Ice cream, United States

Some are staunchly old-fashioned parlors, serving cones, sundaes and other classic frozen desserts to generation-spanning crowds of loyal locals. Others are hip upstarts, building widespread buzz for their epicurean experiments. But they’re all destination-class ice cream shops, so consider this your itinerary for the coolest summer road trip ever. Follow Time Out USA on Facebook; sign up for the Time Out USA newsletter

Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, NYC

Plain-Jane flavors get their due at this soda-shop throwback from pastry-bag-wielding restaurateur Nicholas Morgenstern (Goat Town, El Rey).Morganstern’s gives scoop purists five creamy, extremely vanilla-y vanillas (bourbon, Madagascar, burnt honey, maple and angel food) to choose from. Succumb to the gluttony and get them all in the colossal King Kong Banana Split.

Creole Creamery, New Orleans

The look is old-school—pink walls, checkerboard floors—and so is the approach to craft: small batches, local ingredients and influences. The resultsCreole Creamery delivers, however, are anything but. Cayenne and chicory root, sassafras and Scotch bonnet peppers, Doberge cake and bananas Foster, café au lait and loads of booze: In paying homage to New Orleans’ proud culinary past, this two-branch hometown hero is helping to shape its future. For outright originality, meanwhile, how about a scoop of smoked gouda, buttered-lemon–pine-nut or roasted-red-pepper–pineapple?

Photograph: Courtesy Creole Creamery/Spencer Bergeron

LICK Pure Cream, Seattle

“Nothing is off-limits, except maybe road kill,” jokes Michael Darby, founder and “chief creative” behind this instant hit. Indeed, in the few short years since launching LICK, he’s already experimented with nearly 200 recipes. At any given time, the chalkboard behind the counter at his brick-and-mortar HQ (which opened in 2014) may list smoked strawberry, brown butter, chili-papaya sorbet and the double take–worthy pork belly-pecan. Even his ice cream sandwich is a sly novelty, trading cookies for a fried bronut (or brioche-doughnut hybrid). Still, it’s the crème brûlée (a.k.a. the M2) locals go gaga for—an innocuous name for an addictive mystery whose flavor oscillates between burnt sugar, nougat, toffee and chocolate.

Milan Tomic

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