The Best Ice Cream Shops in NYC
Quinn Steven / May 13, 2017
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If you really know EatingNYC, you know that we take our ice cream very seriously. Lucky for us, NYC has some of the best ice cream shops, we think, in the world, serving up both old-fashioned classics and super innovative flavors. With summer around the corner, we thought we’d prep you with a rundown of some of our favorite spots for ice cream in NYC. Here you go!
Ample Hills Creamery
Cone from Ample Hills Creamery.Ample Hills Creamery serves some of the creamiest ice cream in the City. They’ve taken all of your favorite desserts, like rice krispies, peppermint patties, and even NY cheesecake, and ice-creamified them! If you’re planning to go over with your squad, try one of their ice cream socials complete with the ice cream bike — it’s like the beer bike but you’re churning your ice cream, crafts, trivia, and then top it off with a brownie sundae bar topped with the ice cream you just made! Some of our favorites here are ooey-gooey butter cake, the raw deal, and dark chocolate…. but we really love them all!
Big Gay Ice Cream
Cone from Big Gay Ice Cream.What started out as an upgraded, seasonal ice cream truck is now a full-blown brick-and-mortar business serving up ice cream as it should be: year-round and topped with mind-blowing topping combos. Big Gay Ice Cream, by Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff, makes all the ice cream classics you remember, but made with the highest quality ingredients. Try their most famous ice cream, the Salty Pimp, or the Bea Arthur, and grab a pint of the Rocky Roadhouse for the road.
Morgenstern’s Finest
Triple scoop from Morgenstern’s.Walk into Morgenstern’s and it feels like you’ve been transported to a 1950’s ice cream parlor, but peek at the menu and you’ll be instantly reminded what century you’re in. They’ve got five kinds of vanilla, five kinds of chocolate, three different caramel, coffee, and strawberry flavors each, and that’s just their “normal” flavors. Don’t skimp and get a scoop, get a whole sundae, like the King Kong Banana Split, which got a feat. in Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None.”
il laboratorio del gelato
Gelato from il laboratorio del gelato.This isn’t just some plain old ice cream window. For one, il laboratorio del gelato isn’t serving ice cream per se, but instead they’re serving up super-creamy Italian gelato, which is just as good. Second, that little old window opens up to a HUGE kitchen where they make these desserts by hand, in small batches to ensure quality. Plus, they collab with chefs and caterers all over the city in their “lab” to make unique flavors perfect for different restaurants in the area. Chances are, they’re the gelato purveyor at one of your favorite restaurants.
il laboratorio del gelato
Scoops with ‘mallows from Ice and ViceIf you’re an adventurous eater, high-tail it to Ice & Vice where they push the envelope on what can (and maybe what should?) be in an ice cream. They’ve got super sweet-and-savory flavors like black garlic and olive oil, but also some amped up versions of more classic flavors, like the 9AM (Vietnamese coffee and donut truffle), which is basically how we wish we had our coffee every morning, in ice cream form.
10 Below
Rolled ice cream from 10 Below.10 Below is the original NYC rolled ice cream spot, here you can get your ice cream just like you want it. These guys make fresh crème anglaise daily (the ice cream base) then they pour it out onto an anti-griddle, mash in whatever ingredients you want, then scrap it off so that the ice cream makes its cool rolled shape. Topped with endless toppings? Yes, please!
10 Below
Dueling cones from Emack and Bolio’s. PC: @feedyourgirlfriendTo put it simply, Emack & Bolios is every kid’s dream. Star with one of their decked-out cones dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles or nuts, or covered in marshmallow with Oreos or cereal! They’ve got every flavor you can think up (like s’moreo, salted caramel chocolate pretzel and peanut butter Oreo), and if they don’t, you can go to their website and submit a “dream flavor” – it might just make it on the menu!
Kith
Soft serve from KITH.Who doesn’t love cereal milk soft serve? At Kith, they do you one better by straight up blending cereal right into your soft serve with whatever other toppings your heart desires (i.e. cookie dough or a Snickers bar). You can even build a cereal box to bring home with a mix of whatever cereals you want plus toppings. We prefer the ice cream, but you do you.
Momofuku Milk Bar
Soft serve from Milk Bar.Christina Tosi, the Mastermind behind all of Momofuku Milkbar is famous for inventing cereal milk soft serve. We love all of her dessert creations like crack pie, chocolate malt truffles and confetti birthday cake, but her soft serve goes down as one of our favorite ice creams in the city.
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