Bay View Plaza is situated across the road from the City Pier -- a rather new looking mall in stark contrast to the ramshackle charm of the pier itself. With windows facing towards the ocean, Mama Lo offers a great view of the seafront and an excellent, and refreshingly cool, spot to people-watch from.
On a day that was fairly quiet around the rest of Anna Maria, Mama Lo's was surprisingly busy -- it is difficult to resist the draw of ice cream in such heat. The interior has a long refridgerated counter displaying the enormous range of ice cream and sorbets that Mama uses to tempt passers-by. All manner of fruit, chocolate and nut flavours are on offer -- a good excuse to spend time choosing while pressing yourself against the chilled counter . . . I can still remember the relief of that feeling.
There's a wide range of coffee on offer alongside the ices -- the blonde and I couldn't face anything hot. Selecting our flavours -- chocolate and mint for me, some breed of orange fruit for the blonde -- we headed back out to the sun. More sensible people were taking advantage of the tables and counters available inside -- but we still managed to consume the ice creams and pose for 'Statue of Liberty style photos' before they melted.
As for the ice cream? The mint one was definitely mint -- a strong and noticable flavour on most occasions. The blonde declared her fruit based number "indifferent -- could've been anything" -- quite a lengthy critique by her usual standards.