Having a silver spoon in your mouth in San Francisco doesn’t necessarily mean you’re wealthy these days. More likely, its a sign that you’re sampling the riches of the City by The Bay’s artisanal ice cream boom. This metropolis of free-range, sustainable, organic, locavoraciousness has lately been sharpening its sweet tooth and dishing up new spins on an old-fashioned American favorite. Lines are not uncommon at a handful of boutique creameries; and they move slowly because everyone wants multiple samples from a cone-ucopia of newfangled flavors. The samples are, almost needless to say, unfailingly served up in silver—well, metal—spoons, because no self-respecting San Franciscan entrepreneur would dare be so environmentally uncool as to plow through hundreds of disposable plastic or wooden spoons a day.

The city has a venerable history of frozen weirdness: The grandaddy of it all is Mitchell’s, founded  57 years ago. In a nod to the city’s Asian-American palates Mitchell’s scoops up a flamboyant fruit salad of  flavors. How about a dip of lychee? Jackfruit? Durian? Or Ube? (That’s purple yam to you).

Over the past few years, hipster-centric new scooperies have asserted themselves as potential heirs to Mitchell’s crown…

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Check out the making of Bi-Rite Creamery’s Salted Caramel ice cream in a video, courtesy of CHOW, after the jump

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