Ampersand offers delicious and delectable gourmet ice cream within walking distance of the Fresno City College campus.

The Ampersand ice cream is made fresh at the store — everything from the marshmallows to the syrups, except the Ghirardelli chocolate.

The chocolate is the one thing that these two cannot make fresh because they did not have the right amount of freshness in the valley to create a tasty chocolate. Ampersand also uses all local produce, like Top of the Morn milk and cream in all of its ice cream.

Since the parlor has only been open for three months, there is an option to buy a taster set of four different ice creams since most people are not always sure what flavors are the best.

On top of everything the prices are affordable, the four tasters being a reasonable $7.50.

They have many different kinds of flavors of ice cream, like strawberry balsamic, and honeycomb. The strawberry balsamic is very unique; one can definitely taste the balsamic in the ice cream, which surprisingly complements the strawberry.

Another great flavor is the honeycomb, consisting of honey, vanilla ice cream and cookies, all mixed together. It is absolutely to die for, nice and sweet.  

Anyone who has $5 and a break between classes should wrangle up a bunch of friends and walk over to Ampersand; the walk is less than 10 minutes from campus.

Owner, Jeff Bennett and his wife, said they wanted to open a gourmet shop and finally decided on ice cream.

Ampersand is closed on Mondays, but is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.