The Dish on Dish: Oh Yeah!

The scoop on Shadyside's swank ice creamatorium

by Michael Vivar

Nestled in a cozy space on Highland Avenue, the confectionary boutique is an entirely green space. While this might conjure, for some, mental images of a hippie commune where people sit on bald radial tires and eat off of scavenged plywood and cinder block tables, the reality is a cheerfully bright space that lightens the mood of our increasingly grey Pittsburgh days. Now on to the sweet treats.

The shop features flavors and toppings that boggle the mind such as pineapple and goat cheese and beef jerky respectively. On our first outing, though, we didn’t tread too far off the beaten path. Katie bent to her Green Isle heritage and had a scoop of Irish Cream with a scoop of sugar free vanilla (Huzzah for looking out for the diabetics!) along with a sprinkling of gummy bears. I had a scoop of “five-star” chocolate, a scoop of mocha tofu ice cream, and a dash of habanero.

Before I get to the quality of our repast, let me tell you of how these flavors are mixed together. They have a machine that I can only assume was inspired by the Spanish Inquisition. It’s a large mixing drill that the ice cream slinger plunges into the dessert with the gusto of Torquemada on a heretic. The flavors are completely mixed and the process is such that every time we’ve been to the shop, every customer gets a six-year old’s gleam in their eye that says, “I wanna try!”

Katie’s concoction was divine. “Oh Yeah” gets their ice cream from “Woo City,” a company that prides itself on their use of Amish cows and unrefined sugars. We could taste this difference from dessert producers that, apparently, threaten their cows with electrical appliances. The Irish Cream was delightful and their sugar free vanilla didn’t have that chalky taste you’ll find in much artificially sweetened fare.

Mine was equally good, and surprisingly so. After having many pints of reprehensible Tofutti being forced upon me by well-meaning friends, I was glad that the mocha was sensed by my palate as being mocha and not, well, tofu. The addition of habanero gave the whole thing a hot bite that was pleasant in the brisk Autumn day.

I’ve heard criticism about the supposedly exorbitant price at “Oh Yeah!” but I say “bosh!” to that. We paid around $10 for our indulgence and I believe the quality and experience were well worth the cost. In addition, a person would pay a comparable amount at one of the ever-expanding chain frou frou ice cream concerns and would find these places laughably pedestrian compared to this home town concern. Oh yeah, they’re dog friendly, so Cora the Love Pig is happy, and that’s all that really matters.

"Oh Yeah!" is located at 232 Highland Ave., Shadyside.