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Stay Cool This Weekend at These 7 LES Ice Cream Parlors

By Lisha Arino | July 30, 2015 6:21pm | Updated on July 31, 2015 5:38pm
 Grab a scoop — or two — from these neighborhood ice cream shops.
Frozen Treats from Lower East Side Ice Cream Parlors
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LOWER EAST SIDE — With temperatures creeping up into the 90s this weekend, it’s important to stay cool — and what better way to do that than with ice cream?

There are plenty of places to grab a scoop in New York City, but you don’t need to travel far for fresh ice cream and flavors with a twist. Lower East Side creameries are incorporating unconventional ingredients — like popcorn and durian — and creating more grown-up versions of classic frozen treats.

Check out the neighborhood’s offerings:

Ice & Vice
221 East Broadway

Don’t expect run-of-the-mill ice cream at Ice and Vice, which recently opened on East Broadway. The 2014 Vendy Award winner is known for its creative ice cream and sorbet flavors like “Movie Night,” which incorporates butter popcorn, toasted raisins and dark chocolate flakes, and the “Three Little Pigs,” made with salted caramel, bacon butter and bacon praline.

Juicy Spot Cafe
109 Ludlow St.

You don’t have to head into Chinatown for a taste of Thai-style ice cream rolls. The made-to-order ice cream is also available at the Juicy Spot Cafe, which opened earlier this year. The cafe offers three base flavors — cream, green tea and yogurt — which can be customized with nearly more than a dozen mix-ins, drizzles and toppings like fruit, mochi and shredded coconut flakes.

Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream
2 Rivington St.

It’s cash only at Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, but many people believe the year-old ice cream parlor is worth a quick trip to an ATM. The artisan ice cream shop offers offbeat flavors like durian banana as well as more traditional flavors with a slight twist. The menu for example, boasts five different kinds of vanilla and chocolate ice cream.

Luca & Bosco
120 Essex St.

Hop into the Essex Street Market for a scoop from Luca & Bosco, which makes handmade, small-batch ice cream with flavors like honey lavender and “Drunk and Salty Caramel.” Its brownie ice cream sandwich is also a popular frozen treat.

il laboratorio del gelato
188 Ludlow St.

Cool off with some creamy gelato from il laboratorio del gelato, which offers a rotating assortment of 48 of its more than 200 flavors each day. The Ludlow Street spot also offers shakes to order and warm toppings including caramel, bittersweet fudge and a milk chocolate shell.

Melt Bakery
132 Orchard St.

The Orchard Street bakery specializes in ice cream sandwiches and currently offers eight different flavors, from a classic chocolate chip walnut cookie and vanilla ice cream pairing to the more sophisticated “Morticia,” made with crackly chocolate cookies and malted chocolate rum ice cream.

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand St.

Doughnut Plant may not be an obvious destination for a frozen treat, but in the summertime it adds homemade ice cream to its list of desserts. This year, it’s been offering a vanilla bean ice cream, which be served with a doughnut, as an affogato or as part an ice cream float that incorporates seltzer and espresso syrup.