Lickety Split Creamery

I’ve been meaning to visit Lickety Split on several visits to Durham but never made it until now. I was slightly reticent as a few days before, I had visited Durham’s cake shop/​takeaway Sweet Tooth and was left disappointed. Sweet Tooth had rave reviews so I was naturally furious not to be thrilled with my visit. This put Lickety Split on a back foot. Clearly, I can’t trust people from my native North East. Clearly, their opinion doesn’t count for shit.
Anyway, after a drive to the coast following a lunch of my mum’s homemade cheese savoury, we parked up and had a walk to Lickety Split. It’s a really good location — right on the road opposite the coastline. I love the coast and it’s were I am happiest. However, the Seaham beach is down a billion steps which invariably means to go there means to walk all the way back up.
The shop it’s self is decked out, 50s diner style. It’s quirky and cute and for the back swamp of County Durham it’s a decent effort. Admittedly, I’ve been to places with a little more detail to the décor but is certainly a change from the norm up there.
There was a sign saying we had to be served before we sat down but it wasn’t busy so we sat down anyway. The table wasn’t clean — not dirty, but the previous patron’s plates and cups were still strewn across the table. Myself and my sister are former waitresses from the family business and clearing tables is somewhat of a disease. We piled up the plates and ditched them at the end of the table before grabbing a menu.
There is an extensive amount of stuff on the menu. I thought it would just be ice cream but there are waffles, hot dogs and other stuff. Looking at other tables, the hot dogs looked massive and good quality — definitely not out of a tin. I was regretting the cheese savoury.
You have to order at the till so I went up and ordered a banana split. The cashier said the desserts would be brought over and she came over straight away to clear the table.
The banana split was BIGGER THAN MY HEAD. Huge banana, real fresh cream and the chocolate sauce was real chocolate. None of this squeezy tube rubbish — ACTUAL, PROPER CHOCOLATE. I was really impressed. And I felt bad that I had judged Lickety’s by the poor standards of Sweet Tooth.
My sister polished off her tasty minty dessert thing. I wanted to try it but I knew if I were to tackle this banana split, every spoonful was to be taken seriously. Nevertheless, it was my Everest. I just couldn’t finish it and I admitted defeat with the grace of a seasoned athlete. And also because take away customers kept walking in and leaving the door open and it was bitter outside. Not quite ice cream weather, in truth.
So if you are going to Seaham, avoid the stairs and grab and ice cream… but maybe take your jacket.

Great ice-​cream sundaes and a nice surprise is the free mini ice-​cream cone you get with a coffee. Brings a touch of class to the Seaham seafront.