Dee Dee's Ice Cream Shop

This location in a shopping center near my home has seen several restaurants come and go. This one will follow suit. This is an ice cream shop that serves breakfast burritos; I was recommended by the young lady behind the counter at Starbucks to try their burrito.

I'm not a genius by any means, but you do not open a mom and pop ice cream shop a few hundred feet away from a Cold Stone, unless you can beat the tar out of them with better ice cream, service, and better atmosphere. The staff here could not make the C team bench squad of Cold Stone. This place is basically a counter with a spattering of tables. What I mean by this is that there was a ton of dead space that could have been used to enhance the experience. Basically, this place was a counter in a large space with a table or four.

The place was designed as an afterthought. When I walked in there were a few tables along the front, so I guess they have out door seating. There were about four tables when I walked in that were fairly full of patrons waiting for their burritos. On the upside, I did like the corrugated, galvanized steel counter. When I roll to the counter, I was not promptly greeted, but I was greeted in a fairly timely manner, despite the fact that there were at least five people behind the counter and at least two were idle starring off into space.

There is no overhead menu that is normally had at fast food establishments, but I ordered off of a copied menu in a plastic binder sheet that I use to protect sheets of paper. Not a well designed menu, but it is functional. I ask the lady behind the counter how the potatoes are prepared and she tells me that they are fried. Then asked if they were deep fried or not. She hesitated and then gave me two answers: yes and no, they are pan fried was the final and correct answer. I can understand a verbal slip up, but she did not genuinely know off the bat. Of my options for a breakfast burrito: chorizo, bacon, ham or sausage, I opt for the ham burrito minus the egg. I exchange money for a promise of a burrito and that is that. The cost came to slightly under four dollars. In this time, I observe that they make a lot of mistakes with other customers. Of the three customers that I see getting or ordering burritos two have issues with their order: one got the wrong burrito and one was short a burrito. These are mistakes an establishment that has been opened for a few months should not make. I also violated health code by walking in there with my Starbucks coffee that they did not comment on, oh well, I was willing to eat on the patio or on the curb if asked. They did not seem to carry coffee, which is a bad decision for a breakfast establishment. I wait about ten minutes for my burrito to be ready, which is longer than your average burrito wait. For example, at Golden Pride my wait is about three minutes, at Sandia Chile Grill about five minutes, Frontier about five minutes, and Blake's about seven minutes. I get my burrito and it is hot and busting at the seams. I take about four or five bites an it seems like I got a vegetarian breakfast burrito. I decide to unravel my burrito to ensure I got what I ordered. I see about eight small cubes of ham. I politely go the go to the counter and ask the same lady who took my order if I could buy a side of ham. She then ask if something is wrong and I explain to her what I observed in my burrito. She then promises to remedy this, but I do not recall an apology. I get a four ounce polypropylene Solo cup that is about a quarter full. Due to the moisture content of the contents of the burrito, I am unable to repair my burrito with the new ham, so I am left with a pile of potatoes, green chile, a scant about of ham, and a soggy tortilla on a small piece of aluminum foil. Was it a bad burrito? Yes because I ordered a ham burrito and got a potato burrito with a piece or two of ham. The service was lackluster and apathetic. Atmosphere? This place does not know the definition of the term. I paid three dollars too much for a burrito. The redeeming qualities of this place was that the counter was nice and fairly clean. For the record, I am all for small business; I know how important small business is for our economy but this is a bad small business. Do not waste your money unless you have money burning; if you do have burning money, I also need a Lexus. I would start an over/under on this place as well as Woody's or maybe a pool for who could stay open longer. I would give this place one star out of five.