Everywhere You Need to be Eating Ice Cream in NYC This Summer

Leave it to Brooklyn-based Blue Marble to handle the elemental classics, as the founders like to call them. The eco-forward brand prides itself on using ethical ingredients, like organic dairy, which get folded into those nostalgic flavors: cookies and cream, strawberry, and chocolate. Blue Marble has three year-round shops in Brooklyn, and come the warmer months, you can find carts stationed at Brooklyn Flea, Smorgasburg, and Governor’s Island.

Ansel may be the cronut wizard, but the famed baker has forayed into the world of ice cream, too. At his West Village bakery, the summer-only soft serve window is open Wednesday-Sunday, and the ice cream concoctions are just as wild as the pastries. Burrata soft serve, flecked with balsamic caramel and micro basil, is funneled into a honey tuile cone, and the What-a-Melon is a slice of fresh watermelon, dotted with seed-shaped chocolate bits and filled with watermelon soft serve.

The too hip Mister Dips operates out of an Airstream trailer atop the William Vale Hotel, a haven for Dairy Dips: puffed up swirls of soft serve hidden beneath quick-hardening glazes and eclectic garnishes. Cones come in three varieties (Berry Gibbs, Chocolate P.B.D., and Banana Split Dip), along with an unparalleled view of Manhattan’s skyline.

For those looking to feel a bit tipsy after eating ice cream, there’s Tipsy Scoop, New York’s first ice-cream parlour that doubles as a bar (yes, you’ll actually be carded here). Each flavor of ice cream is influenced by an alcoholic drink and is actually infused with liquor—the ABV is just below 5%, so you’ll really taste the liquor. Scoops come in flavors like tequila Mexican hot chocolate, strawberry white sangria, and hot buttered rum.

Ice cream in New York simply shouldn’t be mentioned without a nod to Mister Softee—those roaming trucks blasting an incessant cycle of your least favorite jingle. The trucks churn out soft-serve cones dunked in rainbow sprinkles and red-40 strawberry dips at an inexpensive price—a rarity in NYC’s ice-cream world.

It might seem odd that a vegetarian restaurant would be producing some of the best gelato and sorbet in New York. But it’s not too strange once you find out that owner Brooks Headley was formerly the executive pastry chef at the award-winning Del Posto. At Superiority Burger, the flavors change often and rely on the seasons; in the past, there’s been grapefruit sorbet with candy skins and labne gelato swirled with huckleberries. There are usually two flavors per day, but check their Instagram to see what’s on the board.

Fany Gerson first made her name in the sweets business when she opened Dough in 2010. With oversize doughnuts under her belt, she set out to bring paletas (Mexican-style ice pops), ice cream, and chamoyadas (a mix between a spicy slushy and sorbet) to New York. Her paletas are squat, colorful popsicles, found in a variety of creamy, spicy, fruity, and filled varieties, including mango and raspberry, and roasted banana.

Although the quiet, French-American bakery only swirls soft serve during the warmer months, it’s certainly worth a stop. Flavors only come in vanilla and matcha (and chocolate in the past). But it’s easy to upgrade a still-warm waffle cone by crowning the delicate ice cream with house-made toppings like cocoa nib streusel, brownie bites, and caramel sauce.

For over 100 years, Forest Hills locals have swarmed to this beloved soda fountain, spinning on wooden stools at the counter as white apron-clad servers spoon ice cream into silver tin bowls. Once you’ve selected a flavor or two, the move is to apply as many house-made toppings as possible: there are hand-whipped pillows of whipped cream, neon-red strawberry sauce, and butterscotch, among others.

MilkMade started as a subscription ice-cream service before moving to its current home in Carroll Gardens. The teeny, pinkified shop doesn’t fit more than a couple of people at a time, but that only adds to its quaint neighborhood charm. You can always find eight Signature ’Screams, as the team calls them, in the case (think Gotham Basil and Chinatown Chocolate, a super dense blend of chocolate and Chinese spices), plus a couple of monthly Signature ’Screams, which in the past have included salted popcorn and Pride Pint, a cream-based flavor studded with rainbow cake.

With so many ice cream shops itching to dabble in the exotic, it can seem difficult to find a place that just specializes in the basics. Enter Davey’s, a slim shop with a just-as-slim menu of the classics you grew up with: French vanilla, strawberry, pistachio, and peppermint chip. Order scoops simply in a cone, or opt for it to be squeezed in between two chocolate chip cookies.

Quench your thirst after a hike across the Brooklyn Bridge with a cone from Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, an old-school shop stationed in a charming 1920s fireboat house. You won’t be the only one with that same genius idea. A line consistently snakes out the door as tourists and locals alike gaze at the streamlined selection of super creamy classics, including butter pecan, and peaches and cream. Ask for a house-made waffle cone drizzled with syrups made at the nearby River Café, then lick away while soaking in the view of downtown Manhattan.

Ice cream at Republic of Booza is more than just a dessert: it’s a show as well. Booza, an ice cream with Middle Eastern origins, is made with mastic (a resin) that makes it stretch like crazy. Scoopers toy with the ice cream, pulling at it to showcase its elasticity, before dunking it into cones. The menu is split into three sections (classic, global, and experimental), featuring flavors like pistachio, horchata de chufa, and mint tahini chip, respectively.