Baked Bear: Try these decadent ice cream sandwiches from the new Delmar Loop location

The Baked Bear opened on September 29 in the Delmar Loop directly across from The Pageant, dishing out ice cream sandwiches and freshly baked cookies. The store was crammed through its opening day, with eager customers forming a line stretching along Delmar Boulevard long before the doors opened at noon.

Steve Lemley, one of the partners behind the Delmar franchise, spent 26 years working for Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. before deciding to open a branch of The Baked Bear in St. Louis. “There's nothing really like it out there right now,” Lemley says. “The cookies are all baked from scratch and made fresh daily, and the ice creams are all super premium. It’s just a really fun concept. How can people get upset over over delicious ice cream sandwiches?”

The Delmar store is The Baked Bear’s 29th franchise across 10 states nationwide, and holds true to a package—quality ice cream, fresh cookies, and a friendly atmosphere—that has delighted customers elsewhere. The design is simple, but sets the stage for a fun experience. Framed photos of brightly colored, precariously stacked ice cream sandwiches raise your anticipation as you wait for your order. On the back wall, a blue neon sign reads “Cookie Monsters Only.”

If you fit that description, join the line and take a moment to compose your order, which ought to include one of The Baked Bear’s signature ice cream sandwiches. First, decide on the “bread” for your ice cream sandwich: cookies, brownies or doughnuts. There are 10 cookie flavors, including oatmeal-cinnamon, red velvet, snickerdoodle and white chocolate–macadamia nut. In addition, there’s a rotating cookie of the month. October's is Pumpkin Spice.

The Baked Bear’s co-founder, Shane Stanger, recommended the Combo Sandwich ($6), which lets you have a cookie on one side of your sandwich and a brownie on the other. (Pro tip: If you order the Combo, eat the sandwich with the brownie side on top. The progression of textures makes more sense with the softer brownie on top, and the cookie on the bottom provides a sturdier base.)

Once you’ve settled on the top and bottom layers, choose your ice cream, including flavors like bear batter, blackberry crumble, mint chip, PB&J, and toasted s’mores. There’s also a soy-based vegan chocolate chip option. The salted caramel fudge was our favorite, but we also liked the dark chocolate and cookies & cream flavors. Choose a subtle flavor to better taste the cookies, brownies or doughnuts; an ice cream that combines multiple flavors and textures; or something that simply looks pretty.

Top off the ice cream sandwich with any of the additional 12 accoutrements (50 cents each), including hot caramel, almonds, brownie bits, Heath bar bits, Oreo crumbs, and sprinkles. And then there's the option of having the sandwich warmed up slightly in a hot press. The Baked Bear’s ice cream sandwiches are most enjoyable when they combine opposites of hot and cold, soft and crunchy textures, and sweet and savory flavors.

We asked Steve Lemley for his own sandwich recommendation. “My favorite is two of the brownies, made with Ghirardelli chocolate,” Lemley says. “Then the salted caramel fudge ice cream. Of course, hot pressed—you definitely want to get everything warmed up. And then drizzled with caramel.”

Another Baked Bear trademark is the Bear Bowl ($8), a warm chocolate chip cookie or brownie on the bottom of a bowl, topped with a generous scoop of ice cream. You can simply order cookies ($1 for one, $11 for 12), a brownie ($1.50), or ice cream ($4 for a single scoop, $5.50 for a double, $7 for a pint) if you prefer.

Lemley says he’ll be adding a few St. Louis specials in the coming months. “We’re working on a Gooey Butter Cake ice cream cookie sandwich. The trick there is a Gooey Butter Cake melts really fast, so we're we're still working on a recipe for that,” he says. In the works, too, is a secret menu named after St. Louis Walk of Fame stars, including a "Double Diller"—three peanut butter cookies with Funfetti ice cream and M&Ms, after Phyllis Diller—and a Chuck Berry: two red velvet cookies, in honor of the rock-'n'-roller's red jacket, with peanut butter and jelly ice cream and rolled in Fruity Pebbles.