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Center City Ice Cream Parlor Is Anything But Vanilla

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (CBS) - Eating ice cream is something close to a national pastime when the weather warms up and for some people it's more than just a matter of chocolate and vanilla.

The old standards sell well in most places, but at Scoop DeVille exotic ice cream parlor, on Chestnut near 18th, the whole point is to do something different.

Owner Michael Shore stands near a huge chalk board filled with things you could combine.

"We've calculated it out to be well over a million different combinations, but primarily we have around 48 different versions that you can pick off of our menu."

These run from Abbey Road to Whopping Banana Fluffer Dough, and in the middle, "The Maple Bacon Breakfast, which is Golden Grahams, bacon bits and maple syrup blended into a maple-walnut ice cream and then of course our wasabi-coconut-banana blend."

The menu offers dozens of pre-tested combinations and Shore says regular customers improvise, "So they might do bacon and bananas or they might do wasabi and strawberries if they've tried the wasabi-coconut-banana and then they want to try something different."

Shore says the staff may actually rein in the ice cream cowboy trying too much at once, but some combos work, "We've actually had people make suggestions which make it on to the menu.  Most of the names on the menu are associated with people who have come up with creations."

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060

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