If you've ever been to a Disney theme park, then you know what Heaven smells like. That was no accident. Disney's Imagineers invented a device called the Smellitzer, which pumps the scent of vanilla from the ice cream shop onto guests stampeding up Main Street, U.S.A. Not only does that particular fragrance inspire hunger pangs, thereby ringing the tills at nearby restaurants, it also makes overheated visitors happy and agreeable. It's clear this lesson was not lost on Layla Isaac, owner of the Tacoma "scoop shop" Ice Cream Social. Somehow, despite the intoxicating odors of grilled steak from Asado, "steak" from Taco Bell, and the Red Hot olfactory mélange next door, the vanilla siren song of Ice Cream Social is impossible to miss. Follow your nose, because - as a certain animated toucan so often reminds us - it always knows.

We visited Ice Cream Social on a recent Monday night. (It's open past nightfall every day of the week, accepted by some philosophers as irrefutable evidence that the universe loves us.) The joint was hopping. Three affable scoopers labored in perfect sync. In addition to a mouthwatering septet of everyday flavors (buttered pecan, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, Valhalla Coffee and the holy Neapolitan trinity), Ice Cream Social offered five custom flavors that night: black sesame, lavender, raspberry, roasted banana and salty black licorice. We ordered one scoop of cookies and cream and another of black sesame. The clouds parted. A ray of sunlight shone down. We heard the distinct sound of an angelic choir producing an impeccable B-major triad. Is it ... a small world after all?

The ice cream itself was unassailably creamy and substantial, the scoop duo generous at $5.75. Instead of stale Oreos one finds interred in so many drive-through brands, the biscuit chunks in Ice Cream Social's cookies and cream were reminiscent of a Pepperidge Farms Milano. Their flavor blended smoothly with that of the black sesame, a scoop with the depth of homemade bread and a perfect grainy crunch. We were reminded of such gourmet Chinese dishes as the addictive black sesame dumplings at Din Tai Fung in Seattle. We weren't crying, though. That was an optical illusion. We were thinking about a Pixar movie. You shut up!

Ice Cream Social, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sun-Thurs, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fri-Sat, 2914 6th Ave., Tacoma, 253.327.1660