The Parlour — Restaurant in Durham

The ice cream gets 5 stars, but the customer service from one particular scooper, a young lady who frequently wears a baseball cap, T-shirt and jeans (works at lot of Parlous JR. And parlour downtown sometimes) is atrocious. We moved to Durham a year ago to the apartments at 810 across the parlour jr location. My fiance and I made a ritual to go every weekend until we moved recently. This young lady has been very rude, hurries us out and seems really bothered by us. We've seen her interact with other customers and she is nicer to them, though still serving some attitude. We always tip her anywhere from 1 -3 dollars even when she is rude. Today around 7pm, her rudeness and sarcasm was beyond what it ever has been which is why I am moved to waste 5 minutes of my life to express this. My fiance wanted to try two flavors, a blackberry and a cheesecake flavor. She got him the samples and he asked her which is which she said, well geeze I don't know maybe the one with the chunks might be cheesecake. Mind you this is a tiny sample so those obvious chunks weren't so obvious. She was so rude like she wanted us out and didn't even give us the right flavor. And I still tipped her. Getting ice cream was fun but has become kind of a bummer with sarcasm, rudeness and eye rolls and I'm not sure what we did to deserve that. Parlour has lost a frequent ice...

The ice-cream here is really good. My palate isn't sensitive enough to discriminate between ice creams that are extremely creamy/delicious. It's a small place with tables. They have milkshakes and brownies and also have ice cream pints that you can take home. You get to try any of the flavors before you buy them so you won't be shocked with what you got. It's a little bit expensive for me (I don't believe in buying a scoop of ice cream when I can buy a quart of premium ice cream for the same price), but Durhamites (hipsters and normal people, alike) seem to rave about this place. Maybe they are seeing something that I am not. I wouldn't go here on my own, but that's just my personality and sense of personal budgeting. I've come here often with friends, however, and have never been dissatisfied. Parking is VERY limited on the street that immediately borders the shop. During peak season, you might as well get dropped off or find some street parking a couple blocks down the road. Line can get ridiculously long, too. Sundays are the absolute worst. Once I waited 20 minutes for a scoop of ice cream. It was good, but seriously? 20 min seems like a really long time to wait for...

The Parlour is the absolute best place to end an early summer night in downtown Durham. The shop consistently has an amazing, electric atmosphere. It feels like the Durham equivalent of a Star Wars Cantina. The stakes are much lower but the vibes are very similar. You get to see folks from all over bonding over something delicious. An elderly couple leaving a DPAC show, kids flooding in from a Durham Bulls game, downtown locals stopping by on a hot day. Ice cream from the Parlour calls to everyone.

Nestled in the heart of downtown, you never know what you’ll stumble upon when you walk outside of those doors. You might see a musical performance or a bike meetup or whatever else downtown Durham is brewing at the time.

To me, the Parlour feels like a part of Durham as much as the Can Opener or ATC. I get some warm and fuzzy feelings seeing their storefront packed. If you’ve never been before, definitely expect a long line in the summer. It’s well worth the wait—you might even make some new friends while you inch closer and closer to that sweet treat.

Most ordered flavor: Cookies and Cream (see photo) Favorite flavor:...