CoolHaus
Natasha Case and Freya Estrella, the co-founders of this food-truck empire, are masters of the ice cream sandwich. The secret, says Case, is to use cookies that are soft, but pliable: “They need to withstand the bite, so as not to push the ice cream out of the sides of the sandwich, but also be soft enough to cut through on that bite.” Get combinations like honeycomb ice cream, made with Free Range LA honey, and olive oil rosemary pine nut cookies at this sleek brick-and-mortar shop in Culver City or from trucks in L.A., New York, Austin, TX, and Dallas.
Salt & Straw
Salt & Straw, which began as a food cart, makes quirky, cult combinations like Stumptown coffee and Burnside bourbon or pear and blue cheese five gallons at a time using Oregon cream from Alpenrose Dairy. The percentage of butterfat—17 percent—is basically the highest you can get, and the slow churn process creates a low air-to-cream ratio. In other words, this is seriously rich, creamy stuff. For a classic salty-sweet summer combination courtesy of the Italians, try the melon and prosciutto flavor, with charcuterie sourced from Portland’s Olympic Provisions.
Bellvale Farm Creamery
Open April 1 through October 30. Open at noon every day; closing time depends on the season. Featuring homemade ice cream served in cones, sundaes, or homemade waffles cones. 50 flavors, plus ice cream cakes, pies, and take-home quarts! Bellvale Farms has been producing milk for more than 150 years. Judy and Al Buckbee have lived on the farm for nearly 40 years. Now, their son, Skip, and daughter, Amy, her husband Tim and their two children all live and work on the farm. In the words of their Town Supervisor, the Buckbees “…are the epitome of the American farm family and all of the great values that these families have stood for over the years.”
Annabelle’s Natural Ice Cream
On a narrow street along the Portsmouth harbor is Annabelle’s, where the owner, retired doctor Lewis Palosky, thinks of himself as “an artist, not a businessman.” His credo is evident in the thick (difficult to pierce with a spoon) and intensely flavorful ice cream. Black raspberry, a New England staple, is rich with flavor. And the French vanilla is a revelation, a symbol of ordinariness that has been made, through some magical culinary alchemy, extraordinary.
The Bent Spoon
Gab Carbone and Matt Errico have been challenging the taste buds of Princetonians and visiting ice cream fiends since they opened their farm-to-scoop shop more than 10 years ago. Inspired as much by travel, cocktails, and memorable meals as by the bounty of produce from nearby purveyors, the duo has created flavors such as strawberry Earl Grey, Old Bay sweet corn, and beet streak, a beautiful pink blend of local, organic beets and 61 percent dark chocolate. They also recently introduced frozen treats, a.k.a. “spoon pops,” in combinations like raspberry lemon thyme and milk chocolate hazelnut.
Molly Moon Ice Cream
This multishop operation is as local as it gets. Washington milk and cream are the base for ice cream flavors like balsamic strawberry and cherry chunk (made with Theo chocolate chunks and cherries from Alberg Orchard near Yakima Valley), and 90 percent of ingredients are sourced from area purveyors. Even the famous Scout Mint is made using Thin Mints purchased directly from the Western Washington Girl Scouts.