I categorize soft-serve ice cream in my head as a treat, a sweet I can’t make at home that I must deliberately travel into the world to attain. Some folks may own an ice cream machine that creates a version of this cold sweet, but not me. Two weeks ago, I waxed poetic about soft serve, but this time, I’m going the other direction. Hand-dipped ice cream, or hard ice cream, is premade, put into a container, and is then scooped out into a formed ball, if you’re good at it. This is the kind of ice cream I can buy at the grocery store and keep in my freezer. But sometimes, hand-dipped ice cream is worth leaving the house for.

Victoria’s Creamery has two locations, one at 2064A Walton Drive in Jackson and the other at 137 N. Main St. in Cape Girardeau. I recently visited the Jackson location to decide if this ice cream was worth the trip.

Upon walking into the store, my first impression was cleanliness. Glowing with a soft white, this space was warm, welcoming, uncluttered and clean. The tables invite visitors to stay, chat and smile over their cones. But while I do appreciate a good aesthetic, I was here for ice cream.

The most chocolatey of chocolate ice cream cones, rich, crunchy, and so satisfying.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

Like most hand-dipped ice cream joints, this one had a glass fronted display case, and the ice creams in all their riots of color sat in their cylindrical cartons with the flavors individually labeled. There was a selection of cones as well, and, of course, the fresh waffle cone dipped in chocolate looked particularly tasty. I mean, if I’m already going to spend the calories, I’m going for that waffle cone.

However, I was distracted from the cones and tubs of ice cream by one little item on the menu that suddenly took me back to my single-digit years of life. Small, unassuming, listed near the end of the menu, sat three little words: “Root Beer Float.” The ice cream treat that blew my mind the first time I tried one. Welp, decision made, no second thoughts. That was easy. I’ll take the float.

We watched the worker dip Seth’s chocolate ice cream into a chocolate dipped waffle cone, then watched her put some vanilla ice cream into a clear plastic to-go cup and top it off with A&W Root Beer. Dipping out this ice cream is no joke, and she really put her muscles into it. The round sphere of ice cream cradled in the cone was perfectly formed with care. Food really does taste better when it looks pretty — so the little touches are always appreciated.

We tried our treats in the car, because that vehicle has been trying to catch on fire lately (long story and I’m being dramatic, but it boils down to a very inconvenient and smoky oil leak that will be fixed ASAP … I hope), and I wanted to keep an eye on the car. Ah, the earthly, rich, almost spicy smooth taste of root beer, with a good quality vanilla ice cream melting into it, lending it a thick and creamy undertone. I spooned some of the ice cream out of the root beer, and those delightful root beer crystals had formed on the outside of the ice cream, crunchy and giving the whole thing more texture, more playful flavor. I do love a good root beer float.

But I know that floats aren’t everybody’s thing, so Seth let me try his cone, too. Just a simple scoop of chocolate ice cream, but so incredibly rich and thick, packed with so much chocolate flavor that compared to regular chocolate ice cream, it was like the difference between eating dark chocolate versus milk chocolate candy bars. The waffle cone was crunchy but with that little bit of softness in the middle, which I think is necessary to a good, thick waffle cone. The chocolate dipped around the opening of the cone was an excellent quality chocolate, not that look-alike fake stuff that tastes of mostly sugar.

And that is the one word that can summarize Victoria’s Creamery: quality. Quality ingredients, quality service, quality attention to detail when dipping out our cone, quality aesthetics inside of the shop. The whole place was delightful, and I look forward to visiting the location in Cape to see how the downtown vibe may be reflected there. Well worth leaving the house for.

Rebecca LaClair travels to a new place every week to try food from a trendy restaurant or one she hasn’t been to yet.