🍦 Build-Your-Own Ice Cream Bar: Our Kind of Buffet 🍨

The Summer Solstice is upon us, which means the sun will be working overtime while we sit in lawn chairs eating cold things and pretending this counts as hydration. And what better way to welcome the longest day of the year than with a DIY ice cream bar—for parties, cookouts, or emotionally intense solo dessert marathons that do not require pants.

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Here’s how to build a table so magical it’ll make your guests question why they ever trusted store-bought Neapolitan.

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🍨 Step 1: The Foundation (aka, The Scoop Troop)

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Offer at least three base flavors, but avoid going too basic. Sure, vanilla is nice, but consider adding coffee, mint chip, or ube for that “ooh what is this?” moment. Ava’s carries traditional, vegan, and lactose-free ice creams so nobody has to scream (unless it’s out of joy or because they ate too fast and gave themselves neurological frost damage).

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Fun fact: The U.S. produces over 1.3 billion gallons of ice cream every year. That’s enough to fill a standard swimming pool… 1,800 times. Which is exactly how many toppings you should consider offering.

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🍫 Step 2: Toppings Galore (or: How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Bowl of Ice Cream in the Most Delicious Way Possible)

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Here’s your must-have chaos lineup:

• Chopped nuts – crunch!
• Mini marshmallows – squish!
• Fresh fruit – a lie, but a colorful one!
• Sprinkles – obviously.
• Crushed cookies – betrayal never tasted so sweet.
• Whipped cream – from a can, for drama.
• Chocolate sauce, caramel, strawberry goo – make it messy.

Bonus points if you offer:

• Cereal (Cap’n Crunch, Fruity Pebbles)
• Spicy chili oil (yes, seriously)
• Potato chips (sweet-salty is a thing, Janet)

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🧁 Step 3: Table Setup Tips

• Keep your ice cream on ice trays or a cooler-in-disguise so it doesn’t become sad, milky soup halfway through.
• Use label cards—especially if you’re including dietary options or things that may look like chocolate chips but are actually black garlic (happens to our guests ALL the time, for some reason…).
• Hand out miniature scoops or tiny tongs, because nothing says “party” like struggling to pick up a single gummy bear with a spatula and still trying to maintain your dignity.

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🎉 Step 4: Theme It Up

Want people to remember your party? Make a theme:

• “Sundaes of the Solar System” – each topping station is a planet. Uranus gets the nuts.
• “Ice Cream Apocalypse” – the table is surrounded by plastic dinosaurs, zombie legos, or smoking dry ice.
• “The Solstice Scream” – everyone wears a cape and shouts when they get brain freeze. No exceptions.

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Whether you’re hosting friends or just living your best indoor "I miss 2020" life, a build-your-own ice cream bar is pure, chaotic joy. And best of all? No two sundaes will look the same—just like every single backyard in Mountain View that somehow contains both a lemon tree and a startup. This is peak South Bay summer: fog in the morning, sunburn in the afternoon, and you hunched over a compostable bowl, debating if rainbow sprinkles and mochi belong together (they do).

🍦 Just Buy the Pint: Your Ice Cream Emergency Plan B 🚨

Listen. We love a good DIY sundae situation. We do. But sometimes, you don’t want to be a host. You want to be an agent of impulse, sprinting to Ava's at 8:25 PM, whispering “please still be open” while trying to avoid knocking over a small child or tripping over a flower display.

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That’s why we stock a frankly unreasonable number of ice creams, gelatos, sorbets, and suspiciously healthy frozen bars, so you can grab, go, and indulge without assembling an entire toppings bar in your kitchen like you’re filming a Food Network special for ferrets.

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We curate with intention—and also because we’ve had so many conversations with customers about your oddly specific flavor preferences. (Yes, we know about your thing with lavender + sea salt + cashew milk. We see you. Respect.)

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Here are just a few fan-favorite frozen heroes in the Ava’s freezer:

• GoodPop – These popsicles are organic, fair-trade, and made from real fruit, but still somehow taste like a summer birthday party in 1994. Fun fact: the founder started selling them from a tricycle. A TRICYCLE.
• Marianne’s – This Santa Cruz legend has been cranking out ice cream since 1947, meaning your grandparents probably snuck kisses behind the freezer case. Try the Mudpie flavor if you want a flavor that tastes the exact opposite of how it sounds.
• Ben & Jerry’s – We know, we know, it’s everywhere—but we carry the weird, wonderful ones, like Americone Dream, which is a whole patriotic ice cream cone in a pint. (Also, Stephen Colbert’s face is on it, which legally makes it a collectible.)
• Talenti Gelato – Comes in a jar that looks like it should hold face cream, but tastes like angels churning dessert in Rome. Try the Sea Salt Caramel unless you hate joy (or oceans).

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Need dairy-free? Got it. Need high-protein, low-sugar, monk-fruit-sweetened vegan nitrogen-milk-from-a-coconut-farm cooperative bars? We probably have that too.

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Fun fact time! Ice cream dates back to ancient China, where they mixed snow with honey and fruit. It’s come a long way since then, especially here in Mountain View, where your average ice cream purchase now involves a moral (and technological) debate over which local creamery to support.

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So the next time it’s 90 degrees, your patience is melting, and your will to scoop is zero, just come to Ava’s. Grab a pint (or seven), sprint home, and do what summer demands: eat it directly from the container with a spoon that’s probably still warm from the dishwasher.

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🥄 Remember: You’re not lazy—you’re efficient. (And also possibly lactose-intolerant)—but either way, Ava's always has you covered.

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🍒 Ice Cream's Best-Kept-Secret Topping (Yes. Really.) 🍷

We’ve led you gently through the garden of toppings: nuts, sprinkles, syrups, cookie crumbles, gummy bears… But now it’s time to go off the map. No more playing it safe. No more “I guess I’ll just do hot fudge again…” NO. This is the era of bold dessert decisions.

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The best ice cream topping—the one you almost certainly haven’t tried yet—is balsamic vinegar. Not vinaigrette (that’s for your salad, you absolute maniac), but the thick, syrupy, aged stuff that glistens like it knows secrets. And it does. Mostly secrets about how to make your vanilla ice cream taste like it was handcrafted by a Tuscan wizard.

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Why It Works (and It Really Works):

Aged balsamic vinegar is sweet, tangy, and deeply complex, with notes of figs, cherries, oak barrels, and dark academic romance novels. Drizzled over cold, creamy ice cream, it’s a flavor bomb of contrast: sharp vs. sweet, syrupy vs. silky, ancient vs. brain-freeze. It’s like your mouth gets its own subplot.

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And in Modena, Italy, this combo is totally normal. Italians have been doing this forever—because of course they have. They invented gelato and also boots that go up to your knees. They know pleasure.

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Fun Fact: The word “balsamic” comes from Latin balsamum, meaning “restorative”. It was once used as a medicine, so technically, this is a health food now. (We don’t recommend telling your doctor this.)

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How to Try It Without Scaring Yourself:

Start small. A drizzle of good quality, thick balsamic over vanilla, strawberry, or mascarpone gelato. Bonus points if the ice cream is slightly melty—it helps the vinegar swirl in and form strange alliances. Add a strawberry or two, and boom: you’re basically at a villa in Emilia-Romagna.

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And here’s the thing: once you try it on ice cream, you’ll start balsamic-ing everything.

• Popcorn? Why not.
• Watermelon? Already a thing.
• Fried eggs? Don’t knock it.
• Pancakes? Trust the chaos.
• A single baby carrot? Honestly kind of elegant.

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So go ahead. Be the balsamic freak you were always born to be. Ava’s has some truly incredible bottles—from syrupy aged traditional vinegars to affordable “gateway balsamics” that will still impress your taste buds and your skeptical houseguests.
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Sprinkles are for babies. Balsamic is for the bold. 🍨🖤

Upcoming Events​
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• Every Wednesday, 5-7pm — 🎵 Music on Castro​
  ​Enjoy live performances right in Downtown Mountain View! Come for the tunes, stay for the vibes, and don’t forget to swing by Ava’s to grab dinner from Poké Bowl or Simply Sabor, or just pick up a box of cookies to munch on while you vibe to the music like a very classy raccoon. 🎶🍪🦝
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• Every Friday, 6-7:30pm — 🎵 Concerts on the Plaza​
  ​Didn’t get your full music fix on Wednesday? Perfect—because Friday night, Concerts on the Plaza is bringing the beats that make lawn chairs bounce and dads attempt the moonwalk. 💃🕺 Stop by Ava’s first for a snack, a chilled drink, or a quick wine tasting to fuel your feet and unlock those secret dance moves.​
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• Fri, Jun 20, 5-7pm— ✨ Sparkling Spirit Tasting​
  Enjoy a free tasting of Santa Cruz' very own West Peak Sparkling Spirits—effervescent, elegant, and just bubbly enough to make you text your ex (don’t). Come for the sparkle, stay because carbonated booze is basically adult soda.
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• Fri, Jun 20 — ☀️ Summer Solstice
  ​The longest day of the year, and the official start of Summer! Make the most of those extra rays by grilling into the golden hour. Ava’s has everything for a midsummer feast: local produce, wild sausages, mystical cheeses… and possibly the ghost of a druid in the wine aisle (we call him "Dave"). 🌞
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• Fri, July 4 — 🇺🇸 Independence Day
  ​Celebrate America with grilled things, cold things, and an unreasonable amount of tiny flags and sparklers. Swing by Ava’s for all your BBQ, berry, and beverage needs—we’ve got the freedom to snack, and we’re using it.​
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• Thu, July 17, 11am-3pm — ⚡️ MV Tech Showcase​
  ​Wait, there are actual TECH COMPANIES in Mountain View?! Next you’ll tell us "clearing your cookies" doesn't just mean a tummy ache the next day. Check out the Showcase downtown, then swing by Ava’s for snacks so good, even AI can’t predict your next craving.