Indulge In The Most Mouth-Watering Ice Cream Spots NYC Has To Offer

It's no secret that New York City knows food. Whether pizza, bagels, pastrami, or hot dogs, the Big Apple takes what's on the table seriously, only serving the best, whether from a street cart or one of the many internationally recognized restaurants that call it home. Unsurprisingly, that same standard applies to ice cream, especially during the city's hot and humid summers that can reach a sweltering 85 degrees on average. Coupled with crowds of people and clouds of traffic-ridden smog, every New Yorker is looking for a stellar cone when July and August roll around. For more big-city eats, check out the underrated pizza joints New Yorkers love. 

Luckily, they don't have to look far, as New York City is full of delectable ice cream shops ranging from a gelato shop with more than 300 flavors to an Indian ice cream shop that showcases how good the city is at celebrating the deliciousness of diversity. We rounded up the best of the best so you know which block to turn to the next time you're looking for a chilly yet sweet respite in the city that never sleeps. If you prefer a side of history to go with your treat, head to Samantha brown's favorite ice cream parlor. 

If you see the rainbow-adorned façade of Big Gay Ice Cream, you know you're in for one sweet treat. The playful, unabashed ice cream shop serves surprisingly wholesome soft-serve ice cream at the Upper West Side, South Street Seaport, and Madison Square Garden. The brand makes its treats with all-natural milk from a Pennsylvania dairy farm, cream, and sugar before scooping up drool-worthy concoctions. These include the ultra-popular Salty Pimp featuring vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche, and a chocolate shell, and the Shortberry Strawcake consisting of vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce, Nilla wafers, and whipped cream. Customers can also choose from ice cream floats, milkshakes, Mexican fruit pops, and ice cream sandwiches, all decked out in pastel colors and creative flair.

It all began when founders and then-couple Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff started serving ice cream from a rented truck in 2009 as a summer gig, injecting the sweets with interesting toppings like wasabi pea dust and Sriracha despite their lack of experience in the food industry. But the cheap yet delicious cones, social media, and quirky name of the truck quickly attracted hordes of followers, which only amplified after Big Gay Ice Cream was featured on "Rachael Ray." Stores soon followed suit throughout the Big Apple. Can't make it to the city to try the famous treats? Big Gay Ice Cream also sells pints at stores like Stop & Shop, Wawa, and CVS.

In a food scene full of fantasy ingredients, instant yet impersonal service, and a constant need for evolution, Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, stands out from the crowd with an ambiance that transports customers back to the 1920s with simple, throwback offerings. Since 2010, the nostalgic soda fountain has served ice cream floats, sundaes, milkshakes, wine, and beer in a former apothecary that was a flagship in the area for 60 years. That vibe continues today behind a pastel-colored exterior where customers enjoy sweet treats surrounded by red counter seats, penny tile floors, tin ceilings, and original medicine cabinets.

You'll have a tough time deciding what to order due to the large menu, especially if a sundae is what you're craving. The shop offers delicious sundaes, including Chef Bobby Flay's recognized Affugazi Affogato, featuring vanilla cake, espresso, vanilla ice cream, and a dark chocolate shell. There's also the Potato Head with North Fork potato chips, housemade peanut butter, vanilla ice cream, and caramel. You can even order a traditional vanilla or chocolate New York egg cream drink. The shop's sodas are made with housemade syrups, while the ice cream is sourced from an all-natural producer nearby. It's all thanks to brother-sister team Peter Freeman and Gia Giasullo, who opened the shop with the help of the Discovery Channel show "Construction Intervention" after the space sat defunct for years.

It's as housemade as it gets at Davey's Ice Cream, which has a long list of accolades from every publication from Zagat to the Village Voice. Since its doors opened in 2013, Davey's Ice Cream has mostly used its own ice cream base mix and pasteurizer. It also purchases all-natural milk and cream from New York creameries and seasonal ingredients to create refreshingly simple ice cream flavors in a four-day process. These include coffee ice cream made with Birch Coffee beans and strawberry ice cream prepared with fresh strawberries. There's also vanilla ice cream made with Davey's mix of vanilla beans and pistachio ice cream with all-natural house-roasted pistachios. Customers can also pick up made-to-order ice cream cakes, wedding cakes, and gluten-free ice cream.

David Yoo, who formerly worked in fashion advertising, founded the brand when he yearned to own a creative business. He figured that ice cream was as imaginative an industry as it gets, so he took the Penn State University ice cream course — the oldest ice cream course in the country — and got to work. Within just a few months, his first store was profitable, and today, Davey's Ice Cream's success continues with locations in the East Village, Moynihan Train Hall, and Greenpoint, Brooklyn. But don't fret if you have a sweet craving far from the big city. Davey's Ice Cream also ships its ice cream across the country via Goldbelly.

Eddie's Sweet Shop doesn't need to theme itself as old school — it already is. It dates back to 1925, making it the oldest ice cream shop in Forest Hills, Queens. It doesn't have a website, and its wood and marble fixtures are as they were decades ago. Similarly, its ice cream recipes and some serving dishes date back to its earliest days. It's all very traditional here. 

You won't find crazy, inventive flavors here, but you will enjoy 18 ice cream varieties homemade just as they were a century ago, stored in an 80-year-old fridge. Even all the sauces and whipped cream are made by hand using secret, passed-down recipes. To try the best of what Eddie's Sweet Shop has to offer, go for a chocolate sundae adorned with hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry. Customers can also order items like milkshakes, malts, floats, and New York egg creams with classic flavors such as banana, coffee, chocolate, and vanilla.

The Citrano family has looked after the New York City landmark since 1968, when Italian immigrant Giuseppe Citrano bought the soda fountain and named it Eddie's Sweet Shop. His son, Vito, and daughter-in-law run the shop now. Vito's son, Joseph, makes the ice cream and toppings, such as raisins drenched in rum. You'll see his other son, Brandon, working the counter.

The name of Il Laboratorio Del Gelato, which translates to "The Gelato Laboratory" in Italian, isn't a marketing ploy. Instead, this ice cream shop has locations on the Lower East Side, New Jersey, and China, where owner Jon Snyder experiments with gelato. Snyder creates hundreds of inventive flavors such as cheesecake, wasabi, blood orange, amaretto crunch, apple cinnamon, and Guinness for his shops and Big Apple restaurants. To create the brand's famously rich, creamy flavors, Snyder and his team use high-quality local ingredients. They're hands-on, doing everything from zesting lemons to roasting pistachios to ensure the end product is as handmade as possible.

However, Il Laboratorio Del Gelato isn't Snyder's first foray into ice cream. After his grandfather spent his career as a contractor for Carvel and his grandmother and parents ran a Carvel stand in New York, Snyder, at just 19 years old, founded Ciao Bella Gelato + Sorbetto. Yes, Those same pints you pick up at the grocery store when you have a sweet craving. He sold the brand just a few years later to go to business school and become a stockbroker, but soon, the ice cream bug scooped him up again, and he felt compelled to launch his new sweet treat company, Il Laboratorio Del Gelato, in 2002. But despite its innovative flavors and business-like beginnings, the brand continues to make gelato using traditional Italian methods.

You might consider cookies and cream or coffee ice cream your go-to. But that's only because you've yet to try flavors like rose with cinnamon roasted almonds, banana peanut butter garam masala, and red chili chocolate. At Malai Ice Cream, which offers ice cream inspired by South Asian ingredients, you can treat your tastebuds to unique recipes. Since 2015, the unique brand has been serving handmade eggless ice cream infused with the same flavors that founder Pooja Bavishi grew up on.

At its shop in Brooklyn as well as in select grocery stores, Malai — which means "cream of the crop" in a North Indian language — is known for taking Indian spices and putting a sweet twist on them, fusing international cultures to show people just how delicious fare from every corner of the planet is. And no matter where you are on Earth, you can taste that for yourself as Malai Ice Cream products are available for shipping on Goldbelly. You'll find offerings such as ice cream sandwiches, pints, pops, and cakes. Got a craving that just won't quit? Try some of the best ice cream in America on this East Coast road trip route. 

It may be served in a modern take of a bare-bones ice cream parlor by servers in paper hats, but Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream takes its treats as seriously as it would at a fine-dining restaurant. But being that founder Nicholas Morgenstern is a professional pastry chef and restaurateur, having worked at New York City institutions like the Gramercy Tavern and Gilt, how could it not? At the shop with locations on the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village, Morgenstern (yes, he serves the ice cream, too) offers eggless ice cream without additives or stabilizers, handmade in small batches. That's because here, flavor always comes first, whether you order mint ice cream or cardamom-lemon-jam ice cream. Flavors are so important to Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream that employees must sign non-disclosure agreements to keep the recipes secret.

And they're always changing with the help of other New York City hot spots. Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream frequently pairs with other local businesses to create one-of-a-kind flavors. Past creations include balsamic glaze ice cream made with Italian vinegar producer Carandini and sesame bagel ice cream in collaboration with specialty food store Russ & Daughters. It's been its priority to offer creative, outside-the-pint flavors using less air and buttercream than other ice cream brands since they began scooping in 2014. As a result, there's a good chance you'll wait in a long but worthwhile line to get your cup or cone here.

There's perhaps no more fitting place to serve nearly 600 outlandish ice cream flavors — such as caramel chorizo and honey-salted sunflower — than in a carnival-themed ice cream parlor. This parlor is outfitted with red and white striped walls and a painting of Jesus holding an ice cream cone. However, Oddfellows Ice Cream Co., with New York City locations in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Chelsea, and Dumbo, is about more than just shock value. With the help of James Beard-nominated pastry chef Sam Mason, who worked at acclaimed eatery wd~50, it handmakes and pasteurizes small-batch ice cream using dairy and cream from Pennsylvania farms. Gluten-free and vegan flavors are also available. The varieties are so small-batch that they differ at each location and sometimes change by the hour. Even its toppings, such as the cornflake crunch, are offbeat. Some of the locations also serve wine paired with sorbet and beer floats.

Oddfellows Ice Cream Co. has been serving its staple crazy flavors since before it was cool. It all started in 2011 when the brand's co-founder, Holiday Kumar, was pregnant, but none of the sweet ice creams on shelves satisfied her profound cravings. So, she and her husband Mohan Kumar called their friend Mason to whip up some pretzel ice cream for her. A lightbulb moment went off, and the three decided to start a new ice cream shop focused on savory and eclectic flavors, which opened to massive popularity in 2013.

Although no one is 100% sure how ice cream came to be, one theory is that the sweet treat originated in China sometime between 618 and 907 CE. So, it's only fitting that The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is a longstanding New York City ice cream destination. It has been scooping delicious treats since 1977 in Chinatown, with additional locations in Flushing and the Lower East Side. In those decades, the second-generation family-run business operated by Philip Seid and his daughter Christina Seid has continued to offer Asian ice cream flavors. These include red bean, taro, durian, and black sesame, humorously listed as the "regular" varieties, and typical American options like mint chip and vanilla are presented as "exotic."

Being that the business is storied, The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory has taken customer suggestions over the years to create some of its 40 flavors, which is just how durian — an infamous Asian fruit so smelly that it's forbidden overseas in some public places — landed on the list of offerings. The homemade ice cream, Chinese ice cream cake, and Neapolitan ice cream cake draw lines no matter the weather. Or, for a truly luxurious cone, visit this infamous New York City eatery for a $1,000 ice cream sundae. 

Remember that vibrant purple ice cream that took over your Instagram feed in 2016? That was the creation of Soft Swerve, an Asian ice cream brand that opened the same year in Chinatown with varieties like coconut, green tea, and black sesame, to a massive response that enticed people from all over the world. It was the brainchild of Jason Liu and Michael Tsang, who were inspired to found Soft Swerve after eating halo-halo, a Filipino ice cream-like concoction, and deciding they could make something even better.

Their ube ice cream — a Filipino yam that tastes like white chocolate — proved they could. Customers can enjoy Soft Swerve's signature colorful, social media-friendly cones at shops on the Lower East Side, Kips Bay, Flushing, Brooklyn, and its original location in Chinatown, with ice cream flavors like Vietnamese coffee, Hong Kong milk tea, strawberry lychee, and almond cookie. If you love ice cream that differs from the norm, sample the world's oldest and most unique type of ice cream.

In Harlem, the Sugar Hill neighborhood is where professionals, artists, and thinkers meet like-minded people and watch their ideas come to life. That's the story of the founders of Sugar Hill Creamery, making it the only family-owned ice cream business in the neighborhood. The shop, with locations in Central Harlem, West Harlem, East Harlem, StuyTown, and Brooklyn, serves handmade, small-batch ice cream. Its offers include gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan flavors. 

Thoughtful names like Sweet Socialism, ASAP Rocky Road, Yellow Diamond Ring, and George Costanza were inspired by the founders' Caribbean and Midwestern heritages. Flavors are everchanging, with seven different options available every season and five mainstays. Customers can also choose from sweets like ice cream sandwiches, brownie sundaes, milkshakes, and Nicaraguan and Guatemalan coffee.

Harlem natives Nick Larsen and Petrushka Bazin opened and founded Sugar Hill Creamery in 2017 to huge crowds itching for a taste of their housemade ice cream that has since earned accolades from Eater and other publications. It all started when Bazin craved something sweet following the birth of the couple's second child, and she realized that her Harlem community could use a local, quality ice cream parlor. For more Big Apple eats, visit this vibrant market in New York City for foodies.

Today, you can find Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream everywhere, including 33 New York City shops, 9 states, and 10,000 grocery stores. But it all started with one yellow ice cream truck cruising through SoHo. However, that's all you need when you have a product as pure as Van Leeuwen's. Its ice cream is made with milk, cream, cane sugar, and egg yolks — no fillers, condensed milk, corn syrup, or stabilizers necessary. Even the ingredients used to create its flavorings are as high-quality as they get, resulting in delicious varieties such as chocolate caramel cheesecake, buttermilk berry cornbread, Earl Grey tea, and peanut butter brownie honeycomb, including vegan options.

That's been French-inspired Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream's motto since it was founded by brothers Pete and Ben Van Leeuwen and their friend and roommate Laura O'Neill. After Ben spent several months traveling the planet, he realized how important high-quality food was all over the world. He wanted to share that message with New York City via the cone. He, Pete, and O'Neill decided to form a business making the best quality ice cream possible, so after raising $60,000 from their friends and family, they bought two old mail delivery trucks to sell their sweet creations in 2008. Just hours after hitting the road, a Whole Foods representative asked if the new business owners would be interested in selling their ice cream at the upscale supermarket chain.