The Breakdown: A Banana Split from Forge Ice Cream Bar

Photograph by Nina Gallant

1. Sundae toppings include crumbled brownies and cookies from Forge Baking Company.
2. Everything from the marshmallows to the strawberry-raspberry fruit compote is made in house.
3. Granola is spiked with Vermont maple syrup.
4. Forge blends its ice creams with high-quality ingredients such as Intelligentsia espresso and Valrhona chocolate.

The owners of Diesel Café and Forge Baking Company may have made their names with pour-overs of Intelligentsia Coffee and Pinterest-ready slabs of toast, but their first love is more Pleasantville than Portlandia. Ever since Jennifer Park and Tucker Lewis’s days working at Herrell’s Ice Cream in Harvard Square, the two have fantasized about opening the kind of neo-retro soda fountain that wouldn’t look out of place in a Norman Rockwell print: chrome dipping cabinet, vinyl stools, antique pump system. Now, 20 years later, they’re ready to debut their own year-round scoop shop. Located next door to the duo’s Somerville bakery, Forge Ice Cream Bar will offer eight rotating flavors that can be whipped into frappes, scooped into crème brûlée banana splits, and mashed with brownies and baked goods from the sister shop. But the real key to their slow-churned ice cream? “The same vintage Taylor machine we used when we were at Herrell’s,” Park says.

626A Somerville Ave., Somerville, 617-764-5365, forgebakingco.com/ice-cream.