Click photo to enlarge
In a world of basil sorbets and pink peppercorn-tinged ice cream, it's just not right to reach for the Hershey's squeeze bottle. Anything so very gourmet as today's upscale, artisanal ice cream deserves something special on top. Photographed in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Friday, June 29, 2012. (Mark DuFrene/Staff)

There's no doubt about the retro appeal of maraschino cherries, whipped cream cans and that ersatz chocolate syrup in a squeeze bottle. But it's funny to think they coexist in the same dessert galaxy with basil sorbets and pink peppercorn-tinged ice cream.

Anything as gourmet as ice cream from today's trendy, artisanal parlors -- the Humphry Slocombes and Bi-Rite Creameries of the world -- deserves something similarly handcrafted on top.

So we turned to a trio of ice cream experts to help us reinvent ye olde ice cream social, sans squeeze bottles and quasi-fruity syrups. The results will take you six ways to sundae, with fresh lemon-blueberry syrup, vanilla butterscotch, extra-bittersweet fudge and even bacon peanut brittle.

And if there's a cherry on top, it better be a Bing.

Whimsy runs rampant at San Francisco's Humphry Slocombe, Jake Godby and Sean Vahey's trendsetting ice cream shop. It's known for eclectic flavors, including Elvis the Fat Years (banana, peanuts and bacon) and Secret Breakfast (bourbon-cornflake), as well as a Hot Mess sundae, which tops vanilla ice cream with banana slices and homemade butterscotch and marshmallow sauces.

"We do things somewhat backward. With the Hot Mess, we came up with the name first, and then figured out what it would be," Godby says. "I always try to have a good balance of acid and salt, so you're not overwhelmed. If it was just a big gooey mess, I wouldn't be interested after the first three bites."

That's why most artisanal ice cream toppings include bitter, sour or salty notes. It's all about layering flavors and textures, Godby says, but a dash of serendipity certainly helps. Take the day Humphry Slocombe's signature bacon-peanut brittle candy was left on the stove a tad too long. Loathe to just throw away a batch of brittle, Godby and Vahey mixed it into a batch of fresh banana ice cream -- and Elvis the Fat Years was born.

You can stir the chopped brittle into the ice cream and serve it by the scoop, but it also lends itself to sundae-fication when the ice cream is served with sliced bananas and topped with shards of brittle.

Caramel and butterscotch are favorites of Kris Hoogerhyde, a self-styled "caramel girl" who says "chocolate was not my first love." So it's no wonder that the lines that wrap around Bi-Rite Creamery, her San Francisco ice cream shop, are there for the signature salted caramel ice cream.

Salt is what makes flavors pop, whether it's on a scoop of that ice cream or sprinkled on a chocolate sundae drizzled with organic bergamot olive oil.

Unusual? Yes, but powerfully addictive, she says. "The olive oil gives a nice silkiness to it, the bergamot pairs so nicely with chocolate, and the salt makes your taste buds want more. People say, 'Ooh, salt on ice cream?' It's that sweet and salty combination. People forget that."

Hoogerhyde's favorite caramel is cooked to a deep mahogany hue, but she also loves a lighter, butterscotch version. Add a little scotch or bourbon, and you'll have Bi-Rite's "boozerscotch."

"The butterscotch is a caramel we don't take as far, so you're not getting that bitterness," she says. "We add butter to it, so it's really lush, and when you warm it and put it over ice cream, it cools down and becomes chewy. It's the same with our hot fudge sauce. As it sits against the cold ice cream, it get that candylike consistency, which I think is yummy."

Even the most strait-laced grown-ups get excited, she adds, when everything is homemade. Toss fresh berries with a little sugar and let them macerate until they release their own syrup, she suggests, or cook up a lemon-blueberry sauce to top a crème fraîche ice cream sundae.

"I'm a purist," she says. "A really good vanilla with fresh strawberries makes me super happy."

It's a view shared by Jeni Britton Bauer, an Ohio-based artisanal ice cream maker whose book, "Jeni's Ice Creams at Home" just won a James Beard award. Her wildly popular Farmers Market Sundaes use lemon frozen yogurt and fresh berries, macerated with Champagne, port or Grand Marnier. Her Ohito Sundae, a play on the classic rum cocktail, draws its flavors from fresh mint leaf-infused ice cream, a white-rum praline sauce and a wedge of lime, so guests can squeeze the tart citrus over the entire affair, including the sprinkling of turbinado sugar crystals.

"I like things to be a contrast," she says. "Something crunchy, sweet, sour, bitter, salty, a little bit of everything. What's great about the artisanal ice cream world is you can start with something more unusual, or something really well made, but very simple."

As for that cherry on top, Bauer uses fresh Bings or brandied cherries, such as Amarena cherries imported from Italy.

"I don't know how much more natural they are than maraschino, but they are so good and so beautiful," she says. "Probably maraschino cherries were supposed to be like that, but someone messed up."

Follow Food and Wine editor Jackie Burrell at and

Sundae Ideas

Tin Roof: Vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, frosted peanuts and Maldon salt

Hot Mess: Vanilla ice cream, butterscotch sauce, marshmallow cream and sliced bananas

Farmers Market Sundae: Lemon frozen yogurt, macerated
berries, whipped cream and fresh herbs

Ohito Sundae: Mint ice cream, white-rum praline sauce, lime wedges, whipped cream and turbinado sugar garnish

Sam's Sundae: Chocolate ice cream with Maldon salt, bergamot olive oil and whipped cream

The Sundae Blues: Lemon-blueberry sauce over
crème fraîche ice cream

Volumes on Ice Cream

Get the how-tos on the art of artisanal ice cream sundaes from the experts:

Bi-Rite Creamery: Get a scoop at the creamery at 3692 18th St. -- and soon 550 Divisadero St. -- in San Francisco, or take a peek at Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker and Dabney Gough's new cookbook, "Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones" (Ten Speed Press, $24.99, 224 pages).

Humphry Slocombe: Find the ice cream shop in San Francisco's Mission district, at 2790 Harrison St., online at and between the covers in Jake Godby and Sean Vahey's new "Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book" (Chronicle Books, $19.95, 144 pages). The duo will be signing books at 1 p.m. July 14 at Williams-Sonoma Union Square, 340 Post St., San Francisco.

Jeni Britton Bauer: The Ohio-based Bauer's "Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home" (Artisan, $23.95, 218 pages) just won the James Beard award. Both the book and Bauer's ice cream can be shipped. Details: