The Shamrock Shook at Sulimay’s is the best mint milkshake in town

As St. Patrick’s Day draws near in Philly, it’s prime time for Irish potatoes, green beer, and other March specialties. Don’t forget the mint milkshake.

Sure, McDonald’s trademark Shamrock Shake is the best-known iteration of the frosty green treat. The seasonal shake, made with vanilla soft serve and mint syrup, even had a onetime Eagles affiliation. But it’s not the best option in town.

That would be the Shamrock Shook at Sulimay’s Restaurant in Fishtown, featuring mint gelato specially made for the diner by Justine MacNeil of Fiore Fine Food.

The Shook is one of a few odes to Mickey D’s from Sulimay’s chef-owner Chad Todd. The mega-chain played a big role in his childhood, he says. “It was probably two-thirds of my meals as a kid. My mom worked all the time. ‘Here, have a cheeseburger.’”

Temper that early influence with later stints at Zahav, Osteria, and Abe Fisher, and you’ll better understand the food Todd serves up at Sulimay’s. There’s standard diner fare, but there’s also upgraded classics like the Big Mick — two patties of Gauker Farms’ beef topped with American cheese, pickles, onions, lettuce, and special sauce, sandwiched by a Merzbacher’s sweet potato bun. Or the Pine Barren Pancakes, riddled with tiny wild blueberries, and served with homemade blueberry syrup and a side of red wine vinegar-pickled blueberries. Or the Fishtown Scrapple: two sunny-side-up eggs riding high on panko-battered squares of Todd’s whitefish scrapple and thick slices of heirloom tomatoes, spiced up with pickled long hots and tangy comeback sauce.

The Shamrock Shook fits right in. Todd’s a believer in bringing in the best-quality ingredients when you can’t make them yourself, and MacNeil’s gelato is “magnetic,” as Craig LaBan put it. So in 2020, Todd asked her to make an intensely minty gelato for a milkshake that would round out Sulimay’s weekly burger night menu.

“And that was that,” he says.

MacNeil has been whipping up the fluorescent-green gelato every March ever since. (She and husband Ed Crochet are regulars at Sulimay’s, which is about a mile away from where they’re moving Fiore.) The vanilla-mint base — made with milk, cream, and sugar, and stabilized with dextrose and milk powder — is a rare Fiore gelati that gets artificial coloring. ”We don’t love dye,” MacNeil says, but the bright green color was important in this case.

Once MacNeil finishes a batch, she gets it into the freezer immediately and lets it rest overnight. “The faster you freeze it, the smaller the ice crystals will form, which gives it a better mouthfeel,” she explains.

Once it’s at Sulimay’s, the gelato is kept freezer-cold until an hour before service. It’s blended to order with a little half-and-half in a worn Hamilton Beach milkshake maker that sits behind the front counter. The machine was “sitting in the basement for God knows how long” before Todd dredged it up and got it repaired by the Philly Fixers Guild.

The $8 shake is on the menu during Burger Nights (Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 p.m. till 9-ish or sell-out) in March. This year, Todd’s contemplating keeping it on for longer, maybe even permanently.

“I love it,” he says. “Half of the stuff on the menu is on there just so I can eat it.”