Sweet Rose Creamery | Sweet Rose Creamery On Pico In Santa Monica Takes Us For A Swirl | Tasting Table Los Angeles

Reason #101 to love L.A.: Even in November, ice cream isn't out of season.

That's especially true of the new Sweet Rose Creamery near Pico and Lincoln in Santa Monica, where any given day the freezers hold a mind-boggling array of the city's best frozen treats: more than twenty seasonal varieties of ice cream, milkshakes, bon bons, malts, ice cream pies, brownie sundaes and chocolate-dipped bananas.

But wait, there's even more! For the second "more experimental" branch of their frozen dessert shop, co-owners Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan, along with Executive Chef Shiho Yoshikawa, wanted to add something extra: soft serve.

At Sweet Rose, the creamy dessert is made with a house-made base mix and then flavored with whatever farmer's market ingredients are on Yoshikawa's shopping list that week. Two different flavors are paired together for optimum swirlability, such as Kyoho grape and peanut butter ($4), which resulted in an awesome frozen PB&J simulacrum.

During our last visit, we swirled tangy local passion fruit with bittersweet Valrhona chocolate, an unlikely combination that quickly became addictive.

Blueberry Cream Brioche (Photo: Sweet Rose Creamery)

On those odd days when ice cream isn't on our brains, we have yet another reason to stop by the Pico shop: fresh-baked pastries sourced from nearby Milo & Olive, including a soft brioche roll with crème fraîche and blueberries ($3) that easily wins a spot in our baked goods Hall of Fame.

Consider it reason #102.