Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream (Manchester) — Restaurant in Lexington

Me and my boyfriend were looking for an interesting place to visit a couple of weekends ago. Somewhere that we would like as well as was easy on our tight budget and friendly to all our interests. Since neither of us drink and we really aren’t social (he has never even been to a bar!) then the large Lexington Distillery District area was not something we had considered.

However, Michael looked up the highest rated local ice cream place on Google and it lead us to Crank & Boom.

Once we left Goodfellas and were ready for our long-awaited ice cream, we circled around to the side door to get into Crank & Boom. We were greeted with a long galley sort of design with stairs going to the top lounge floor and the ice cream bar at the far end. It was decorated in a sort of rustic style that reminded me of shops on lakesides and ocean boardwalks - and I loved it.

Ordering was easy - there are less than 1.5 dozen choices total and to my personal disappointment, almost all of them contained tons of chocolate (not a fan) or liquor (me and Michael don’t drink). I decided to just pick the one that would look the cutest. If I wasn’t able to eat it, then by god, I would get a good photo for Instagram.

I ordered the Dirt Cup Sundae. Chocolate ice cream, chocolate truffle, chocolate drizzle, gummy worms and crumbled chocolate cake. Lord, was it cute. But I predicted correctly, WAYYYYY too much chocolate for me.

Pricing was too steep to make this a common place to go for us ($6+ per sundae that was really small and the ice cream was below average of what I could get at Kroger) but if you love chocolate or good old Kentucky bourbon then this is a sweet...

My family and I are on a Crank & Boom kick! My mom and I, specifically, are ice cream fanatics. So let me tell you why we love this establishment.

First, the ice cream is amazing by itself - no toppings added. My personal favorite is the bourbon and honey. It's amazingly balanced with the sweetness of the honey and a little punch of bourbon. My sister loves the sorbets and even compares them to frozen yogurt (which she LOVES).

Second, they have boozy drinks. Um, yes please! I've had the dreamsicle float and, I must say, the fizzy pop that was used in the float was different... a good different. They pour some of the can in the cup with the ice cream and alcohol, while they give you the rest of the can to hold for when you need more in your cup (I needed more multiple times because I drank it so quickly). It was a good amount of drink, even though it was a bit pricey.

Third, you can purchase a bag to get free pints. My mom has the bag, and every time she buys 4 pints, she gets another one for free. This is perfect for a family of four and a future son-in-law.

Fourth, the staff is awesome. If you get a boozy drink, they will recommend different alcohol you can put in it if you don't want the typical menu item. They also provide samples (yum!).

Finally, the seating isn't the best but I believe they have more seating upstairs. Although, be careful that you don't come on a busy day where they have a private event upstairs. There won't be seating for you. We did this on a rainy day but luckily snagged a seat while some of us were still in line.

I recommend that you try this place out! Amazing ice cream that you won't...

While the ice cream was decent, and that was about the only positive, the service and atmosphere was absolutely terrible. Went on a Saturday around 830p, Parking was TERRIBLE, go prepared. The line wasn't very long at first but there was steady traffic as we got to the front.

First, they barely had anything available on the menu. There were note cards taped over half the menu! They did have pints of some of the sold out flavors but they were $10 and we didn't need that much! But for a kid friendly flavor, it's what we had to do. You would think they would have plenty in stock and be prepared for a weekend!

As We tried to navigate the ice cream flavors for the kids, The servers rushed us through. My wife was so frustrated and didn't have time to choose herself because of this. Atmosphere was definitely not kid friendly as it became chaotic.

So I went with a specialty sundae, the s'mores barrel or whatever. The specialty sundaes (alcoholic included) ALSO had to be made with other ingredients. It looked nothing like some of the photos you see. They had to use different ice cream, the large toasted marshmallows you see in some pics ended up small marshmallows the server quickly ran a flame across only because I asked if they were out of them.

I guess catch them when they have flavors and it isn't chaotic, maybe you'll have a better experience? Idk. But what we thought was going to be a fun trip to get ice cream became a...