#TEAMCUP: 13
“Cup. The calories I save on the cone can be used on the topping!” —ROGER BERKOWITZ, president/CEO of Legal Sea Foods
“Strawberry ice cream in a cup. Cones can be too messy.” —MOOKIE BETTS, Boston Red Sox outfielder
“A cup. My hands are a little gruff and my nails quite long—every time I’ve held a cone I accidentally break it. #YetiProblems.” —THE BOSTON YETI
“A cone forces me to eat faster so it doesn’t melt on me. I want to take my time with my ice cream!” —JOANNE CHANG, chef/owner of Flour and Myers + Chang
“I almost always go cup because when I eat ice cream, I always go banana split.” —DIEGO FAGUNDEZ, New England Revolution midfielder
“Cup, because if it gets sloppy, it’s controllable.” —ROB GRONKOWSKI, New England Patriots tight end
“Cup. You can enjoy it at your own pace. There is something nostalgic about a cup of ice cream, like the Hoodsie cups we grew up on.” —GARRETT HARKER, restaurateur
“Cup every day, and twice on Sunday.” —JIMMY HAYES, Boston Bruins forward
“Cup, because in the summer I can’t afford the extra carbs.” —TOREY KRUG, Boston Bruins defenseman
“Cup. With cones, the ice cream tends to drip everywhere!” —KEITH LOCKHART, conductor of the Boston Pops
“Cup!” —DIANE PAULUS, artistic director of the American Repertory Theater
“Cup! The melted ice cream from a cone will clash with the wine stains on my shirt.” —CHRIS SCHUTTE, co-owner of Social Wines
“Cup.” —BRAD STEVENS, coach of the Boston Celtics
#TEAMCONE: 10
“I prefer cones. They create less trash and make ice cream more of a fun summer experience!” —TARA FOLEY, founder/CEO of Follain
“Sugar cone is the only way to go, preferably from the Juice Bar on ACK.” —RICH GOTHAM, president of the Boston Celtics
“I’m a cone girl myself. Go big or go home, I always say!” —KAYLA HARRISON, Olympic judo gold medalist
“I would one hundred thousand percent go with an ice cream cone every time! Sugar cones are great, but you also can’t go wrong with a regular old cake cone. The best part is where the ice cream is packed into the crisscross section at the end of the cone.”—JOSH HAWKINS, Boston Cannons midfielder
“Cone, so nothing goes to waste.” —JOHN LIBONATI, co-owner of Social Wines
“I’m a traditional cone man with chocolate-vanilla swirl, with a cherry hard shell. This combo offers a true mastery of the cone experience. One has to anticipate the melting rate and navigate the hard shell that overlaps the cone.” —TODD MAUL, bartender and co-founder of Cafe ArtScience
“Nothing makes you relax, unwind and feel like a kid more than enjoying an ice cream cone outside on a beautiful summer day.” —AYANNA PRESSLEY, Boston city councilor
“A sugar cone with butter-crunch or coffee ice cream with lots of jimmies. The perfect beauty of a cone is the crunch with the ice cream once you eat the top loaded with jimmies. I’m out to find one right now!” —LYDIA SHIRE, chef/owner of Scampo
“A waffle cone dipped in sprinkles with Moose Tracks ice cream is my all-time favorite! My son and I get these when we are on the Cape in the summer. Super fun indulgence!” —JOSHUA SMITH, chef/owner of Moody’s Delicatessen & Provisions
“I love the cone because extra ice cream dripped on my beard is a great way to beat the system.” —STEVE SWEENEY, comedian
#TEAMCUPNCONE: 5
“Cup with cone on top!” —CHARLIE BAKER, governor
“Cup with a cone on top—because if it’s served in a cone I always manage to topple the ice cream onto the ground!” —CAROLE CHARNOW, president/CEO of Boston Children’s Museum
“Man I’m greedy. … I take my cone upside down inside a cup.” —JEFF LAHENS, founder of DressCode Boston
“I prefer a cone—but also need a cup so I don’t make a mess of everything!” —KATE LAYTE, owner of Papercuts JP
“It depends on the ice cream. For soft serve, I always go with cake cone. For regular ice cream, I go with a cup with a sugar cone on top. The weight of really good ice cream can often break a sugar cone, and if my ice cream falls then I’ll cry like a small child. No joke.” —ABBY FLANAGAN, owner of Farm & Fable
The Big Chill
These local treats prove that ice cream is at its best when sandwiched between even more dessert.
By Meghan Kavanaugh | Photo Credit: Holly Rike | Food Styling: Monica Mariano/Ennis Inc. | June 3, 2016
Cafe ArtScience
“Who doesn’t want an ice cream sandwich at 11 o’clock at night?” asks Café ArtScience pastry chef Renae Connolly. It’s a good question, especially now that her contributions to the Cambridge restaurant’s new late-night menu include the treats on our cover: housemade graham cookies and double chocolate chip cookies filled with rotating ice creams like cookies ’n’ cream, strawberry-vanilla swirl, raspberry, tangerine sherbet and a 12-year Zaya rum ice cream dipped in chocolate fudge sauce. “There is usually extra ice cream on hand when I change our à la carte dessert menu,” Connolly says, “so using it to make fun ice cream sammies for late-night made perfect sense.” Keep an eye out for a PB&J ice cream sandwich she’ll be testing this summer.
650 E. Kendall St., Cambridge (857-999-2193) cafeartscience.com
Blackbird Doughnuts
As if they weren’t tempting enough, Blackbird Doughnuts’ freshly baked treats can now be used in soft-serve ice cream sandwiches. The pairing was “a no-brainer,” says owner Rebecca Roth Gullo, noting that the South End shop’s ice cream offerings also include chocolate- and cherry wax-dipped cones. “We have this insanely fancy Italian soft-serve machine that churns out full-fat, silky-smooth chocolate and vanilla soft-serve ice cream. The doughnuts were just begging for this combination.” Any doughnut is fair game, though Roth Gullo says the cake doughnuts have been a popular choice. Her personal favorite? A salted toffee doughnut with a swirl of chocolate and vanilla soft serve and a dusting of chocolate doughnut bits.
492 Tremont St., Boston (617-482-9000) blackbirddoughnuts.com
Gracie’s Ice Cream
Gracie’s has made the most important meal of the day even sweeter with breakfast-inspired ice cream sandwiches that recently made their way off the specials list and onto the regular menu. Cereals like Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles are used to make marshmallow treats that sandwich squares of vanilla and salty whiskey ice cream, respectively. New batches are available each Monday, but owner Aaron Cohen warns, “When they’re gone for the week, they’re gone.” So get in line now, especially with new flavors in the works that pair peanut butter ice cream with Honey Nut Cheerios and chocolate ice cream with either Cap’n Crunch or Peanut Butter Puffins.
22 Union Square, Somerville (617-764-5294) graciesicecre.am
Pelekasis
Already a fan of the Parlor Ice Cream Co.’s condensed milk ice cream that’s used in his pop-up restaurant’s boozy Greek frappe, Pelekasis chef Brendan Pelley tasked friend and Parlor owner Jacqueline Dole with coming up with even more frozen treats. One result: A baklava ice cream sandwich, made by folding baklava crumble right into walnut-and-pistachio ice cream, which is spiced with cinnamon and clove before being sandwiched between two cookies made with honey, walnuts and cinnamon. “The desserts at Pelekasis aim to be fun and Greek-inspired,” Pelley says, “so this was a great way to get the amazing flavor profile of baklava into a fun little summertime dessert.” Opa!
3 Appleton St., Boston (617-482-0117) pelekasisboston.com
By Meghan Kavanaugh | Photo Credit: Holly Rike | Food Styling: Monica Mariano/Ennis Inc.
Bring on the Brain Freeze
…With one of these boozy milkshakes and frozen cocktails.
By: Sarah Hagman
Eat your ice cream—and drink it too—at Boston Chops. The steakhouse expanded its dessert and late-night offerings with this new mint julep milkshake, which has the bar team and pastry chef Olivier Maillard cold-steeping cream and milk with loads of the herb to churn out a pure white mint ice cream. That base meets bourbon and mint bitters before getting garnished with a giant chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. 1375 Washington St., Boston (617-227-5011) bostonchops.com
Recent Inman Square addition WUBurger plays it cool with a selection of boozy milkshakes that burger fiends won’t find at the flagship Woburn location. Try the Orange Alexander, which general manager and beverage director Greg Coote says is an homage to cognac and crème de cacao classic the Brandy Alexander. This take on the treat is spiked with orange liqueur and Laird’s Applejack, blended with honey, milk and chocolate ice cream, and topped with some freshly grated nutmeg. 1128 Cambridge St., Cambridge (617-945-1703) wuburger.com
On Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 to 8 pm, The Liberty Hotel offers a little hair of the dog—with freshly pureed fruit to boot. Held in the 2,400-square-foot courtyard, Yappier Hour (pets welcome, but not required) features rotating frozen cocktail options like cucumber and melon or grapefruit and lime with St. Germain and citrus vodka. As the season goes on, lead bartender Dave Miller is dreaming up other additions; think mango, strawberry and basil, and raspberry with hibiscus. 215 Charles St., Boston (617-224-4000) libertyhotel.com
Last summer was the last hurrah for Newport mainstay the Atlantic Beach Club, the nearly 90-year-old bar known for its popular, patriotic popsicle-inspired Astro Bomb drink. But now the folks at Charlestown’s Pier 6 are nodding to the bygone red-white-and-blue treat—and their Bunker Hill locale—with the Revolution, an icy blend of wild berry-flavored Belvedere, housemade grenadine, blue curacao and lemonade served with a cherry on top. 1 8th St., Boston (617-337-0054) pier6boston.com
By Meghan Kavanaugh
Scream for Ice Cream
…And you just might get it, with a cherry on top
By: Alexandra Cavallo
City folk nostalgic for the days when the jingle of the neighborhood ice cream truck signaled sweet frozen goodness at the foot of the driveway: Rejoice! There’s a new kind of ice cream man in town—one who delivers sundaes to your door on demand.
Austin Crittenden got the idea for The Scoop N Scootery in the summer of 2012 before his senior year at Tufts. “I was wondering why I couldn’t get ice cream delivered,” says Crittenden, who collapsed on his couch after his internship one sweltering day. So along with a couple of buddies, he started delivering ice cream to fellow munchies-stricken students via scooters, their only mode of transportation at the time. “Back in the day, we were just using coolers lined with ice packs,” he says. “It was pretty janky.”
These days, operations aren’t so janky. Crittenden has an official Scoop N Scootery truck, a fleet of drivers equipped with medical-grade freezers originally designed to transport transplant organs and a new Arlington storefront that opened in March.
But he’s still delivering those handmade sundaes—about 350 a day—until 2 am (though he says hours could change after the students clear out this summer). When asked to speculate about who might be craving a hot fudge sundae at 2 in the morning, he laughs. “I’d assume they’re mostly stoned, because there’s nothing better than that.”
The Scoop N Scootery offers more than 40 signature ice cream and froyo sundaes—like the Banana Hammock, featuring turtle ice cream with chocolate syrup, fresh banana, chopped Reese’s and homemade whipped cream—as well as custom options. Crittenden says there’s no sundae too weird for his team, though they certainly get some odd requests (like all the toppings on the side). However, he does draw one hard line: “Cones. We will never deliver cones.”
The Scoop N Scootery, 112 Mass. Ave., Arlington (617-394-8634) thescoopnscootery.com
By Meghan Kavanaugh | Photo Credit: Holly Rike | Food Styling: Monica Mariano/Ennis Inc.
Freshly Churned
Get the scoop on some new ice cream shops around town.
By: Alexandra Cavallo
Honeycomb Creamery
Kristen Rummel, former kitchen manager and recipe developer at Union Square Donuts, vividly remembers being served corn ice cream at a restaurant a few years ago. “I wished I could find that at the grocery store,” she says. “I thought it would be really cool to bring odd-flavored ice cream to the general public.” She’s done just that with Honeycomb Creamery, which she launched with her husband last June. It’s been a fixture at farmers markets, and the pair will open a brick and mortar in July, serving 16 rotating flavors made with milk and cream from Mapleline Farm in Hadley—Rummel is particularly excited for summer flavors like basil and goat cheese and cucumber jalapeno.
1702 Mass. Ave., Cambridge honeycombcreamery.com
Tipping Cow Ice Cream
“We did a day or two in ice cream making [in school], and I just fell in love,” says Cambridge School of Culinary Arts grad Anna Gaul, who started Tipping Cow in a shared kitchen in Cambridge in 2013 and opened her Somerville small-batch ice cream shop last month. “It’s so versatile and a really cool vehicle for whatever flavor you want to experiment with.” Those flavors include offbeat offerings such as Irish stout, cinnamon oatmeal and her personal favorite, strawberry basil. “We infuse basil into our ice cream base, then swirl in a strawberry compote for a summery, refreshing treat,” says Gaul, whose shop also serves cookies, brownies and coffee.
415 Medford St., Somerville tippingcowicecream.com
FoMu
FoMu co-owner Deena Jalal and her husband/partner Hin Tang spend a lot of time in the South End. “We’re always like, how come there’s no place to go for dessert? We should be walking around with an ice cream cone right now.” That’s gotten easier since their vegan ice cream shop’s third location opened on Tremont Street last month. It has the same flavors, like salted caramel and avocado, that Allston and JP patrons love, but the space offers something different: The former art gallery is 50 percent bigger than the other shops and has a lounge area and a dedicated kids’ table. “We want it to be a place for people in the neighborhood not only to grab dessert, but stay and convene, and carve out a little space.”
655 Tremont St., Boston (617-982-7955) fomuicecream.com
The Parlor Ice Cream Co.
Jacqueline Dole broke onto the ice cream scene this spring with pop-up Parlor Ice Cream Co. “Ice cream is a great vehicle to play with texture and flavor, but in a more accessible way than your fine-dining pastry atmosphere,” says the former Mei Mei pastry chef, who’s in the process of procuring a temporary brick-and-mortar home in Somerville’s KITCHENiNC. The plan is for a summer weekend residency for her unique flavors, like sumac and strawberry and “an ode to Maine” made with blueberry and maple pie crumb. For now, she’s offering delivery, catering and pop-ups that have included an Ice Cream Anti-Social, where Dole served scoops with emo names like “Texas Is the Raisin.”
parlorboston.co
By Meghan Kavanaugh | Photo Credit: Nicole Popma
Frozen in Time
By: Jacqueline Houton
At the Ice Creamsmith, the 13 rotating flavors are freshly made, but the shop has otherwise barely changed since opening its doors 40 years ago this month. “There are comics on the wall that are probably older than I am,” says second-generation owner Sarah Mabel-Skillin, who has sweet memories of growing up in the Dorchester parlor. “My brother and I would sit on the freezer and watch my dad decorate the cakes, and every so often he would give us a little squirt of frosting.”
Her dad, David Mabel, started the business with a neighbor after being laid off from a PR job; the partner soon left, and her mom, Robyn, traded her teaching job to work in the shop full-time too. Sarah started scooping as a teen. “My husband Chris and I met working here in high school. He was the one who always thought it would be great to take over the shop. I thought he was crazy.” But the idea started to appeal once they had a family of their own, and the couple bought the business in 2014.
Over the years, the cash-only shop has added a few new offerings, notably ice cream cupcakes and brownie-bottomed ice cream pizzas. But the basic recipe for 14 percent butterfat ice cream hasn’t changed—though to celebrate turning 40, they are mixing things up with a yearlong flavor contest, making single batches of customers’ winning ideas, including a seven-layer bar variety that sold out in five hours. The best flavors may make the rotation, but Sarah’s go-to scoop remains an oldie but a goodie. “My all-time ultimate favorite flavor is peach, which we make every August,” she says. “I think it’s the most delicious thing around.”
The Ice Creamsmith, 2295 Dorchester Ave., Boston (617-296-8567) theicecreamsmith.com
By Meghan Kavanaugh | Photo Credit: Nicole Popma
Braver Flavors
Local chefs are incorporating savory ingredients for ice cream that’s anything but vanilla.
By: Meghan Kavanaugh
Black Sesame
Bistro du Midi pastry chef Robert Gonzalez infuses black sesame paste into an ice cream base for his strawberry rhubarb crema dessert. The dish also features port apples, ginger streusel and blackberry mint gel, but the Asian-influenced ice cream is Gonzalez’s favorite aspect. “Black sesame itself has notes of dark chocolate, coffee and nuts,” he says. “By infusing it into the ice cream, you get those flavor accents with a touch of sweetness and cream mixed with the fruitiness of the remainder of the dish.”
272 Boylston St., Boston (617-426-7878) bistrodumidi.com
Porcini
Honey porcini ice cream became a part of Comedor chef/owner Jakob White’s repertoire early in his career after a former boss’s vacation gave him room to experiment in the kitchen. The flavor sold out that weekend, and it’s still popular today at the Newton restaurant, where guests can order scoops for dessert or pints to-go. The mushroom-based treat “tastes almost like a coffee caramel ice cream, but with umami,” White says, noting that while flavors rotate weekly, honey porcini makes regular appearances. Also expected in June: strawberry toast, lemon sweet pea and vanilla jalapeño.
105 Union St., Newton (857-404-0260) comedornewton.com
Sunchoke
Because they’re often treated as a savory root vegetable, pastry chef Giselle Miller of Liquid Art House says many people don’t realize that sunchokes (also known as Jerusalem artichokes) have a natural sweetness. “The idea to pair them with a sweet hazelnut milk chocolate just clicked in my head,” says Miller, whose sunchoke ice cream lends earthy and nutty notes to her German stout chocolate cake dessert with apricot, sesame and toffee. “It was a fun risk to take.”
100 Arlington St., Boston (617-457-8130) liquidarthouse.com
Dandelion
When chef Eric Cooper of new restaurant Forage created an appetizer pairing chilled poached arctic char with pickled burdock, he felt that something was missing. “I wanted an herbal element in there and bitterness, too, and something that captured the wild flavor of spring,” he says. When a friend walked in one day with wild dandelion greens, he got the idea for a savory ice cream, which joins pine buds and nasturtium flower oil to add “a bit of adventure” to the fish dish.
5 Craigie Circle, Cambridge (617-576-5444) foragecambridge.com
By Meghan Kavanaugh
#TEAMCUP: 13
“Cup. The calories I save on the cone can be used on the topping!” —ROGER BERKOWITZ, president/CEO of Legal Sea Foods
“Strawberry ice cream in a cup. Cones can be too messy.” —MOOKIE BETTS, Boston Red Sox outfielder
“A cup. My hands are a little gruff and my nails quite long—every time I’ve held a cone I accidentally break it. #YetiProblems.” —THE BOSTON YETI
“A cone forces me to eat faster so it doesn’t melt on me. I want to take my time with my ice cream!” —JOANNE CHANG, chef/owner of Flour and Myers + Chang
“I almost always go cup because when I eat ice cream, I always go banana split.” —DIEGO FAGUNDEZ, New England Revolution midfielder
“Cup, because if it gets sloppy, it’s controllable.” —ROB GRONKOWSKI, New England Patriots tight end
“Cup. You can enjoy it at your own pace. There is something nostalgic about a cup of ice cream, like the Hoodsie cups we grew up on.” —GARRETT HARKER, restaurateur
“Cup every day, and twice on Sunday.” —JIMMY HAYES, Boston Bruins forward
“Cup, because in the summer I can’t afford the extra carbs.” —TOREY KRUG, Boston Bruins defenseman
“Cup. With cones, the ice cream tends to drip everywhere!” —KEITH LOCKHART, conductor of the Boston Pops
“Cup!” —DIANE PAULUS, artistic director of the American Repertory Theater
“Cup! The melted ice cream from a cone will clash with the wine stains on my shirt.” —CHRIS SCHUTTE, co-owner of Social Wines
“Cup.” —BRAD STEVENS, coach of the Boston Celtics
#TEAMCONE: 10
“I prefer cones. They create less trash and make ice cream more of a fun summer experience!” —TARA FOLEY, founder/CEO of Follain
“Sugar cone is the only way to go, preferably from the Juice Bar on ACK.” —RICH GOTHAM, president of the Boston Celtics
“I’m a cone girl myself. Go big or go home, I always say!” —KAYLA HARRISON, Olympic judo gold medalist
“I would one hundred thousand percent go with an ice cream cone every time! Sugar cones are great, but you also can’t go wrong with a regular old cake cone. The best part is where the ice cream is packed into the crisscross section at the end of the cone.”—JOSH HAWKINS, Boston Cannons midfielder
“Cone, so nothing goes to waste.” —JOHN LIBONATI, co-owner of Social Wines
“I’m a traditional cone man with chocolate-vanilla swirl, with a cherry hard shell. This combo offers a true mastery of the cone experience. One has to anticipate the melting rate and navigate the hard shell that overlaps the cone.” —TODD MAUL, bartender and co-founder of Cafe ArtScience
“Nothing makes you relax, unwind and feel like a kid more than enjoying an ice cream cone outside on a beautiful summer day.” —AYANNA PRESSLEY, Boston city councilor
“A sugar cone with butter-crunch or coffee ice cream with lots of jimmies. The perfect beauty of a cone is the crunch with the ice cream once you eat the top loaded with jimmies. I’m out to find one right now!” —LYDIA SHIRE, chef/owner of Scampo
“A waffle cone dipped in sprinkles with Moose Tracks ice cream is my all-time favorite! My son and I get these when we are on the Cape in the summer. Super fun indulgence!” —JOSHUA SMITH, chef/owner of Moody’s Delicatessen & Provisions
“I love the cone because extra ice cream dripped on my beard is a great way to beat the system.” —STEVE SWEENEY, comedian
#TEAMCUPNCONE: 5
“Cup with cone on top!” —CHARLIE BAKER, governor
“Cup with a cone on top—because if it’s served in a cone I always manage to topple the ice cream onto the ground!” —CAROLE CHARNOW, president/CEO of Boston Children’s Museum
“Man I’m greedy. … I take my cone upside down inside a cup.” —JEFF LAHENS, founder of DressCode Boston
“I prefer a cone—but also need a cup so I don’t make a mess of everything!” —KATE LAYTE, owner of Papercuts JP
“It depends on the ice cream. For soft serve, I always go with cake cone. For regular ice cream, I go with a cup with a sugar cone on top. The weight of really good ice cream can often break a sugar cone, and if my ice cream falls then I’ll cry like a small child. No joke.” —ABBY FLANAGAN, owner of Farm & Fable
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