PROVIDENCE, RI — Mikes’s Ice won the first place at the Ice Cream Throwdown Sunday afternoon, at Rhode Island Eye Institute’s lot at 150 East Manning St,. earning bragging rights for the year, but all of the participating 12 vendors treated scores of potential customers to samples of their frozen treats.Mike’s Ice of Providence, specializing in Thai-style ice cream rolls, a newcomer last year who boasted the longest lines, didn’t place in 2016, but turned their competition fortunes around with three lines organized at their food truck: Instagood (vanilla ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, Oreos and cookie dough); Relationship Goals (Peanut butter, Reese’s cups, fudge, and Reese’s pieces), and Yolo (Chocolate ice cream and brownies).Warwick Ice Cream came in second with their three flavors: Federal Hill (Mazcarpone cheesecake ice cream blended with blue berries and a Graham cracker swirl), Girl Scout Cookie (Chocolate ice cream with peppermint and chocolate sandwich cookies), and Ocean State (Coffee milk ice cream with milk chocolate toffee swirled with sea salt).Warwick Ice Cream’s stand was busy with a steady stream of ice cream fans, including Marnie Tetreault of East Greenwich, who asked for a sample of Federal Hill.”I liked it very much,” she said. “It’s very creamy.”Rogue Island Local Kitchen & Bar at The Arcade in Providence won People’s Choice with their tongue – tingling Mexican Vanilla Spiced ice cream (Ancho chili, sea salt, marshmallow with homemade chocolate mole ganache and candied popitos, a favorite among the more adventurous of the attendees.Jim Nellis, owner of RI Food Fights, which organizes the Ice Cream Throwdown, said this year was better than expected.”And I have very high expectations,” Nellis said.This year, about 60 percent of the 750 patrons who bought tickets to the sold-out event were new Ice Cream Throwdown patrons, he said. That means the vendors got their ice cream in front of a lot of new potential customers, Nellis said.
The other participants in the throw-down were Lincoln Creamery, Like No Udder, Julians, Frosty Freez of Middletown, SUNDAES, Pompelmo Gelato,, Clementine’s in EG, and Newport Creamery.
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