Now that the Hudson Valley is well into the summer season, it’s time for local ice cream shops to take the spotlight. With its growing culinary reputation and robust farming community, it’s no surprise that the Hudson Valley has a lot to dish up in the way of artisanal ice cream. The local scoop shops offer more than just the average ice cream experience; they bring this favorite summertime treat to the next level with their homemade goodness made with local produce and dairy, in a seemingly endless array of classic and experimental flavors that change with the growing season. Here’s the scoop on artisanal ice cream shops in the Hudson Valley.
Alleyway Ice Cream
135 Partition Street, Saugerties
Alleyway Ice Cream takes its name from its shoebox location in the alley between English Garden Antiques and Frank & Co. Fine Jewelers on Saugerties’ Partition Street. Despite its kiddie cone size, Alleyway Ice Cream is a mighty force and after just two years, has already been dubbed the best ice cream in New York. Under the ownership of life-long ice cream lover Julian Hom, the shop makes a plethora of unorthodox ice cream flavors made with Hom’s proprietary blend of dairy from Hudson Valley Fresh, which has the perfect balance of milk, cream, and sugar to achieve perfect creamy consistency. This small-batch ice cream comes in adventurous flavors like Thai tea cookies and cream, ube heath bar crunch, buttermilk strawberry, and cinnamon toast crunch. Vegan flavors like chocolate sorbet are also available. Can’t make it up to Saugerties? Pick up a pint in a local store.
Zoe’s Ice Cream Barn
1181 Route 55, LaGrangeville
Zoe’s Ice Cream Barn is a collaborative project between fourth-generation farmer, realtor, and Beekman town judge Bob Ferris and his youngest CIA-trained daughter, Katie. The ice cream barn exclusively uses milk and cream from local dairy collective Hudson Valley Fresh, and lives by the motto “from cow to cone in three days,” for extra fresh ice cream. Their homemade flavors like sweet corn, banana muffin, peaches and cream, and orange pineapple are sold in every size from single-scoop cones all the way up to a gallon for you to take home. Feel like splurging on something more elaborate than a cone? The rotating shake of the month and the sundaes come in mouthwatering options like Dutch Apple Pie shake or the Grasshopper Sundae with homemade mint chocolate chip, fudge, whipped cream, and Oreos.
Fortunes Ice Cream
55 Broadway, Tivoli
When husband-and-wife owners of Fortunes Ice Cream, Lisa Farjam and Brian Ackley moved back to Tivoli, where they met as students at Bard, they realized their lil’ upstate town was sorely lacking a scoop shop where they could get artisanal ice cream made with fresh, local ingredients. Now, their sherbert-colored ice cream shop rotates flavors with the seasons, using Ronnybrook Farms dairy and sourcing fruit from area farms like Kleins Kill Fruit Farm in Germantown, Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook, Montgomery Place Orchard, Fix Farm, and Greig Farm. Some flavors this summer season include buttermilk peach sherbert; corn blueberry; watermelon and coconut passionfruit sorbets; hazelnut cranberry orange; and lemon ricotta blueberry.
Moo Moo’s Creamery
32 West Street, Cold Spring
The quaint town of Cold Spring wouldn’t be complete without a scoop shop to round it out. Moo Moo’s Creamery started off with a homemade family ice cream recipe. After thorough R&D into ingredients and methods, Moo Moo’s has perfected their “secret formula” for amazing ice cream. The team makes 16 flavors fresh every day in the back of the shop but any of their 95 flavors can be made upon request. The extensive list includes the classics as well as unconventional options like peanut butter banana marshmallow chip, shortbread cookie cream, and root beer. They even have vegan ice cream and gluten-free sprinkles! For daily specials check their instagram.
Bellvale Creamery
1390 Route 17A, Warwick
Perched atop Mount Peter, Bellvale Creamery offers spectacular vistas of the Catskills and Warwick Valley with each handmade scoop of ice cream. Holding steady at #2 on Trip Advisor’s list of the top 10 ice cream parlors in the entire United States, Bellvale gets its milk and cream from right onsite—from the historic, 201-year-old Bellvale Farms dairy. In addition to the 50+ flavors of ice cream made in house, Bellvale also makes its own waffle cones, ice cream cake, and ice cream pies and is open to hikers, tourists, and locals April through October. Flavors change seasonally and include gourmet specialties like blackberry black out, pistachio, watermelon sorbet, and coconut with chocolate-covered almonds.
Culture Cream
318 Warren Street, Hudson
When an artist/chef/spice collector sets their sights on ice cream, you can expect mouthwatering results. Hudson-based scoop shop Culture Cream was borne out of creator Katiushka Melo’s fascination with fermentation and living foods. This is the only place we know of in the region where you can get a cone of living ice cream, packed with probiotics (so very Hudson). Made with local cream and produce, the flavor menu changes weekly, but recent options included exotic delicacies like blueberry thyme and pineapple lemongrass kombucha sorbets; miso ice cream with honey-roasted strawberries; mango merquen kefir ice cream, and lacto-fermented strawberry ice cream. The kombucha and kefir that serve as the live, bubbling base for many of the ice creams and popsicles are made made in-house. New vegan flavors include roasted banana ice cream and chocolate cardamom chocolate chip.
The Chocolate Studio | Beacon
Sisters Regina Murphy and Anne St. George are the masterminds behind Gourmetible and The Chocolate Studio, a tasty shop on Beacon’s Main Street specializing in gluten-free, nut-free, and vegan desserts, chocolate, candy, and ice cream. Their non-dairy and nut-free ice cream offerings (dubbed “the vegan stuff”) is made in-house and comes in more than 24 indulgent flavors like Rocky Road, mocha chocolate chip, caramel brownie, and mint chocolate chip. Their dairy-based ice cream comes from Moo Moo’s Creamery in Cold Spring.
The Rolling Cones
Music references abound in Alex Lauri and Nikki Freihofer’s take on the classic ice cream truck, The Rolling Cones—a retrofitted vintage Airstream trailer, which they park next to Kingston Standard brewery from May through July. From a small window the couple dishes out soft serve ice cream cups, cones, and sundaes with extras like homemade crunchy coating toppings, fresh fruit, and Rice Krispies. This summer destination offers artisanal soft serve (made with local dairy) in chocolate and vanilla. But beyond the standar cones, the sundaes are the real star of the show here. Try the decked-out Major Key sundae, which comes with vanilla bean soft serve piled high with a wedge of key lime pie, toasted graham crunch, and whipped cream; the Mint Condition, with chocolate soft serve, homemade Thin Mint magic shell, Oreos, and chocolate crispy pearls; or the Strawberry Shorty with vanilla soft serve, fresh strawberries, berry shortcake magic dust. The ice cream trailer is open Thursday through Sunday through the end of October.
Jane’s | Kingston, throughout the HV
Founded by Amy Keller and Bob Guidubaldi in 1985, Jane’s crafts ice cream using family recipes passed down through the generations. Jane’s uses milk from New York State cows, local ingredients, and plant-based stabilizers to ensure that their ice cream is natural and free of artificial ingredients. The family-run business manufactures out of a Kingston location on Ulster Avenue, and though they no longer have their uptown scoop shop, their ice cream is available at shops throughout the region. Expect all the classic flavors like vanilla and chocolate as well as premium specialty holiday, themed, and seasonal flavors. The expansive list of specialty flavors includes date rosewater, pomegranate molasses, eggnog, and caramel apple spice.
Hi alleyway is not located near English Garden which moved several years ago. Also Alleyway has been in Saugerties for more than two years. Regardless a fun story
Are there any producers who make frozen yogurt flavors?