Blank Slate has flourished over the past two years in cultivating Ann Arbor’s five senses. Touch the smooth blackboard tabletops, get chalk on your hands. Smell the intoxicating sweet maple of waffle cones. See the view of the train tracks and the architecture studio through the corner window, as well as mason jar light fixtures and more chalk. Hear the buzz of families, college students, locals — and then nothing, their mouths full of ice cream. Taste salty caramel coffee, basil, bittersweet chocolate, honey lavender lemon.
They pride themselves on using all natural and locally sourced ingredients such as Mighty Good Coffee and milk from Guernsey farms in Northville, Michigan. Blank Slate regularly introduces new flavors that might be more unconventional, such as the popular blueberry pancake (yes, it does taste like brunch in a cone) or malted chocolate stout and blackberry Riesling sorbet (no, these flavors will not get you drunk).
Some say ice cream is cheaper than therapy and maybe Blank Slate gets that. There’s a therapeutic quality in enjoying tasty, local ice cream and the smell of homemade waffle cones all while doodling on the table. With a focus on enriching the Ann Arbor community and creating innovative flavors to showcase quality ingredients, Blank Slate has a presence much more permanent than the chalk drawings it houses.
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