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12 Perfect Places To Celebrate National Ice Cream Day In NYC
By
Scott Lynch
Published Jul 19, 2020
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Scott Lynch / Gothamist
By
Scott Lynch
Published Jul 19, 2020
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I eat ice cream literally every single day. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, several times a day. During these pandemic times most of my consumption has come in the form of pre-order pints from my favorite places around the city, but in recent weeks many parlors have reopened, and so once again here in NYC we have an astounding array of world-class ice cream options. This Sunday, July 19th, is National Ice Cream Day, which offers all of us an inarguable reason for giving ourselves a moment or two of pure summertime joy by supporting our local spots. The following list includes just a taste of some of the city's absolute best parlors, — not exhaustive by any means, so please give a shout to your local in the comments if you don't see it here.
Caffe Panna in Gramercy
The reopening of Hallie Meyer's brilliant ice cream restaurant in Gramercy (just a few blocks from Union Square) has been a slow and safe process. At first the only Panna you could get were pre-order pints, but at this point Meyer and her inestimable crew are also serving scoops, affogato sundaes, and walk-up pints to all comers, Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. And she's still inventing new flavors and absurdly fantastic concoctions multiple times a week. It's still not even a year old, but this place is irreplaceable.
Located at 77 Irving Place, corner of East 19th Street (caffepanna.com)
Malai in Carroll Gardens
Malai
Morgan Ione Photography
Pooja Bavishi has also taken the gradual path to reopening her superb Carroll Gardens parlor, but as of now Malai is open every day for scoops, pints, cakes, and weekend specials like, all this month, ice cream sandwiches. Everything is lovely here—Bavishi is a master at getting at those decadent creamy textures and flavors that really sing—and the lineup changes often, but my pandemic pints skewed heavily toward Fig on Fig, Sea Salt Vanilla, Tulsi Chocolate Chip, and her signature Rose with Cinnamon Roasted Almonds.
Located at 268 Smith Street, between Degraw and Sackett Streets (malai.co)
Ice and Vice on the LES and in LIC
Ice and Vice
Courtesy Ice and Vice
A true NYC hall-of-famer, Ken Lo and Paul Kim's Ice and Vice continues to blow me away six years after winning a Vendy award for their LIC pop-up in 2014. The duo's foundational flavors such as Milk Money, Shade, and Tea Dance are all superb, and their vanilla, called Basic B, is likely the best you'll ever have, but it's their accompanying seasonal menus, with wild combinations like ghost pepper with strawberry mole sauce, that show why Lo and Kim still call this place an "experimental ice cream shop." The counter within the Time Out Market in Dumbo remains closed, but the LES flagship and LIC shop are back open for scoops, pints, and ice cream pies.
Located at 221 East Broadway near Clinton Street, and 27-20 Jackson Avenue at the corner of Dutch Kills Street (iceandvice.com)
Sugar Hill Creamery in Harlem
The family-owned Sugar Hill Creamery—Petrushka Bazin Larsen and Nick Larsen are the mom and dad running the joint—is a Harlem treasure, with a full menu of rotating flavors that range from classics to more innovative combinations, all with clever, often pop-culture-inspired names like A$AP Rocky Road, Neneh Cherry, and Andy Griffith ("nothing is more vanilla than Andy Griffith"). The Larsens are long-time locals, and the parlor always feels as comfortable and inviting as a neighborhood spot should be.
Located at 184 Lenox Avenue, between West 119th and 120th Streets (sugarhillcreamery.com)
New Territories on the Lower East Side
New Territories
This sliver of a shop on upper Orchard Street at first glance seems to be more about Instagram gimmicks than seriously good ice cream. After all, Peter Mei and George Tang launched the enterprise some three and half years ago on the back of a candy-exploding milkshake called the Unicorn Parade. And yet! In addition to focusing on fun, New Territories also has some of the best straight-up scoops you'll find anywhere in the city--creamy, rich, with an impressive depth of flavor—and Mei and Tang and everyone else whom I've ever been served by here couldn't be more friendly and engaged. Just a really pleasant place to get some excellent ice cream. Open only on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday for now.
Located at 190 Orchard Street, just south of Houston (newterritories.com)
Oddfellows in Dumbo and Brooklyn Bridge Park
OddFellows<br/>
Photo by Scott Lynch/Gothamist
Co-founded by Mohan Kumar, Holiday Kumar, and chef Sam Mason seven years ago, at this point Oddfellows is a well-seasoned NYC ice cream veteran. Only two shops are currently open, the parlor in Dumbo and the new kiosk at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, but they both sell pints and scoops, both have great seating outdoor options nearby, and everything, even (especially?) Mason's crazier-sounding flavors, is always delicious. In fact, some of my only good memories of those long, siren-filled nights in March and April were when I was safely at home, tucking into a big combo bowl of Mason's Cherry Miso and Chocolate Chunk.
Located at 60 Water Street, between Main and Dock Streets, and at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park (oddfellowsnyc.com)
The Good Batch Creamery in Clinton Hill
Good Batch
Anna Gordon's popular Fulton Street bakery The Good Batch now has an ice cream buddy right across the street, the aptly named Good Batch Creamery. No surprise, Gordon's baked goods are all over the place here—in the sundaes, forming ice cream sandwiches, mixed into the ice cream itself—but this is truly a full-fledged parlor, with a lengthy menu of flavors like Minty Cookie, Sprinkletown, and Caramel Brownie, which you can get scooped into cups or cones.
Located at 995A Fulton Street, between St. James and Cambridge Places (thegoodbatch.com)
Morgenstern’s in Greenwich Village and on the LES
Morganstern's
Even during a pandemic, Nick Morgenstern's amazing flagship on Houston Street has kept pretty close to its promise of scooping 88 flavors—the preorder pints were a real treat during the darkest days of pandemic isolation—and he put a cart out in front of the place for scoops even before Phase 1. Now both parlors are running full tilt, open everyday from noon to 10 p.m., and with far fewer tourists in town and no sampling allowed, maybe the lines will be less arduous. This ice cream rules.
Located at 88 West Houston Street, at the corner of LaGuardia Place, and at 2 Rivington Street between Bowery and Chrystie Streets (morgensternsnyc.com)
Big Gay Ice Cream on the Upper West Side
Just this past week the first of what we hope will be all four locations of this soft-serve icon finally reopened, and isn't the Upper West Side lucky to have them! Big Gay is famous for their cheeky attitude and creative combo cones—the Salty Pimp, the Dorothy, the American Globs are all infused with sticky surprises, and all the stuff of legend—but don't sleep on their straight-up swirls either, which are as good as any soft serve in town.
Located at 516 Columbus Avenue, at the corner of West 85th Street (yet to be reopened shops can be found at biggayicecream.com)
Island Pops in Crown Heights
Island Pops
Khalid Hamid and Shelly Marshall opened this Nostrand Avenue parlor only two years ago, but it already feels like something of Crown Heights institution, a welcoming, family-run operation with a menu of small-batch ice cream loaded with wonderful West Indian flavors. I always get the Soursop, and the Ovaltine if they have it (and usually the Grape Nuts if they don't), but I've never had a bad scoop here, so order with confidence whatever your craving. The ice pops are also very good, especially the Sorrel.
Located at 680 Nostrand Avenue, at the corner of St Marks Avenue (islandpops.com)
Taiyaki in Chinatown, Williamsburg, and Flushing
Taiyaki
The three Taiyaki parlors in NYC get their name from their signature dish, the Japanese fish-shaped waffles put to work here as ice cream cones. The outfit also dabbles in things like Japanese Souffle Pancakes, and those super-sweet Unicorn Floats which would have been all over Gov Ball and EZoo again this year had the coronavirus not ruined all of our plans. These are a first-rate addition to the city's ice cream scene. Note that Flushing location is open on weekends only.
Located at 119 Baxter Street in Chinatown, 294 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, and 136-17 39th Avenue in Flushing (taiyakinyc.com)
Surreal Creamery in Kips Bay
The month-old Surreal Creamery, a soft serve and bubble tea parlor in Kips Bay, specializes in complicated "mason jar" sundaes and beautiful Floateas, which combine their two primary products into a singular, delicious-looking creation. The tantalizing photo in that Instagram above speaks for itself. This place has definite potential to be a regular pre- or post-movie treat as well, if we ever get to go to movie theaters again.
Located at 538 Second Avenue, just south of East 30th Street (surrealcreamery.com)
Tagged
ice cream
Scott Lynch
Photojournalist, food writer, preschool receptionist. Love NYC.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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