D’Nicio’s Parlour and Restaurant

• 6880 W. Main Street
• Kalamazoo, MI 49009
• (269) 353-8600
• Website
• Menu

My kids have to come expect dessert.  It’s weird because I never did growing up.  We did something totally out of the ordinary and had a “bed time snack.”  It would usually involve dessert foods but we’d eat it just before bed instead of right after dinner.

We left Lucky Girl Brewing Crossroads right around 7:00 on Saturday night.  The kids weren’t the best behaved and they only ate part of their dinner but J and I were good and we ate all of our food….

We were actually just going to go through the drive through at McDonalds on West Main and get ice cream but that McDonalds is the worst.  The line was backed up almost in to the Menards parking lot.  J then asked if D’Nicio’s was still open.  It was only 7:00 so I figured it should be.  We got out of line at McDonalds and went a couple of parking lots over.

D’Nicio’s Parlour and Restaurant is on West Main in Oshtemo Township just to the west of 9th Street.  It’s in the strip mall just in front of the Menards.  This restaurant has been around for about ten years, but D’Nicio’s established themselves in Battle Creek about seven years prior to that.

D’Nicio’s looks and feels like the classic ’50’s diner and soda shop.  Booths and tables line the outside ring of the space, but there are three different shaped counters which give you more of that 50’s atmosphere.  There is a lot of stainless steel and red leather and tile to add to the atmosphere.  The place was pretty packed when we stopped in but we were able to find a table near the door.

We were just in the market for ice cream and couldn’t find an ice cream menu on the table.  A waitress came over and put down paper place mats which had what we were looking for.  We told her we were just doing dessert so she offered to get us some glasses of water to sip on while we were waiting.

We sat right in front of the “Wall of Fame” for their “Dare to Be Great” challenge.  This ridiculous challenge is 21 scoops of ice cream, nuts, syrup, and whipped cream and must be eaten in an  hour without vacating the contents of your stomach while on the premise.  Shockingly, there were no names on the “Success” side of the board.

We did not attempt the “Dare to Be Great” but we all still felt like we had more ice cream than we could possibly eat.

I ordered the Snickers Parfait.  This beer mug is layered with hot fudge, chocolate ice cream, hot caramel, and peanuts then topped with whipped cream and a cherry.  The waitress even brought me a straw because she said by the time most people get to the end, it starts to get all melty.

J ordered The Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae.  This simple, but massive creation is four scoops of vanilla ice cream on top of a soft, warm brownie and topped with whipped cream, hot fudge and two cherries.  For some reason, everyone kept reaching their spoons over to J’s bowl to take bites.

We let each of the kids just order whatever scoop of ice cream they wanted.  B got a kidie size dish of Cotton Candy.  He doesn’t do great with hard packed ice cream yet but he kept going “mmmm.  candy”  as he was eating.

L wanted two scoops of ice cream so she ordered Bubblegum and Superman.  She wasn’t a huge fan of the bubblegum because it had little frozen pieces of candy in it but she ate it all anyway.  She loved the Superman ice cream.

Of course, D’Nicio’s has a huge food menu as well but we had already eaten.  We realized we haven’t eaten at D’Nicio’s since 2010 when J and I (this was well before kids) went there for dinner not long after we moved to the west side of town.

Our bill for the ice cream was around $25 which is paid for at a cash register next to the ice cream case.

Why has it been eight years since we went to D’Nicio’s.  I can’t explain it, but it won’t happen again.  It’s a great spot to take the kids for ice cream since we don’t really have a neighborhood ice cream shop we can walk to.  Stopping at D’Nicio’s kind of turned the night around.  Dinner wasn’t a great experience due to the kids’ behavior but ice cream put J and I in a better mood as we all stole bites out of each other’s bowls.