It’s 1992. You’re sitting cross-legged on the floor, glued to the TV, watching the Rugrats babies attempt to scale a mountain made of ice cream. Unfortunately, what Tommy, Angelica, and company haven’t figured out yet is that the ice cream mountain isn’t real—it’s actually a giant plastic sundae on a miniature golf course. Devastating.
More than three decades since that episode aired (the kids got their ice cream in the end, in case you don’t remember), many Millennials still remember Rugrats with fond nostalgia. These days, most can probably relate more to Stu and Didi Pickles than to those mischievous babies.
The nostalgia for Rugrats—which Nickelodeon rebooted in the 2020s—never really dies, and neither, apparently, does the desire to eat a mountain of ice cream. This August, Portland, OR vegan spot Ice Queen is bringing the two together with a menu of Rugrats-inspired specials.
Okay, so it’s not a mountain of ice cream (we’re very sorry to your excited inner child), but it is four cartoon-themed treats.
Ice Queen
What’s on Ice Queen’s new ‘Rugrats’ menu?
There’s the Princess Angelica, which consists of a soft-serve swirl with pink-colored white chocolate sauce, gluten-free chocolate chip cookie pieces, and sprinkles, and the Scaredy Sundae. The latter is a nod to perpetually anxious Chuckie, of course, and features vanilla soft serve with orange lemon candy sauce, popping boba, and a candied orange.
There’s also the Reptar Cereal Shake, themed around the babies’ favorite cartoon dinosaur. It’s a whipped cream-topped cereal milkshake served in a Reptar-green cup. And finally, there’s the Tomás Pickles (Tommy Pickles, if he was Chicano), featuring Ice Queen’s popular Pickle Paleta, fruit leather, chamoy, and tajín.
Ice Queen is famed for its vegan paletas, Mexican-style ice pops that can be made with fresh fruit and either water or milk (dairy-free milk, in this case). But it’s also loved for its soft serve. In fact, Ice Queen was even voted the best ice cream shop in America in the 2023 VegNews Restaurant Awards. Its milkshakes and vegan soft serve sundaes, known as Thiccflurries, are especially popular.
Ice Queen
“We sell so many paletas that Thiccflurries came out of necessity to relieve some of the demand on paletas,” founder Rebecca Smith told VegNews back in 2023. “Although it was a bit of a (welcomed) can of worms, because now we struggle to keep up with those as well, ironically.”
The popular spot also frequently reels customers in with its creative monthly specials. June was dedicated to four SpongeBob SquarePants-themed treats, while May’s offerings revolved around Strawberry Shortcake. But August is all about Rugrats, with Princess Angelica, Tomás Pickles, the Reptar Cereal Shake, and Scaredy Sundae available until the end of the month.
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Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England's southern coast.
