Even bitterly cold temperatures and screeching winds couldn’t stop me from trying out a new ice cream place in town! With the first location started in Mahomet in 2021, The Main Scoop expanded to Monticello and Urbana in 2023. Since the latter location just opened in December, I thought it a great way to start off the new year.
With a spacious interior that included not only tables for groups but counters along the wall for individuals, I didn’t feel cramped.
Though I held back this time, The Main Scoop in Urbana had popcorn, jars of candy, bottled soda, ice cream pints, and ice cream cakes.
Instead, I focused on trying as many different flavors as I could in one trip. Thankfully, The Main Scoop made this straightforward.
With a recommendation from my partner, we ordered a sampler flight ($6.25) of four, two-ounce scoops of ice cream. The first flavor we tried was espresso stracciatella. Densely packed with thin flakes of chocolate, we liked how rich this flavor was. The bitter espresso flavor also came through nicely and made this a less sweet ice cream than some of the others we tried.
Next, we moved onto black raspberry chip for something fruitier. With a sharp raspberry taste, we both enjoyed the tartness (though it wasn’t as tart as expected). We were also fans of the large, dark chocolate chunks. We did wish there were more, as they were only a couple in our small scoop.
For something very different, we tried the fluffernutter ice cream. For those who haven’t tried a fluffernutter before, it’s a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow cream (usually on white bread). Sweet and a little savory, it’s a rich treat. The fluffernutter ice cream proved similar. As someone who loves both peanut butter and marshmallow, I quite enjoyed this one, though my partner was a little put off by the specific peanut butter taste used in this ice cream. It was almost like eating Nutter Butter filling.
As a refreshing palate cleanser, we finished with the limoncello sorbet. With a clear, crisp lemon flavor, this sorbet was amazingly smooth. We both enjoyed the lightness of this sorbet (non-dairy) after the richness of the dairy options. I can’t imagine how wonderful this would taste on a hot summer day!
Saved for later, we also picked up an ice cream cookie sandwich made with chocolate chip cookies and the cosmic ice cream ($6.00). Made blue with spirulina (a type of algae), the cosmic cookie ice cream was dye free. The Madagascar vanilla ice cream was also tightly packed with cookie crumbles and large cookie dough pieces. Most impressively, the cookies for the ice cream sandwich were soft! I’ve eaten too many cookie sandwiches made with hard, crispy cookies that nearly break your teeth attempting to bite into them. The Main Scoop’s cookie and ice cream were both incredibly soft. We definitely plan to try other cookie sandwiches in the future.
In the end, I enjoyed the espresso stracciatella, black raspberry chip, fluffernutter and limoncello sorbet the most (in that order from most to least). My partner most liked the limoncello sorbet, espresso stracciatella, black raspberry chip and the fluffernutter (in that order). We both enjoyed the rich cosmic chocolate chip cookie sandwich. I expect us to have many more trips to The Main Scoop in the future since we barely touched the wide variety of flavors they had in stock. Don’t wait for it to be warm outside before trying this new ice cream shop in Urbana!
The Main Scoop
133 W Main St
Urbana
Su noon to 8 p.m.
M-Th 2 to 8 p.m.
F 2 to 10 p.m.
Sa noon to 10 p.m.