Bennett's Ice Cream

Scoops made in the stall, in the middle of the market

The ice cream is made on the premises by the family that runs the stall, and that is the whole proposition at Bennett's Ice Cream. It is a counter inside the Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles, family owned and operated since 1963, and it has stayed a scoop shop rather than growing into a cafe. There is no coffee programme, no pastry case and no dining room. What it does is make ice cream and sorbet in small quantities and sell them over a counter to people already walking the market, which is a narrower job than most dessert counters take on and a large part of why it has lasted.

An old-school counter in a busy market

The format sets the pace. You walk up, look through the case, choose, and carry it back into the market rather than settling anywhere. The stall is compact and old-fashioned in the best sense, part of the market's own furniture by now, and it draws the mix the market draws: families, market regulars and visitors working their way through the food stalls. It gets crowded, particularly at weekends and through the afternoon, and the queue is part of the experience. You can often see the making as well as the serving, which is unusual for a market stall and is a fair share of the reason people come back to this counter rather than the nearest freezer case.

Two scoops, or the frozen banana

Order two scoops, the standard serving and the sensible way to read the range. Chocolate and vanilla are the plainest test of ice cream made on site and worth taking seriously here. The sorbets are where the stall gets more interesting, including a Cabernet Sauvignon sorbet that is the least expected thing on the board, and the seasonal flavours are worth asking about, with pumpkin appearing when it should. Seasonal flavours rotate, so the board is worth reading before you order, and two scoops in a cup travels better than a cone when the market is busy. The other order to know is the frozen chocolate-covered banana rolled in almonds, which belongs to the same era as the stall itself and travels through the market better than a cone does. Come for handmade ice cream rather than a coffee stop, because that is all this counter has ever tried to be.