases about Bebe Zito here and here.  It should be fun to visit this scoop shop from time to time to sample interesting flavors and their location halfway between Milkjam Creamery and the Sebastian Joe's in Lowry Hill should make it easy for me to pick up pints from multiple places in one trip.

Today's flavor is called Breakfast Club.  It is a cereal-based ice cream made with Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles.  I have had a few cereal-based flavors before.  Three from Milkjam Creamery (here and here and here), one from Coolhaus (here) and one from Ample Hills (here).  I wonder if Ben Spangler had anything to do with any of the Milkjam flavors.

On to today's flavor!  The first thing I notice is there is no artwork on the side of the carton.  Beautiful artwok on the lid, but not on the carton.  That messes with my usual photo spread, ha ha.  Not a big deal.  Removing the lid, the top of the pint is beautiful!  It's loaded with recognizable cereal on the top.  I definitely see the marshmallow shapes from the Lucky Charms and the small colored flakes of Fruity Pebbles.  Digging in, the cereal on the top is extra crunchy and delicious.  The density of the cereal in the ice cream below is still pretty good.  The fruity pebbles are a little bit softer as they soak in the milk-and-cream mixture during the churning process, but the marshmallows are just as good as the ones on top.  The base ice cream is good.  I found an article here which tells me that the base is 'citrus and vanilla'.  It has a good texture, but it's main purpose here is to serve as a vehicle for the mix-ins.  In fact, if I hadn't read about the citrus in the mix, I would not have known.  I think it blends well with the Fruity Pebbles.  Overall, the pint is a little bit on the sweet side, but it is not overpowering and I am

I enjoyed this pint from Bebe Zito quite a bit.  Some of the cereal underneath is a little soft but from all the cereal-ice creams I have tried, that is unavoidable for mix-ins added during the churning process.  Using the marshmallow-based Lucky Charms helps in that regard and also a generous sprinkling of dry mix-ins on the top also worked really well.  It is interesting to compare this to Cereal Killers -- the Milkjam flavor which was also developed by Ben Spangler.  Both contain citrus in the base and fruity pebbles, but this Breakfast Club flavor has much less citrus (just a smidge) and much more cereal while Cereal Killers uses an orange-coriander base with a moderate amount of fruity pebbles.  Breakfast Club is a good flavor for cereal lovers, and a good flavor for kids, too.  Check it out.