Best Ice Cream Spots in the U.S.
Seattle: Molly Moon Ice Cream
Must have: Stumptown Coffee
Molly Moon Neitzel uses mostly local fruit to flavor her ice creams—the farthest south she goes for fruit is Napa Valley for blood oranges. And it's not just the customers who are happy here: Employees get free health care, paid leave and living wages.
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Santa Monica: Sweet Rose Creamery
Must have: Strawberry
Ingredients come from the local farmers' market, one of the best in the country.
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Santa Barbara: McConnell's
Must have: Churros con Leche
This parlor pasteurizes its own milk and cream to make a rich, thick custard base. They have a location in L.A., too!
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Seattle: Lick Pure Cream
Must have: Orchard Peach
Inventive flavors like the malty M2 (the owner won't reveal what's in it) fill the Lickwich, made with grilled doughnut halves.
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Portland, OR: Salt & Straw
Must have: Arbequina Olive Oil
Famous for its collaborations with chefs as well as sweet-savory combos like Fish Sauce Caramel with Palm Sugar.
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Bainbridge Island, WA: Mora Iced Creamery
Must have: Swiss Chocolate ice cream
A Bainbridge Island favorite owned and operated by two Argentinean expats; the superb ice cream, made in small batches, comes in flavors like Dulce de Leche and Gianduja.
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San Rafael, CA: Three Twins Organic Ice Cream
Must have: Strawberry Je Ne Sais Quoi (strawberry ice cream with a splash of balsamic vinegar)
Owner and former Peace Corps volunteer Neal Gottlieb puts a big emphasis on sustainability: The ingredients for his ice cream are local; all bowls, spoons and napkins are compostable; and the shop's emissions are offset with renewable energy certificates.
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Sebastopol, CA: Screamin' Mimi's
Must have: English Toffee ice cream and a handmade waffle cone
“The ice cream has great flavor and mouthfeel, and a large flavor selection that changes with the season. It always reminds me of childhood trips to the ice cream shop,” says 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef Devin McDavid, of San Francisco’s Quince restaurant.
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Portland, OR: Cool Moon Ice Cream
Must have: Wicked Chocolate ice cream
Among the local ingredients used at this Pearl District shop: Oregon bing cherries for its Bing Cherry Almond Chip and hazelnut butter and toasted hazelnuts from orchards 20 miles away for its Willamette Valley Hazelnut.
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Honolulu: Bubbie's Ice Cream
Must have: Green Tea mochi ice cream
One fan of Keith Robbins' bite-size mochi (ice cream wrapped in a sweetened rice confection) is superchef Nobu Matsuhisa. bubbiesicecream.com
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San Francisco: Bi-Rite Creamery
Must have: Salted Caramel or Black Sesame with Sonoma Honey
Almost everything at this excellent ice cream shop is made from scratch, including the marshmallows for the Rocky Road. Marin County's Straus Family Creamery, the first certified-organic dairy in the West, supplies all of the milk and cream for Bi-Rite's ice creams.
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Houston: Fat Cat Creamery
Must have: Milk Chocolate Stout
Nearby Barry Farm provides figs, citrus and other ingredients.
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Austin: Amy's Ice Cream
Must have: Mexican Vanilla ice cream
As well known for its scoop-throwing employees as its ice cream. Amy's offers more than 300 flavors on a rotating basis, including the Shiner Bock, made with the iconic Texan beer of the same name.
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Phoenix, AZ: Churn
Must have: Vietnamese Coffee
This shop has a retro vibe--check out the nostalgic ice cream cookie sandwiches.
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Austin: Lick Honest Ice Creams
Must have: Dewberry Corn Cobbler
Everything from the sauces to the marshmallow is made in house.
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Berkeley, CA: Ici Ice Cream
Must have: House-made ice cream cones
Mary Canales, a former pastry chef at Berkeley's illustrious Chez Panisse, is now famous in her own right for phenomenal ice creams in flavors like brandied cherry and rose.
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Ohio: Graeter's
Must have: Buckeye Chocolate Chip
Graeter's ice cream, made just two gallons at a time, is slowly swirled and folded into itself in a French Pot so no air gets whipped in. The technique makes for an extra-dense and creamy ice cream—each pint weighs almost a pound. This state icon also ships its rich, custard-style ice cream.
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Denver: Sweet Action Ice Cream
Must have: Baklava ice cream
The constantly changing, inspired flavors at this 100 percent wind-powered ice cream shop include Oatmeal Stout and Strawberry Balsamic.
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Kansas City, MO: Glacé Artisan Ice Cream
Must have: Goat Cheese and Honey ice cream
Christopher Elbow is just as boundary-pushing with his ice creams, in flavors like Salted Pretzel and Persian Spice, as he is with his stellar artisan chocolates.
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Columbus, OH: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
Must have: Salty Caramel ice cream
Jeni Britton Bauer creates some of the country's best ice creams, sorbets and frozen yogurts in imaginative flavor combinations like Ylang Ylang and fennel.
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Minneapolis, MN: Pumphouse Creamery
Must have: Door County Cherry
The locavore spot--even the waffle cones are made with Minnesota grains--also sells great dairy-free coconut milk ice cream. Barb Zapzalka's exceptional ice cream is made with organic milk and cream from a small dairy farm in Wisconsin.
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Minneapolis: Izzy's Ice Cream
Must have: The Signature "Izzy Scoop"
“It’s a tiny top hat-like scoop of ice cream that you can order on top of any cone, giving you the joy of two flavors in a much more manageable format than a classic double scoop,” says 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef Stella Parks, of Table Three Ten in Lexington, Kentucky. “Plus, it looks adorably jaunty.”
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Missoula, MT: Big Dipper Ice Cream
Must have: Huckleberry ice cream (made with local berries)
The inspired flavors range from El Salvador Coffee to Honey Porter.
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Traverse City, MI: Moomers Homemade Ice Cream
Must have: Black Cherry ice cream
The hands-down favorite of locals. This family-run parlor is on a dairy farm--the deck offers views of grazing cows.
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Greenfield, WI: Kopp's Frozen Custard
Must have: Sprecher Root Beer Float
Frozen custard, like Kopp's, has less air than most ice creams, so its smoother.
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Chicago: Margie's Candies
Must have: Banana Split
“I rather enjoy a butterscotch sundae with vanilla ice cream but they have much more than that,” says Bryce Caron, a 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef. “The sandwiches are delicious. Margie’s is the kind of place you visit to forget the fact that you live in a major urban environment. Just grab a club sandwich and a banana split and call it a day.”
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Scottsdale, AZ: Sweet Republic
Must have: Cheese Course Duo (blue cheese with Arizona Medjool dates)
This two-year-old shop prides itself on using exceptional ingredients, from milk and cream from local dairy farms to single-origin, fair-trade coffee beans for its espresso flavor.
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St. Louis, MO: Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
Must have: Terramizzou
The "concretes" (frozen custard blended with mix-ins) inspired those at Shake Shack.
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Bar Harbor, ME: Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream
Must have: Butterscotch Miso
Ice cream artisan Linda Parker shows her local pride, as when she adds Maine sea salt to caramel ice cream.
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Brooklyn: Blue Marble
Signature Item: Strawberry ice cream
Started by two best friends, it excels at old school favorites. All the ice creams here are certified organic from the milk to the fruit blended in.
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NYC: OddFellows
Signature Item: Buttermilk Honey Blueberry
Known for over-the-top ice cream sandwiches called OddPockets, made with warm and buttery brioche bread.
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Washington DC: Ice Cream Jubilee
Must have: Chocolate Matzo Crack
Victoria Lai, a former member of the Department of Homeland Security, gets creative with milk and cream from nearby South Mountain Creamery.
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Syracuse, NY: Gannon's
Must have: Marti's Marshmallow
This Syracuse parlor uses ingredients from central New York in its 30-plus daily options.
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University Park, Campus of Penn State: Berkey Creamery
Must have: Berkey Brickle
This operation, which owns more than 200 cows, has been part of Penn State for 150 years.
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Hockessin, DE: Woodside Farm Creamery
Must have: Peanut Butter & Jelly ice cream
The ice cream at this 1796 farm is made with the super creamy milk from the resident Jersey cows.
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Sharon, MA: Crescent Ridge Dairy Bar
Must have: Black Bear (red raspberry ice cream with chocolate chips and chocolate raspberry truffles)
The ice cream here is made in small batches from a 40-year-old recipe.
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Portsmouth, NH: Annabelle's Natural Ice Cream
Must have: New Hampshire Pure Maple Walnut
This hugely popular shop right on the Portsmouth waterfront serves all-natural ice cream in more than 30 regular flavors, plus rotating seasonal ones.
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Cambridge, MA: Toscanini's
Must have: Hydrox Cookie
Decadent varieties like B3 (brown butter, brown sugar and chunks of fudge brownie) share freezer space with decadent versions of the classics. The floor-to-ceiling windows are superb for people watching.
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Centerville, MA: Four Seas Ice Cream
Must have: Fresh Peach and Coconut ice cream
This Cape Cod institution, housed in a tiny white cottage, has been serving supercreamy house-made ice cream every summer since 1934.
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Dennisport, Massachusetts: Sundae School
Must Have: Coffee Oreo ice cream
Shawn Gawle, a 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef from Saison restaurant in San Francisco, made pilgrimages to this spot as a child, when visiting his grandparents. “I’m a sucker for classic mint chocolate chip and Oreo, and they now do a coffee Oreo ice cream, which is great,” he says. “The ginger is nice, too!”
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Nantucket, Massachusetts: The Juice Bar
Must have: Homemade waffle cones
Laura Sawicki, the pastry chef of La Condesa in Austin, and a 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef, loves this beachy spot that makes incredible waffle cones. “You can smell them a mile away and the line wraps around the block,” she says. 12 Broad Street, (508) 228-5799.
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Provincetown, Massachusetts: The Nut House
Must have: Brown Butter Brownie Ice Cream
“I go there only for the brown butter brownie ice cream,” says Shawn Gawle, pastry chef at Saison restaurant in San Francisco, and a 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef.
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Chincoteague Island, VA: Island Creamery
Signature Item: Marsh Mud
The Conklin family has been making fantastic small-batch flavors and custom ice cream cakes for 40 years.
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Princeton, NJ: The Bent Spoon
Must have: Crème Fraîche
Gabrielle Carbone and Matt Errico rotate through some 500 flavors at their Princeton shop, inclding intriguing options include sweet potato and cardamom ginger.
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New Orleans: The Creole Creamery
Must have: Creole Cream Cheese ice cream (made with a curdled cream cheese local to New Orleans)
This desserts shop has fountain-shop classics like banana splits and sundaes, along with rotating ice cream flavors.