Friday, June 27, 2008

Fantastic Friday Night Treats at Schneider's Restaurant

This past Friday night my wife, my daughter and I took part in one of my favorite summer activities: enjoying an ice cream concoction featuring Schneider's Restaurant homemade ice cream. The Jersey Shore is filled with home made ice cream places and i think I may do an end of the summer tour of some of my favorites. However, Schneider's has a special place in my heart, because my folks used to have a summer home in Avon by the Sea, NJ, where Schneider's is located. In addition to enjoying the beautiful beach on weekends and during our vacation at Grandma and Grandpa's house, regular visits to Schnediers was part of the schedule. Back then Schneider's had an ice cream stand next to their main restaurant where folks would line up for their delicious treats.

Today that stand is gone but their great ice cream is served inside their main restaurant. In addition to ice cream Schneider's is famous for home made German, Austrian and Hungarian food. If you want authentic food following the traditional recipes of this region Schneider's is one of the last remaining places at the shore you can find these items of the menu. I have had the Weinerschnitzel at Schneider's which is excellent--thin, light and crispy as it should be. I have also enjoyed Schneider's golden brown potato pancakes and their wurst sampler which is a platter of bratwurst, knockwurst, red cabbage and home made German potato salad. Other regional dishes on the menu include sauerbraten, pickled herring in sour cream, and Hungarian goulash. If you are in the mood for regional cuisine, you can find the usual menu items: burgers, sandwiches, fresh fish, etc.

We visited Schneider's on Friday not for the great food, but for their fantastic "fountain treats" as they call them. As I already mentioned, the ice cream at Schneider's is homemade. It is high in butter fat content and has a fantastic creaminess to it. Their are a couple of flavors that are Schneider's exclusives such as meatloaf, which is a base of chocolate ice cream loaded with maple walnuts, chocolate chips and other goodies. It is my wife's favorite. Cherry chocolate, peanut butter chunk and cherries jubilee are other Schneider's originals.

Schneider's makes fantastic concoctions built on their ice cream. My wife ordered a hot fudge sundae. Their sundaes are generous and topped off with freshly whipped heavy cream and homemade cookie. My daughter had a waffle with ladled ice cream. This is one of the signature items on Schneider's ice cream menu as far as I am concerned. It starts with a freshly baked waffle. Then the waffle is covered from edge to edge with two flavors of ice cream. It is big enough to share and so I ordered an ice cream soda and glommed a couple of bites of my daughter's waffle. I have recently discovered that there are people who do not know what an ice cream soda is. It starts with something that New Yorkers call an egg cream. This is seltzer water blended with chocolate syrup and a bit of milk. To transform an egg cream into an ice cream soda, Schneider's add a couple of scoops of ice cream (I chose chocolate) and then tops is off with more of that rich freshly whipped cream and a cherry.

What more could you as for on a warm night in early summer. Next time you head to the beach take a trip to Schnedier's. Make sure you leave room for ice cream

Enjoy!

No comments: