Getting frosted at For God Shakes

• Name and address: For God Shakes, 204 Dalhousie St.

• Prices: $7-$15

I was living in Vancouver when a lifelong Ottawa friend told me that he’d purchased a ticket for me to one of the final shows by the Tragically Hip. I’d always been a fan and I flew back to one of the most memorable evenings of my life.

I need hardly go into why that show was so significant and it makes me a little weak just thinking about it as the tsunami of love from the audience that night was a singular experience.

There was also much news about the latest and greatest ice cream shop (a Toronto start up) named Sweet Jesus that had opened in the ByWard.

I stopped by for one of their ballyhooed soft serve cones. It was peach season and they had Ontario Peach on the menu. Asking a few questions I was told that it was made with actual peaches.

There are few things in this life that make me as angry as being lied to about the food I’m tasting. This soft serve had nothing to do with fruit as I felt and tasted unresolved peach flavour crystals in what I was told was dairy.

I’m a little confused by why some business owners feel they need to inject religion into their business names, but perhaps those reasons are personal and not just a cute play on words. We should all respect that. 

While it’s been operating for two years, For God Shakes remained a mystery to me. I’d been down that stretch of Dalhousie often and yet missed seeing it.

During this heatwave I had parked in front and decided, at the last minute, that I needed something cold for the drive home.

They have a large selection of frosty treats and I stuck with a salted caramel milkshake. It was rather artfully presented (as you see) in an old fashioned tapered milk bottle. Before you leave the café, grab one of the clean bottle lids available in a basket, so that you can reuse the empty bottle at home.

This was one of the nicer aspects of the experience: the business had thought far enough ahead to serve a milkshake in a reusable and attractive container. It also fit perfectly into the car's cup holder. Smart.

The ice cream used in the shake was fairly standard but importantly, it was thick and frosty with a decent salted caramel flavour in balance with the other ingredients. In other words, while sweet, it was not sickly sweet and the vanilla base still showed through.

For God Shakes also offers vegan and gluten free options and has a second location at 1050, unit 4, Bank St.