Hand-Spun Milkshakes & Ice Cream in Minneapolis | Nicollet Diner
Thirty Milkshake Flavors and the People Who Order Them at 3 A.M.
We still spin the shakes by hand. Not because it photographs well, although it does. Because a proper milkshake is ice cream and a little patience, and the machine is not the point. The point is that it comes out thick enough to argue with the straw.
Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. Start there if you are a purist. Then we get into the ones people remember. The Butterface is peanut butter, Butterfinger, and butterscotch, and yes, we know the name is a little much. It has been a little much for years. The Campfire is chocolate, toasted marshmallow, graham cracker — summer camp without the wet socks. Lady Godiva is white chocolate, raspberry, and cheesecake, which is the shake you order when you want dessert to have manners. The Banana Split does the obvious thing and does it correctly.
Malts are not milkshakes with a costume on. Malt powder changes the whole conversation. If you grew up in the Midwest you already know this. If you did not, order one chocolate malt and stop talking for a minute.
Ice cream at a diner is not seasonal in the way Instagram wants it to be. People eat sundaes in January. People eat milkshakes at 3 a.m. in a downtown Minneapolis diner because they just got off work, or they just got out of a show at Roxy's, or they are on a first date and this is a better idea than another round of whatever they were drinking upstairs. I have watched a table split a shake with two straws like it was 1958. I have watched a grown man order a Campfire and eat the whipped cream with a spoon first, like a raccoon with a 401(k).
We also do floats, pies, muffin tops, cookies, brownies. The shake is the headline because it should be. Thirty flavors sounds like a boast until you work a Saturday and realize thirty is barely enough for the combination of nostalgia, dare, and "what do you have that's like a candy bar."
If you are only coming in for a burger, fine. If you leave without looking at the ice cream board, I will try not to take it personally but I will fail and suggest the hot fudge, Oreo with a shot of vanilla.