Tastin' Tasti Dee

When we travel we like to pick out a restaurant or bar which we can make our own. Somewhere that when we arrive they are happy to see us. We have tried to do that in NY but it is not easy. Joe Allen’s sometimes pretends they know we know Joe, and at the Madison, a diner in the neighborhood we can always get a table. However, there is a place where we are King. They know what we like and are competitive for our business. And they are always excited to see us. They are Tasti D Lite. For those of you who do not live in NY, Tasti is a fake ice cream place. This means that there is nothing in the ice cream that is not chemicals, but it hardly matters because there are no calories, no sugar, no carbs and hardly any taste—but the flavors are incredible. Things like NY Cheesecake, cake batter, rice pudding, fluffer nutter, chocolate chip cookie dough, and cremesicle. And they almost taste like what they say they are.

Every night before we make the trip to the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd avenue stores, we call to get the special flavors. And, of course, depending on the special flavors, that is the store we will visit. I love all the kids that work at these stores but to tell you the truth there is a special place in my heart for 2nd avenue because they always know it’s me when we call. And they are prompt to say that they don’t have rice pudding, but they would love to see us.

But here’s the best thing. When you go you get a card.


When you buy an ice cream they punch your card and after 10 purchases you get one for free. We hardly ever remember our card so we keep getting new cards and we have about 40 cards that have one punch on them. This has also gotten to be our inside Tasti joke. They know we are not going to have our card and we keep insisting they won’t remember what we bought. We are stupid because they not only remember what we bought, they can name the flavors (like rice pudding) we purchase with any frequency.

The Pay off!

There are a number of Tasti’s all over the city. And if you live here and are the least bit weight conscious you will pay them a visit. It doesn’t matter if what they say about the reduced fat is true, you want to believe that you can eat 4 or 8 ounces of something sweet without worrying. And we neither worry nor regret our visits.

If I were not avidly pursuing the idea of having a chicken truck—they have them in Tuscany at all the markets: trucks with walls of chickens roasting on a spit—I would buy a Tasti franchise and open it in Washington DC.
It would undoubtedly be a success because everything in the nation’s capital is smoke and mirrors, and there is no need to be truthful when the appearance of truth is really what people want. We would make a killing—and in DC who would care. We’re just sayin…