Sweet Joy's Ice Cream Bar (Lawrenceville, GA)

 178 E Crogan St Suite 100, Lawrenceville, GA 30046

 

 

After our disappointing dinner at Parkside District, we decide to get dessert somewhere else and find Sweet Joy's Ice Cream Bar as the highest rated dessert place nearby. It is in downtown Lawrenceville, at the lower end of a small mall, a bit tucked away. It quite spacious inside and also has outdoor seating.

 

 

The guys who work there are very friendly and clearly proud of the place. They sell homemade ice cream, but their main claim to fame seems to be "spiked" ice cream, i.e. ice cream with alcohol. We decide to go all out and order the "Puffle Waffle"($7.50), a kind of crossover between a waffle and a pancake, topped with two scoops of ice cream (we order Butter Pecan and Chocolate Chip, but get two scoops of Butter Pecan instead), whip cream, powder sugar, caramel and fudge, as well as two sweets toppings (we chose sprinkles and M&Ms). The pancake and ice cream are tasty, if not exceptional, but the combination is absolutely bingerific!

 

 

VERDICT: 87/100

This is a nice place with nice people. The ice cream is good, and the spiked ice  cream might be special, but the real winner is the bingerific Puffle Waffle!

Parkside District (Lawrenceville, GA)

 909 Parkside Walk Lane, Lawrenceville, GA 30043

Parkside District is a fairly new "seafood and meat" restaurant in a Lawrenceville strip mall, just north of Atlanta. It is not really a pig out spot, and has a stylish interior, but as so many (Southern) American restaurants it has a menu with many pig out favorites, such as burgers, fried chicken, etc.

 

 

My wife and I get two traditional starters, which are presented with a bit of a fancy twist. The "Crispy Calamari" ($13.95) comes with fried jalapenos, a "green goddess drizzle", and a "thai basil marinara". They all taste terribly bland. We get the "General Paul's Wings" ($10.95) with "Sweet Hotlanta" sauce, which is a kind of zesty sweet and sour sauce, which actually works well. The wings are tasty, but not very special.

 

I have "The Double District" ($14.95), which are "duck fat-induced" 1/2 lb beef patties, bacon, red onion, sweet pickles, "roasted garlic aioli" on a brioche bun that comes with herb-seasoned fries. The patties are well-done (the waiter didn't ask how I wanted them) and the burger is fine, but nothing remarkable. I ask the fries without the herb-seasoning, which might have been a mistake, as these are pre-fab thick Burger King fries, tasteless (and I doubt the herb seasoning would have saved them). Given this experience, we decide not to have dessert here.

VERDICT: 78/100

Parkside District came highly rated online, which would not have been surprising had it been in a small town, but in the suburbs of Atlanta there is so much better food to find. It offer non-remarkable food in a nice setting.