Humphry Slocombe (San Francisco)

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 550-6971

I'd like to thank the New York Times for publishing their provocatively titled article I’ll Take a Scoop of Prosciutto, Please, right before our trip to California. I told Warren that we absolutely, 100% had to go to Humphry Slocombe to taste the prosciutto ice cream. To help get the monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6) up the mountain on our backpacking trip prior to our San Francisco visit, I had told them tales of crazy ice cream flavors and promised them the most awesome ice cream adventure ever. "I'm getting cheddar cheese," Jiro happily announced. (Government Cheese is the actual flavor.)

Since we went to San Francisco with my brother-in-law and his family, I felt that I needed to prepare them. "They don't make normal flavors," I said. They had bypassed their normal trip to the Girardelli factory for me, so I felt a little pressure to deliver.

The ice cream shop is located in the Mission District and was fairly easy to locate despite it's subdued exterior. A blue awning whispers "ice cream" in small letters and a window decal shows the name. The inside is a tad spartan, but cool and funky all the same, with a definite sense of humor. We were lucky to arrive when there wasn't much of a line.


Humphry Slocombe features 10-12 flavors a day, and they are listed in a chalkboard and scrawled across the display case in dry erase marker. There are taster spoons so you don't have to blindly commit to one of their bold flavors. On the day we visited they had prosciutto, peanut butter curry, blue bottle Vietnamese breakfast, strawberry, tahitian vanilla, double malt chocolate, breakfast secret (bourbon and cornflakes!), salt & pepper, balsamic caramel, McEvoy Olive Oil, and a few more.


I really wanted to taste every flavor, but I could tell that the young, tank-topped servers could only stand so much despite their friendly smiles. Besides, it wasn't long before a line started to form behind us. I tried the prosciutto first and it didn't taste meaty like I had imagined or contain chunks of the salted ham like Warren thought. Instead it boasted a very bold and salty flavor. I liked it, but didn't think I could go for a whole scoop. So I ordered the peanut butter curry which was awesome. Jiro and Satchel each tasted a flavor before deciding on strawberry and chocolate. Warren got the blue bottle Vietnamese coffee. Our in-laws all went for chocolate or vanilla.


At some point we all passed our cones around so that everyone could have a taste. Everything is made with organic and/or farm fresh ingredients (not withstanding the corn flakes and booze) and it really shows. If I lived in San Francisco, I would most definitely be a regular. Other flavors I hope to try someday include: Thai chili lime, "red hot" banana, chevre strawberry jam, and sour cream.

Scoops were a very reasonable $2.75 each and the store is open from noon to 9pm seven days a week.