July is National Ice Cream Month. We can thank Ronald Reagan, the jelly bean president, who made the declaration more than a dozen years ago.
We Americans eat more than 1.5 billion gallons of the cold, sweet stuff annually. But just because it's ice cream doesn't mean it has to be frozen. You can enjoy yours in liquid form, with or without alcohol, in a slew of drinks and cocktails around town in which ice cream or sorbet is added for texture, flavor or just for the chill. Lumpy Gravy in Hollywood, the Frank Zappa-inspired 21st century cafe of the L.A. digerati, uses homemade sorbet in its Wowie-Zowie. (Like many menu items here, it's named for a Zappa tune.) The better-than-it-sounds mix of Lindeman's Belgian raspberry ale with raspberry sorbet is tart, refreshing and low in alcohol.
The brandy Alexander takes on added calories and richness at Hotel Bel-Air, where the bartender blends French vanilla ice cream (whipped up by the pastry chef) with brandy, heavy cream and cherries.
At Lola, a hip West Hollywood watering hole, there's Lola's Summer Sour. A large scoop of lemon sorbet, garnished with a mint leaf, adds tart flavor to a sugar-rimmed martini glass filled with Ketel One vodka and the juice of three lemons.