Getting the Shakes

Stick a bunch of stuff in a blender, shake maker or smoothie maker, whirl it around awhile and your correspondent is a happy guy. After all, I have my own Hamilton Beach milkshake machine, complete with a stainless steel cup that gets frosty when it’s on the machine long enough.

Even so, sampling shakes and smoothies in Sonoma County’s great northwest can be a daunting task. Let’s start with definitions.

According to Wikipedia, a milkshake is: “A sweet, cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream or iced milk, and flavorings or sweeteners such as fruit syrup or chocolate sauce.”
The same source describes a smoothie as: “A blended, chilled, sometimes sweetened beverage made from fresh fruit or vegetables.”

For our purposes, shakes have a lot of ice cream, smoothies have a lot of fruits and veggies, but both can and do have additives like honey, yogurt, ice, syrup or even protein powder (yuck).

The “Shake and Smoothie Road Trip” took place over two Saturdays in March and involved sampling at quite a few locally owned places. A stipulation—with only a few exceptions, I did not try shakes and smoothies that were on the menu in eateries and I did not try the stuff offered in national chains (more on that later). I also didn’t visit the FroYo places, although yogurt can make for a very pleasing shake base.

Another stipulation—I tried mostly chocolate shakes (because I wanted to) and chose berry or citrus smoothies (again, my personal preference).

Guerneville provided two stops. The venerable Pat’s Restaurant is justly famous for its milkshakes. The friendly folks behind the counter will make you a three-scoop milkshake that consists of vanilla ice cream, a generous glob of chocolate syrup and a little milk. They put it on the machine for a long time and they give you a small cup for the extra that won’t fit in the regular cup. The shake is thick and smooth at the same time and doesn’t clog up the straw.

Flavors Unlimited, at the north end of Guerneville, will pretty much make you anything you want. In addition to grill food, they make sundaes, shakes and smoothies. The Blueberry Hill smoothie contained blueberries, banana, pineapple sherbet and vanilla yogurt. The friendly and perky chaos of the smoothie matched the establishment and both went down easy.

In Forestville, just about everyone ends up at Carr’s. It looks like a 1950s diner on the outside and is maybe ’70s vintage on the inside. The food is basic, decent and not too messy, which also describes the milkshake. It looked and tasted like soft serve ice cream blended with a little milk. The Styrofoam cup was a little off-putting, but the shake tasted like a Frostee (in a good way).

Sebastopol might be headquarters for blended drinks. D’s Diner was the first stop, another retro roadside place that was more take-out than diner. The shake was vanilla ice cream, milk and chocolate syrup, blended a bit. It was light on flavor but had a nice texture sliding up the straw. Beware the parking lot at D’s; hard to get in or out safely.

The next stop was Foster’s Freeze in Sebastopol. A place that has “Shakes” on its road sign had better deliver, but Foster’s did not. After so many chocolate shakes, I needed something lighter, so I ordered the peach shake. It had no detectable peach flavor but at least offered a hearty vanilla with a decent texture. I’ll go back and try the chocolate.

Berry Best, advertised as a smoothie joint, is hard to find. Located in a little strip mall in Sebastopol behind a Starbucks, I had given up on it until I saw the sign from the Foster’s parking lot. Alas, Berry Best was closed on the Saturday I visited, but it gets good reviews online and the menu posted in the window shows promise, with a mixture of hot dogs and smoothies.

The queen of milkshakes can be found at Sebastopol’s Screamin’ Mimi’s. The Mudslide milkshake is concocted from Mimi’s Mud ice cream, a scoop of hot fudge, chocolate shavings (they shave it right in front of you) and whipped cream. The chocolate shavings settle on the bottom and clog up the straw at the end, but it makes for a little treasure to dig out after a hearty, creamy and absolutely delicious shake.

Located in Occidental, Howard Station Café has a large smoothie menu and isn’t afraid to leave out the sweeteners that most places include. The Blood Rich Cocktail smoothie contains tomato, celery, beet and spinach and looks alarmingly like something a domesticated vampire might drink. I saw one but didn’t order it. I slaked my thirst with the Citrus Zinger, which has a pleasing collection of tart fruits. The flavor mixture was nice, but the smoothie could have been colder. The young man behind the counter called me “Bud” repeatedly and hopped around like he’d been downing smoothies all day.

Windsor is short on smoothie joints, given its family atmosphere, but there’s a good selection at Café Noto. The smoothie at Noto was the only one on the trip with a noticeable “icee” texture and the only one that gave me a brain freeze. It was also damn refreshing. For old-fashioned thick shakes in Windsor, try KC’s Downtown Grill at the north end of the Town Green.

Healdsburg almost rivals Sebastopol for the number of offerings. At the north end of town, check out Bean Affair. Ostensibly a coffee shop, the Bean has a decent selection of smoothies beloved by the students at nearby Healdsburg High School. Mostly made with sherbet and frozen fruit, they have a pleasing texture and go down easy.

There are three places worth noting on the Healdsburg Plaza.

If Screamin’ Mimi’s is the queen of shakes, Healdsburg’s Downtown Bakery & Creamery is the duchess. DTB&C owner Kathleen Stewart makes extraordinarily thick and delicious ice cream and you can get a shake that is made of two to three big scoops and a little Clover milk. This time of year, the shake made with Meyer Lemon ice cream will knock you out with its delicacy and creamy texture.

Next door is Center Street Café & Deli. The shake and ice cream set up was installed by the former owners (who now own KC’s in Windsor), but the current owners maintain a tradition of thick and creamy shakes and smoothies that have a creamy feeling.

A few doors north, check out the shakes at Snow Bunny, a gourmet yogurt shop. All shakes are made with Snow Bunny’s high-end yogurt. In the summer, the cantaloupe shake is astounding.

A last word about the chains. There’s a reason why chain/franchise milkshakes and smoothies taste good. They spend millions of dollars on research to make sure they do, so don’t feel guilty if you get a chocolate shake or Wild Berry smoothie at McDonald’s or something similar at Starbucks, Carl’s Jr., etc. Just make sure you patronize the mom-and-pop places too.

Chill Treats

Pat’s, 16236 Main St.; Guerneville; 869-9904

Flavors Unlimited, 16450 Main St.; Guerneville; 869-2927

Carr’s Drive-In, 6533 Covey Rd.; Forestville; 887-7053

D’s Diner, 7260 Healdsburg Ave.; Sebastopol; 829-8080

Foster’s Freeze, 935 Gravenstein Ave. South; Sebastopol; 823-1644

Berry Best, 972 Gravenstein Ave. South; Sebastopol; 824-2993

Screamin’ Mimi’s, 6902 Sebastopol Ave.; Sebastopol; 823-5902

Howard Station Café, 3611 Bohemian Hwy.; Occidental; 874-2828

Café Noto, 630 McClelland Dr.; Windsor; 836-1830

KC’s Downtown Grill, 9501 Duvander Ln.; Windsor; 838-7800

Bean Affair, 1270 Healdsburg Ave.; Healdsburg; 395-0177

Downtown Bakery & Creamery, 308 Center St.; Healdsburg; 431-2719

Center Street Café & Deli, 304 Center St.; Healdsburg; 433-7224

Snow Bunny, 312 Center St.; Healdsburg; 431-7669