If Gunther’s Ice Cream is where the old folks spend an afternoon with the paper, Vic’s is where a generation of youngsters and politicians spend their saved up lunch money and power lunches on ice cream, shakes and traditional fountain shop fare.

If I were to draw a crude map of the suburbs outlying Midtown Sacramento, Curtis Park would be on left and Land Park on the right. Curtis Park owns Gunther’s as its community hang out. Land Park claims Vic’s.

For nearly 60 years, Vic’s has been providing Land Park with its cavity-inducing needs.

For my adventure at Vic’s, I brought my five-year-old nephew Aiden as my date. Aiden’s favorite place to go besides the Sacramento Zoo or Land Park itself is Vic’s. Almost every child enjoys ice cream, so atmosphere comes into play when choosing where to covet that cone.

We each ordered our own treat. Aiden decided on a cone with Mint Chocolate Chip, his favorite. I allowed him to order himself, which made him feel like a real man about town. The man behind the counter in his jeans and tucked in polo shirt was clean, polite and accommodating, like a well-mannered mama’s boy. My kind of man.

Speaking of the wait staff – you are a perfect combination of the 30-something stoner and community college playboy. Am I the only one coming in with a kid for my grilled cheese and ice cream with a side of eye candy?

The help is mostly male, which is inviting for any pre-teen girl or Land Park MILF, and I assure you, there are many after the three-o-clock hour.

Enough about the help, let’s move on to the goods.

The house-made ice cream at Vic’s is beyond fantastic. The 29 flavors pop at you and the creaminess of the sugary treat is awe-inspiring. I recommend keeping an eye on your calendars for their seasonal flavor of pumpkin. It is not to be missed. The customer is offered the hand scooped ice cream with the options of a cone, a dish, a milkshake or a hand-packed pint to take home.

Their milkshakes, the poison I picked for the day, are the best in Sacramento. Better than Gunther’s. Better than Leatherby’s. Name another, it beats them all.

I chose peppermint stick ice cream for my shake. As I looked on at the wooden booths full of families, school kids and, in my case, aunties with their nephews, it hit me – this is a community business at its best. The citizens of Land Park appreciate Vic’s and take advantage of its hidden, and ultimately, tucked away location on Riverside Ave.

Several shiny black licorice-colored pedestal stools line the stainless steel counter I’ve sat at so many times. They fill up and empty. And they fill up again. I see the employees cracking inside jokes while working their afternoons and early evenings away. They seem euphorically content. And, so do the customers.

Briana Monasky can be reached at [email protected]