Whether you've got a hankering for two scoops of chocolate on a sugar cone or something topped with balsamic macerated strawberries, these New York City ice cream shops will serve up what you're craving.
LessGrab a cone or a milkshake, picking from eight classic flavors like butter pecan, peaches and cream, and vanilla chocolate chunk, at the northernmost tip of Greenpoint. Expect long lines on warm days. Cash only.
Little M'O gives tongues a solid workout with its dense, silky gelato. In addition to normal flavors, M'O offers dairy-free options, such as fresh mango and dark chocolate. If you're in no mood to cool down, warm up with creamy Sicilian cannoli, biscotti, and a tazza (cup) of espresso.
There's more than meets the eye at this tiny blue-and-white ice-cream shop. The homemade flavors are delicious and come in wild combinations: balsamic macerated strawberries with black pepper or banana ice cream with chocolate-covered peanuts. Founder and owner Mike Cole's inspirational story makes the hip-hop-inspired ice cream all the sweeter.
Sweet tooths will fawn over L’Arte Del Gelato in Chelsea Market, where gelato flavors are made fresh every day and come in over 20 varieties. It’s the perfect snack to take up to the High Line – though L'Arte del Gelato also sells from a small cart along the greenway.
This stalwart of the Brooklyn artisanal food movement started with a truck and now boasts half a dozen stores across Manhattan and Brooklyn. More than two dozen delicious flavors range from standards (mint chip or pistachio) to gourmet concoctions (passion-fruit layer cake or peanut butter marshmallow crunch). Many are entirely vegan, made with coconut cream and cashews. No cash.
Taking its name from Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," Ample Hills makes superb ice cream from organic ingredients. Each Ample Hills outlet has one location-specific flavor; in Prospect Heights it's the salty-sweet "Commodore," studded with homemade honeycomb and potato chips coated in chocolate. Everything is made from scratch with fresh, hormone-free milk and cream at their factory in Red Hook.
Chinatown's favorite ice-cream peddler keeps it local with flavors such as green tea, pandan, durian, and lychee sorbet, all written on a whiteboard. The Factory also sells ridiculously cute, trademark T-shirts with an ice-cream-slurping happy dragon on them.