IT WILL TURN YOU INTO A GOD

June 21, 2010 2:21 PM

Lake Street Creamery is an ice cream truck in LA. Not in the traditional sense of "ice cream truck," though - they make fresh ice cream from scratch on the truck, then sell it. Oh, did I mention that their home page currently features Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat Eats a Tiny Ice-Cream Cone?

Their philosophy is multifaceted:

We believe in summer afternoons, ball games, Grampy's old time lemonade, and that the universe is ruled by a vengeful race of aliens.

Their YouTube channel has more kittens: 1 2 3 4

posted by yiftach (65 comments total)

Gourmet food trucks: pretty cool if your workplace has only a Subway, a 'C'-rated Chinese restaurant, and a taco stand nearby.
posted by infinitewindow at 2:26 PM on June 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

Double.
posted by clockzero at 2:26 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

clockzero: "Double."

what in the world?
posted by boo_radley at 2:28 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

How does the hat stay on??
posted by desjardins at 2:29 PM on June 21, 2010

Don't miss the adult cat beating up on the up-and-coming kitty star in the outtakes.
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 2:30 PM on June 21, 2010

We are starting to be overrun by trucks like this in Los Angeles; lots of (arguably) really good chefs riding the twitter wave to operate restaurants without the typical restaurant overhead. If you like surprising and novel food available for a short time, and enjoy doing the necessary research to stay ahead of the curve, it's great -- otherwise get ready for a lot of long lines and disappointment.
posted by davejay at 2:30 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

The secret ingredient: cat milk
posted by Burhanistan at 2:32 PM on June 21, 2010 [7 favorites]

I think it's the natural felt texture "velcroing" to the fur - see video #3 for demonstration of how easily it comes off, with no evidence of rubber band or other strappy thing.

And, yes, also, clockzero: Huh?
posted by yiftach at 2:33 PM on June 21, 2010

Black licorice ice cream? Lord no.
posted by GuyZero at 2:33 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

boo: The idea being that they both create what you're going to consume at the moment of the encounter, not before.

A bit obscure, yes.
posted by clockzero at 2:34 PM on June 21, 2010

That was wet cat food on a mini cone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by Liquidwolf at 2:35 PM on June 21, 2010

the mini-cone was also cat food!
posted by boo_radley at 2:37 PM on June 21, 2010

Don't miss the adult cat beating up on the up-and-coming kitty star in the outtakes.


NO! WIRE! HANGERS!!!
posted by darkstar at 2:37 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

A bit obscure, yes.

Yeah...
posted by delmoi at 2:41 PM on June 21, 2010

Normally I'd grumble "Ice-cream Blue", but ZOMG KITTY WITH A HAT ON!
posted by everichon at 2:44 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

CAN I HAZ ICE CREAM CONE??
posted by Skygazer at 2:48 PM on June 21, 2010

Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat Eats a Tiny Ice-Cream Cone!


Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat Eats a Tiny Ice-Cream Cone!!!


Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat Eats a Tiny Ice-Cream Cone!!!!!!


This is how all ads for everything should be forever.
posted by The Whelk at 2:48 PM on June 21, 2010 [8 favorites]

Trailer for the upcoming documentary on Speedo (the kitten abuser).
posted by longdaysjourney at 2:52 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

something about the cat abuse made me cackle to no end -- it was like, Fuck you and your cuteness! /SWAP
posted by angrycat at 2:56 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

The YT comments say that double-sided scotch tape was used to keep the hat on, but it was tested on a fuzzy human first. No kittens were set up for a lifetime of dependency on Rogaine while making this video.

Also: "It is a special ice cream flavor designed to hold together at room temperature. It also contains a lot more meat than most commercial ice creams."

Small mercies.
posted by maudlin at 3:02 PM on June 21, 2010

OK. Pretty much every day I read something cool on Metafilter and share it with my officemate, who while not a member is a big proponent of the site after the whole devotchka thing. Like, in the last week we grossed ourselves out over Tarrare's baby-eating exploits, cracked up over Hyperbole and a Half, wrote furious emails to our bosses in Comic Sans. Usually, we'll spend a pleasant five minutes following Wikipedia links or reading archives or otherwise exploring the subject, and then life goes on.

Not so today. The tiny-kitten-wearing-a-hat-eating-a-tiny-ice-cream-cone video has sent us on an orgiastic bender of kitten-related media via the related video feature of YouTube and my own brilliant idea to click on the "kitten" tag at the top and follow it to the "kittens" tag. Roomba Cat! Rescue Ink! The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee! We have sustained such a long, loud squee duet that my managing editor just poked her head down the stairs to ask if we were okay.

Did I mention it's press week and mountains of actual work need to be done?

The afternoon is completely shot.
posted by peachfuzz at 3:02 PM on June 21, 2010 [6 favorites]

hmmm... according to the website's twitter feed, the ice cream isn't debuting until the end of this week.

oh well, I guess LA can always use more gourmet-ish food trucks. There weren't any a year (and a half? or so?) ago and now they're everywhere in many varieties. the original inspiration were ordinary taco trucks which have been around for ages (and overrated I think as a culinary phenomenon) but what started this current craze (which I think has been great for everyone ) were the korean taco trucks that started about a year and a half ago-ish
posted by Bwithh at 3:08 PM on June 21, 2010

Another unique ice cream truck -- this one in NYC: 'The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.'

Previous FPP.
posted by ericb at 3:10 PM on June 21, 2010

How does the hat stay on??
Staples, obviously.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:12 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

PS - This is the video we're on now. Yes, a kitten riding a turtle. This is what we're doing at work today.
posted by peachfuzz at 3:13 PM on June 21, 2010 [6 favorites]

something about the cat abuse made me cackle to no end -- it was like, Fuck you and your cuteness! /SWAP
posted by angrycat at 5:56 PM on June 21 [+] [!]

EPONYSTERICAL!!!
posted by ericb at 3:15 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Toxoplasma at work.
posted by stbalbach at 3:16 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Pretty Kitty Ice Cream (Seattle, WA).
posted by ericb at 3:18 PM on June 21, 2010

The way that kitten is wolfing down that cone, he's gonna have a wicked ice cream headache.
posted by crunchland at 3:27 PM on June 21, 2010

Don't miss the adult cat beating up on the up-and-coming kitty star in the outtakes.

My old cat Qu'Appelle, who had issues, has done this. At one point, I lived with a roommate, who got a fluffy new kitten. One day, all of us, human and feline alike, were out enjoying a sunny spring day. Kitten was busy staring at some sort of butterfly fluttering around and generally being cute.

Qu'Appelle saw this, calmly walked over, and swatted the kitten in the head so hard it toppled over. Then calmly walked away. Kitten took a couple minutes to gain its composure while glaring at Qu'Appelle, who had this "Who - me?" look about her. I have no idea what went on in her little walnut brain to deem this kitten a thread, but apparently it was. And now she's in Heaven beating up kittens when not freaking out over the hairless monkeys singing Radiohead.
posted by spinifex23 at 3:27 PM on June 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

Metafilter: I have no idea what went on in her little walnut brain to deem this kitten a thread
posted by angrycat at 3:33 PM on June 21, 2010 [5 favorites]

2nd-ing dayjay. LA has about a hojillion of these niche-food-trucks-on-twitter now. Kogi was the first I believe, and everyday another few seem to pop up.
posted by sideshow at 3:41 PM on June 21, 2010

Kitten a threaT. But hey - the original is even more amusing :)
posted by spinifex23 at 3:45 PM on June 21, 2010

From the fine print:

*Gods do not exist

OK, I'm in LA, and I'm going to fucking visit these bastards, buy their milk-products, and eat them. Sold.
posted by fake at 3:50 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

You had me at "kitten in a tiny hat."

Doesn't dairy make a kitty get diarrhea?
posted by anniecat at 3:52 PM on June 21, 2010

Holy Crap, I thought I was immune from the squee factor, and then I saw Speedo nursing Scout Jr.

and he was still wearing his little hat while nursing. HIS LITTLE HAT!
posted by angrycat at 4:10 PM on June 21, 2010

clockzero: “Double.”

boo_radley: “what in the world?”

clockzero: “The idea being that they both create what you're going to consume at the moment of the encounter, not before.”

Ah. Yes, that makes sense.

You're right. Unfortunately, every other post besides these two will have to be deleted.
posted by koeselitz at 4:28 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I had a rough day, only a couple hours sleep, I'm feeling hateful and cynical and pissy. I was totally prepared to hate on the kitten in the hat but woogawoogawoogawhatasweetlittlekitty.
posted by nevercalm at 4:34 PM on June 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

"I had no idea you could milk a cat!" "Oh yeah, you can milk pretty much anything with nipples." Wait, what?
posted by airgirl at 4:40 PM on June 21, 2010

And thus, Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat makes the list of most influential kitties for 2010. (Previously, 2009)
posted by darkstar at 5:31 PM on June 21, 2010

Another unique ice cream truck -- this one in NYC: 'The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.'

OMFG HOW DID I FORGET IT WAS RIGHT BY MY OFFICE. I wonder if they'll let me use crushed up lactaid tabs as a topping.
posted by elizardbits at 5:35 PM on June 21, 2010

elizardbits, I found taking two in the morning and one at night PLUS eating active yogurt and taking one right before I eat something excessively dairy (I carry them around in an oil mint case from the 30s) has made my symptoms vanish and even enabled me to eat bits of dairy without thinking a few times a day, and I had it real bad-will-cause-instant cramps-cause-it-is-a-cream-sauce-kind.
posted by The Whelk at 5:50 PM on June 21, 2010

LA has about a hojillion of these niche-food-trucks-on-twitter now. Kogi was the first I believe, and everyday another few seem to pop up.

Yeah. Kogi started it, Grilled Cheese Truck probably has the biggest cult following, and the fact that there's one called "Fishlips Sushi" was my indication we might have hit the saturation point.

I mean seriously, why not call it "Labia" and get it over with?
posted by drjimmy11 at 5:50 PM on June 21, 2010

Wait, Grilled Cheese Truck?!? Oh man. NY is so far behind.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:17 PM on June 21, 2010

Oh great, now I want licorice ice cream and a kitten.
posted by Neofelis at 6:39 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Here's a whole list of the twitterin' trucks in LA.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:45 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

whelkie, I can't even take medication that has lactose as an inert filler without horror and despair and fire and ruin. I need 6 ultras just to put milk in my tea.

SOBBITY.

I can eat ice cream if I am home alone and am not standing near the pilot light. hee.
posted by elizardbits at 6:57 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Twittering location is a great idea for a food truck. I used to patronize a fish taco truck that was absolutely extraordinary when I lived in Venice, but the only way to find it was to figure out its regular stops and when it would be at them. Mostly I hooked up with it at the end of a shady little street near the Santa Monica Municipal Airport.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 7:25 PM on June 21, 2010

Mobile food is a tend? So sixcolours was ahead of the trend - was she from the future?
posted by saucysault at 7:39 PM on June 21, 2010

We are starting to be overrun by trucks like this in Los Angeles; lots of (arguably) really good chefs riding the twitter wave to operate restaurants without the typical restaurant overhead. If you like surprising and novel food available for a short time, and enjoy doing the necessary research to stay ahead of the curve, it's great -- otherwise get ready for a lot of long lines and disappointment.

Doesn't really solve the lines problem, but if you're checking out the Art Walk once a month Downtown there are several of these trucks all over the place -- great way to sample.
posted by tastydonuts at 8:13 PM on June 21, 2010

In S.F., we have Creme Brulee Man and Magic Curry Man, among many other street food purveyors. Haven't seen any top-hat-wearing kittens, though.
posted by vickyverky at 8:18 PM on June 21, 2010

We have various food trucks that stop by our office pretty much every day. It's unbelievably awesome.

I love that LA is being "overrun" by gourmet food trucks. I can't fathom in what way this is a negative.
posted by flaterik at 8:57 PM on June 21, 2010

Mmm. In Portland, there are tons of great food carts, but they're mostly semi-permanently parked in various "pods" around town. I'd love it if they could be more mobile.
posted by lisa g at 9:25 PM on June 21, 2010

This is a total self post, but I think it's relevant since I just updated it:
http://wheresmytaco.com/. Somehow I missed Lake St Creamery, and now I'm wondering what else I missed. But there are 72 trucks on there now.

(I posted this in Projects a while ago.)
posted by lovetragedy at 9:28 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Nice site, lovetragedy! I used to load up the Clustertruck map to find out which taco trucks will be in my neighborhood during lunch hour, but it seems to be human-powered and therefore not very reliable. Why can't these twittering trucks actually use any of the location services available to them?

Back to the topic at hand, though: omg ice cream and kitties: so cute!!
posted by estherbester at 9:54 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

@estherbester: not to sidetrack the main conversation, but that is one of the problems with trying to track them reliably. I've seen clustertruck and I agree, it's either human updated and therefore not very reliable, or they have some sort of natural language processing going on.
posted by lovetragedy at 10:56 PM on June 21, 2010

What we need is a goddamn falafel truck with motherfucking excellent falafel. Also, a truck version of a cart that showed up in Ann Arbor for Art Fair (the only good thing about Art Fair) that had pakora in a pita with some greens and chutney on it.
posted by klangklangston at 11:41 PM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also Frysmith is pretty decent and World Fare would be better if they knew how to make their vegetarian Bunny Bites things hold together and not just kinda melt into sloppy joe hands.
posted by klangklangston at 11:42 PM on June 21, 2010

So I say to myself, "Self, do you think this thread would have gone so well if it had the words Israel & Palestine in it? Would kittens be able to overcome even that?"

Yes, yes I believe they would.
posted by yiftach at 11:51 PM on June 21, 2010

Genius
posted by DanCall at 3:46 AM on June 22, 2010

and he was still wearing his little hat while nursing. HIS LITTLE HAT!
posted by angrycat at 7:10 PM

I bet it burns you up inside, doesn't it? I bet it makes you want to smack that fucker upside the head, doesn't it?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:25 AM on June 22, 2010

Just wait until HatKitten trains a bit with this cat. Then Speedo will go DOWN!
posted by yiftach at 10:46 AM on June 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

klang, once you move to the 'hood, we're gonna go here and test the falafel.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 11:12 AM on June 22, 2010

Also, speicus feels that the out take video is a perfect reenactment of the pinstripes and fedora thread.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 11:18 AM on June 22, 2010

I love that LA is being "overrun" by gourmet food trucks. I can't fathom in what way this is a negative.

I can never find a parking space thanks to those damn trucks! When I go to dinner I end up just circling the blocks twice, throwing money out the passenger side window and catching the tacos thrown back through the sunroof of my BMW in return!
posted by tastydonuts at 8:22 PM on June 22, 2010