The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is known for discouraging its members from consuming alcohol, tobacco, recreational cannabis, and “hot drinks” (mainly coffee and tea). With those items off limits, the denomination still allows for some indulgence in frozen form. Ice cream is often seen as such a popular facet of Mormon life that it is unsurprising to find a shop serving it on church property near the Mesa temple. In a storefront there, Sweet Retreat serves scoops of ice cream and sherbet in cones and cups to customers of all faiths or no faith at all.
Sweet Retreat functions as an adjunct to Deseret Books, a store for all things Mormon, and is joined to its bigger sibling on the inside while also maintaining its own exterior entrance. Whether one enters the ice cream shop directly or via the bookstore, the location is less than a block from Mesa Drive / Main Street station on the A Line. The lack of accommodations for bicycles directly outside the store is surprising given how often missionaries are seen traveling that way, but ample bike racks are found at the park-and-ride facility across the street.
The shop is sunny and simple with white tables surrounding the counter, two red booths in a back room, and ample space for outdoor ice cream appreciation in the courtyard of the mixed use development that Sweet Retreat is part of. The menu is a simple one: The shop offers a myriad of frozen flavors from BYU Creamery, an ice cream purveyor that is part of Brigham Young University’s dining services, and little else. While there is the choice of cake, sugar, or waffle cones, there are no toppings, sundaes, or shakes. Here, the ice cream speaks for itself.
That approach works because almost all the BYU Creamery flavors here are multifaceted with two or more tastes and textures within each scoop. Given the symbolism of the beehive in the LDS church, it’s unsurprising that two signature flavors incorporate honeycomb. Dbee Honeycomb is a base of honey buttermilk ice cream with bits of honeycomb scattered throughout. Graham Canyon combines honeycomb with graham crackers and chocolate. A graham cracker swirl also plays a role in adding crispness to Strawberry Sundae Crunch.
/
Nuts are vital to several flavors. Peanut Butter Trails is a classic combination of a chocolate ice cream base with crisp bits of peanut. Pralines and caramel incorporates candied pecans, and Roasted Almond Fudge combines maple, chocolate, and almond notes. Two types of chocolate ice cream involve bits of marshmallow with Earnestly Chocolate adding caramel and In-Shanely Chocolate benefitting from brownie pieces. Brownies bites are also combined with mint. In fact, frozen mint brownies are packaged to go as the only sweet other than ice cream sold here.
Fruity tastes are present in varieties such as Raspberry Cream Cheese and Lemon Berry Cheesecake, as well as Raspberry Lemonade Sherbet. While almost all the BYU Creamery flavors live up to their name with abundant butter fat, this one is just a bit lighter on the dairy, allowing the tart bits of raspberries to assert themselves. With its location near Pioneer Park and the museums of downtown Mesa, Sweet Retreats is a natural choice for a treat during a family outing and a worthwhile indulgence for saints, sinners, and those somewhere in between.
PHX Rail Food 