where to eat ice cream now

5 best new Houston restaurants and shops for cool and creative ice cream

After a mostly rainy summer, Space City Weather predicts Houston is due for a blast of highs in the mid to upper 90s. That kind of heat calls for the sort of refreshment that only ice cream and other frozen treats can provide.

Thankfully, Houston’s culinary community has a few new options designed to provide some relief from the heat. From restaurants making their own flavors to two prominent national players that have recently entered the market, this list keeps things short and sweet.

Looking for more choices? This list from 2019 still holds up.

Bludorn
Pastry Chef Alejandra Salas, a finalist for Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2021 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, has turned three of her signature desserts into ice cream cones. For example, Rocky Mountain reimagines Baked Alaska with chocolate ice cream, smoked marshmallows, chocolate chips, caramelized hazelnuts, and meringue, and the Strawberry Shortcake combines strawberry ice cream, confit strawberries, biscuit, Chantilly, and fresh strawberries. The third consists of corn ice cream, dulce de leche, cornflake crumble, and a corn cookie.

Bludorn will donate $1 from each $12 cone to the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the local non-profit that’s transforming a 10-mile stretch of Buffalo Bayou with parks, greenspace, trails, and other amenities.

Craft Creamery
At this small shop in Montrose, chef Steve Marques serves small-batch, French-pot-method ice cream made with local ingredients. Old-school food obsessives will recognize Marques as the man behind the utterly fantastic milkshakes at the late, lamented The Burger Guys, but he also brings experience from restaurants such as Eunice and celebrity chef David Chang’s restaurants in Las Vegas. Craft Creamery serves 16 flavors that include classics like chocolate, pistachio, and coffee with more unusual options like cacio e pepe and shiro miso caramel.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
The Ohio-based scoop shop opened its second Houston-area location in CityCentre at the end of May. Known for its creative flavors, the shop features approximately two dozen selections such as Brown Butter Almond Brittle, dairy-free Dark Chocolate Truffle, and Buttercream Birthday Cake. Jeni’s "Fellowship Model" features partnerships with family-run dairies and farmers who grow the berries used in its pints.

Tiny Champions
This second concept from the team behind Nancy’s Hustle has been earning raves for its pizza, pasta, and creative vegetable dishes, but diners should definitely save room for dessert. Pasty chef Julia Doran, a partner in the restaurant, has put her spin on creative scoops such as Mint Stracciatella and Cookies N Cream Sherry — both of which are available in pints to-go.

Those looking for dairy free options will find choices like Coconut Cardamon sorbet and peach sorbet. Topping such as hot fudge, peach caramel, and coconut crunch transform the scoops into fancy sundaes.

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
The Brooklyn-based ice cream shop has opened two Houston-area locations this summer in Rice Village and Uptown Park (grand opening Saturday, August 21). Known for its “French ice cream,” so labeled because it uses too much egg yolk to meet the FDA’s definition of “ice cream,’ Van Leeuwen’s flavors possess a toothsome quality that lingers on the palate. Each shop offers roughly 30 flavors split between dairy and vegan options, along with toppings, ice cream sandwiches, milkshakes, and more.

Uptown Park features a special horchata flavor created in collaboration with chef Hugo Ortega. It will only be available while supplies last.

Bludorn's ice cream cones benefit a local non-profit.

Photo by Michael Anthony

Bludorn's ice cream cones benefit a local non-profit.

ice-cream

on the road

Growing Houston coffee shop hits the road with battery-powered electric van

Courtesy of Coffee Fellows

Look for Coffee Fellows mobile café at festivals and farmers markets.

A growing chain of coffee shops is taking its service on the road. Coffee Fellows recently added a mobile café to its offerings.

Built from an all-electric GM BrightDrop van, the mobile café allows Coffee Fellows to brings its signature lattes, coffees, and snacks to festivals, farmers markets, and other happenings across the Houston area. After a couple of trial runs, the van will make its official debut this Saturday, April 11 at the Art Car Parade. The company claims the van is Houston's first all-electric mobile coffee shop.

Coffee Fellows North America CEO Daniel Ogbonna tells CultureMap that an elective vehicle was a natural choice for the company, which places a high enough value on sustainability that it serves all dine-in guests in reusable china mugs rather than add to landfills with disposal packaging.

“An electric van was a natural thing to do,” Ogbonna says. “It helps play a role in preserving the environment.”

As Ogbonna explains, the van has one battery that powers the vehicle and a second battery for its latte machines, coffee grinders, lights, menu board, and other equipment. A solar cell helps the battery recharge during service. All told, the van can operate for up to nine hours. Best of all, since it’s an EV, it doesn’t use a noisy generator or require propane the same way a conventional, gas-powered food truck does.

Of course, all-electric power comes with some trade-offs. The van serves almost everything a brick-and-mortar Coffee Fellows cafe does — including two exclusive lattes, Ube Coconut and Biscoff Caramel — but some compromises had to be made. Since the van doesn’t have an oven or a blender, both bagel sandwiches and frozen drinks aren’t available. Certain preparations have been tweaked to allow the baristas to serve them more quickly.

“One of the biggest things with the van is paying attention to speed,” Ogbonna says. “We have a shorter menu that allows us to deliver the beverages and food items to our customers in a short period of time. That requires a little bit of thinking to figure out — what is it that customers typically want and how can we deliver it to them in the mobile van with greater speed?”

Ultimately, Ogbonna would like Coffee Fellows to operate multiple vans that could introduce the brand to new customers before brick-and-mortar locations open in their neighborhood. Although it was founded in Germany in 1999 and has four Houston-area locations, the company is still building awareness, especially compared to its national competition.

“We think we have great drinks that can go toe-to-toe with the big name coffee companies,” he says.

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