Free Italian Ice Tuesday -- And It Actually Feels Warm Enough To Enjoy A Frozen Dessert

Rita's at the King's Contrivance location

Tomorrow is the annual day when Rita's Italian Ice kicks off its season by giving away from custard and Italian ice.  Most years, it's humorous because mid-March is too cold to make frozen desserts sound appetizing, but the warm spring makes this seem almost natural.

Local blogger Adam makes it seem delicious as well.  I'm a fan of many ice cream desserts, including  Meadow Frozen Custard in Columbia and the many Rita's Italian Ice franchises around the county.  But Adam -- who now blogs at Option Pitch and Waffle Crisp -- is a new employee at the Rita's on St. John's Lane in Ellicott City.

Adam wrote me about how even he is surprised at how much he likes the Rita's ice.  Personally, I think he is wrong to mention all the flavors.  Black cherry has been scientifically proven to be the best -- layered, of course, with custard in a gelati.  But I'll let Adam make his pitch:

I'm willing to guess the word "chain" might not have the best connotations for loyal HowChow readers. It's OK, I usually agree. As a longtime food blogger, I can fully understand the merits of Victoria's duck fat fries compared to the limp, salty things you get at Checkers, or the superiority of a hot-from-the-oven Coalfire pizza to anything advertised as remotely "artisan" from Domino's. But not all chains are bad. Some are even great. Case in point, Rita's Italian Ice.

Has The Rita's In Jessup Closed?

Does anyone know if the Rita's in Jessup has closed?  There is a new comment from bl86 saying that the store was closed Sunday and looked cleaned out.

I assume that this is the Rita's in the Columbia East shopping center with Mom's Organic Market and Pollo Fuego's Peruvian chicken.  I'm a huge fan of Rita's black cherry ice, although we normally visit the ones in Columbia or Burtonsville.

Three Months To Free Rita's (And Spring)

Three months until spring. Just three months until spring -- measured officially by opening day at Rita's when they give away Italian ice from noon to 10 pm. For more about the March 20, 2010 giveaways, click the Rita's Facebook page. Hold on -- the warmth will return.

Thanks to Brian G for the reminder that spring will come. If you need another reminder of spring, check out my 2009 post about places to enjoy ice cream on a summer night.

Rita's Is Giving Italian Ice Away!

Start up your summer habit by going for a free cup of icy dessert at the local Rita's Italian ices this Friday, March 20, 2009.

Rita's has a corporate tradition of free regular ice on opening day. Memorial Day may still feel far away, but you can make summer come faster by living like the warm weather has already arrived.

There are two Rita's in Columbia at Harpers Choice (where ice pairs with Afghan from Maiwand Kabob) and at Kings Contrivance (where you can get pizza from Trattario E Pizzeria de Enrico). There is a third in Jessup at the Columbia East shopping center with My Organic Market.

Click here for the addresses of the Maryland Rita's.

Rita's Italian Ice in Columbia

Black cherry is the only choice when you want to cool down with Italian ice layered with vanilla custard.

I respect other people's tastes enough that I can't even claim to pick the Top 10 restaurants. But I eat a lot of Rita's, and they're offering an ever-expanding list of flavors -- several teetering off into the childish craziness of cotton candy and green-tinted key lime. I have sampled my way off the straight-and-narrow, so I am the prodigal son who urges you never to stray.

Black cherry. Strong cherry flavor. Small cherry chunks throughout the cup. I'm not saying that gellati is ever an all-natural dessert. I'm just saying that black cherry goes perfectly with the vanilla custard. (That is the other part of the Rita's orthodoxy. Me: "Maybe I should try the chocolate custard." Mrs. HowChow: "Chocolate?") Guaranteed delicious is what you need on a warm evening when you cool off at the Rita's at Harpers Farm or Kings Contrivance.

Harpers Farm has Maiwand Kabob, so it's the perfect place for dinner and dessert. But Kings Contrivance has a peaceful seating area inside the shopping center. You get tables, trees, and a landscaped fountain. People going to Michael's Pub or eating pizza from Trattario E Pizzeria de Enrico keep the center lively, and we tend to go there when we just want a treat.

If you like the Italian ice at Rita's, check out the shaved ice at the Snowballs stand in Clarksville or KyKy's Hawaiian Ice in Elkridge.

Rita's -- Harpers Choice
5485 Harpers Farm Road
Columbia, MD 21044
410-740-2847
http://www.ritascolumbia.com/

NEAR: This is in central Columbia. Harpers Farm Village Center is on Harpers Farm Road east of Rte 108 and west of Cedar Lane. There is a gas station and a McDonalds right on the road, and the shopping center is behind. Maiwand Kabob is on left with a cleaner. Rita's is on the right in the main shopping area.

Rita's -- King's Contrivance
8640 Guilford Road Ste B10
Columbia, MD 21046
443-864-5509

NEAR: This is south of Rte 32 and east of Rte 29. King's Contrivance has the new Harris Teeter, a Bagel Bin, and a CVS. Take the Eden Brook Drive / Shaker Drive exit from Rte 32. Follow the signs south to Eden Brook Drive, which goes right past King's Contrivance.

Summer Night: Maiwand Kabob and Rita's

It's summer, so you've got to go to Rita's (and Afghanistan).

The Harper's Choice shopping center is the perfect weeknight escape in the summer. It's the classic Columbia story because we might never have found it except that Mrs. HowChow was humming the Rita's theme song ("You've got to go Rita's, You've got to go to Rita's") and reminiscing about how she had loved the gelati when she was growing up in Philadelphia. Deep in the story, we realized that she was humming the song because she had been hearing it on the radio, then realized that people only pay for ads if they have a store somewhere nearby. We ran to The Google.

Twenty minutes later, we were sitting in Harper's Choice eating gelati -- cherry Italian ice layered with vanilla cream. It's a great scene. Families sitting out. Teenagers checking each other out.

Make this a simple night out. Go to Harper's Choice and start at Maiwand Kabob across the parking lot from the Safeway. Go simple with some kabobs, rice and tandoori bread.  Definitely start with an appetizer like the pumpkin or bowlawni.  The grilled meats are mouth-watering -- beef, lamb, dark-meat chicken tikka kabob, white-meat chicken kabob. On a summer night, you can feast at the outside tables for less than $10 a person, then walk across the parking lot for a cup of Italian ice at Rita's to end the night.

Some time, I'll write up Maiwand Kabob's whole menu, which includes wonderful appetizers like aushak and some complex lamb and chicken specials. It's a take-out joint, but the food is as good as you can find anywhere.

(Another option: Dinner & Rita's in King's Contrivance in southern Columbia. Rita's opened there in the summer of 2008. Have a pizza at Trattoria E Pizzeria Da Enrico, then have Italian ice in the center courtyard. The fountain there is even more pleasant than Harpers Choice.)

(Update 6/8/08: Took my own advice and got caught in Saturday night's monster thunderstorm while sitting in Maiwand Kabob!)

Rita's -- Harpers Choice

5485 Harpers Farm Road

Columbia, MD 21044

410-740-2847

http://www.ritascolumbia.com/

(and just opened in Kings Contrivance, see below)

Maiwand Kabob

5467 Harpers Farm Road

Columbia, MD 21044

410-992-7754

http://www.maiwandkabob.net/

NEAR: This is in central Columbia. Harpers Farm Village Center is on Harpers Farm Road east of Rte 108 and west of Cedar Lane. There is a gas station and a McDonalds right on the road, and the shopping center is behind. Maiwand Kabob is on left with a cleaner. Rita's is on the right in the main shopping area.

Rita's -- King's Contrivance 

8640 Guilford Road Ste B10

Columbia, MD 21046

443-864-5509

NEAR: This is in the shopping center with the new Harris Teeter.  It is south of Rte 32 just east of Rte 29.

For a review of Maiwand Kabob's bigger cousin The Helmand, check out the Baltimore Food and Wine Blog here.

(Update: A new Maiwand Kabob opened in 2009 near Arundel Mills Mall and the BW Parkway.  There is also a branch in Burtonsville just off Rte 198.)

Maiwand Kabob

Arundel Mills Preserve shopping center

7698 Dorchester Boulevard

Hanover, MD 21076

443-755-0461

NEAR:  Take the Arundel Mills exit from the BW Parkway.  That road only goes east.  The Arundel Mills Preserve shopping center is on the left almost immediately.  There is a Starbucks in that shopping center.