I lived in Medina County growing up. I moved back to the area, well close enough, by moving to Wayne County several years ago. However, I have never gone through Hinckley, Ohio at least not to my knowledge. That is until last Saturday, January 28, 2017. My husband, Bobby and I traveled to Walton Hills to Bedford Reservation with our dog, Owney. Both Bobby and Owney wrote about our adventures there, but I get the chance to write about our visit to Z’s Cream and Bean.
After a chance to walk at the Reservation and enjoying some good food from Original Steak and Hoagies, we headed home. I told Bobby that I wanted to stop and get ice cream somewhere. He put information into Yelp to find the closest location to where we were at that time. A few different shops came up, but when he said that Z’s Cream and Bean was on it and it was located in Hinckley, I said we had to go to it. I was finally going to Hinckley!
Bobby and I were a little afraid that Z’s Cream and Bean would be closed because we have never heard of the place and figured it would be a small, kind of dari-isle, type of establishment. Boy were we wrong. In fact when pulled into the parking lot it reminded me a lot of Graeter’s. (For those of you new to my blog, Graeter’s is one of my all time favorite ice creams.) It was this bright, modern ice cream parlor that I am sure can get quite crowded during the warmer months.
The girls who helped us make our selections, let us try a few samples first. Of course, this is one of my favorite ways to make a selection. So obviously I tried their dark chocolate, I am afterall a chocoholic. It had a nice robust flavor. Then I went for the salted caramel, because I have started to like the flavor, too. I was also intrigued by their “Ohio” flavor, which had a ribbon of fudge and peanut butter cups. Finally, I tried the mint chocolate chip, because, well, I like mint and also one of the servers told me it was her favorite. Turns out it was really, really good. Bobby tried the salted caramel and the espresso heath.
While I was trying flavors and talking with the servers, Bobby was making the rounds taking pictures of the parlor. He stopped at the case with ice cream pints, quarts, and ice cream cookies. He suggested that we purchase a quart of Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip to bring home. (Remember, we have been trying to lose some weight this year!) I had just been telling the servers about Graeter’s and my favorite flavor of theirs which is Double Chocolate Chip. So when he made the suggestion, I jumped at the chance. Of course, I was a little disappointed that we weren’t going to purchase some ice cream to eat there. Then he asked if I wanted anything else. I decided to get a scoop of mint chocolate chip in a cup. I was in heaven! I could have my ice cream and eat it, too!
Now, because I want to be completely honest with my readers, I actually couldn’t remember the names of the ice cream I had tried last week. I remember that I liked them, but my memory isn’t very good. I’m glad, in this case, that this is true. That’s because I ended up making a call to Z’s Cream and Bean. I had the chance to speak to Mary Ann Zirker, who turned out to be the owner of the restaurant. She laughed when I told her I was trying to figure out the names of what we had tried. She laughed because their flavors change all the time. Her daughter makes the ice cream there at the shop in small batches. Mary Ann was very nice and I enjoyed talking with her. She even admitted that before she and her husband opened the store, she would order Graeter’s for him! So you can bet their ice cream is pretty good.
What I found out about Hinckley is that it is right next to Brunswick. (I have been to Brunswick plenty of times.) It was late, so we didn’t really see much in regard to the town Hinckley. I do plan on going back to do a little more investigating and you can bet when I do, I’ll be back to visit Z’s Cream and Bean!
