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Cool and creative Montrose ice cream opens in the Heights this weekend with sweet deals

A Montrose destination for creative ice cream is coming to the Heights. Milk + Sugar Creamery will open its second location this Friday, July 14.

Located near Chi’Lantro BBQ in the Heights Forum development at 1324 N. Shepherd Dr., the new Milk + Sugar provides the four-year-old ice cream shop with a new outlet for its signature ice cream flavors that come with chunky mix-ins such as brownies, cookies, or swirls. Popular options include the Sundae Funday (sweet cream ice cream with brownie chunks and fudge ripple) and the City That Never Sleeps (coffee and pretzel ice cream with chocolate flakes).

“We create flavors that you can’t find in the grocery store aisle,” owner Chou Wong tells CultureMap. “We create a full dessert in a scoop . . . We love creating flavors you didn’t think could be in a scoop of ice cream. ‘Life is too short for plain vanilla’ is what we’ve adopted as our motto.”

In addition to the core menu, 25 percent of Milk + Sugar’s offerings are seasonal specials. For July, the shop is serving one it’s calling Red, White + Blue: (red) velvet tres leches, (white) sweet cream, and (blue)berry purée.

Wong, who founded the shop in partnership with her husband Perry, adds that the couple selected the Heights based on customer demand. Simply put, they noticed that enough of their customers made the trip to Montrose to justify coming to the neighborhood. Despite consistent interest, she says they only recently felt that time for expansion had arrived.

“We’ve learned to roll with the punches and that mishaps will happen, but with a strong staff — we’ll get through it,” Wong says. “That’s when we felt ready — when the first location was filled with a great team we could trust.”

Milk + Sugar will celebrate the new location’s opening with 20-percent-off scoops and cones from 6 pm until midnight. The shop will open daily at noon after that.

Courtesy of Milk + Sugar

Milk + Sugar is coming to the Heights.

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NYT best dishes

Houston Mediterranean restaurant makes NY Times' best desserts list

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen/Facebook

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen is the only Houston restaurant on either list.

The New York Times included four Texas restaurants among its favorite dishes of 2025. Divided into two lists — The 23 Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 and The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 — the dishes are:

Bad Honey Bunny at Mercado Sin Nombre (Austin)
Ketan Hitam at Yeni’s Fusion (Austin)
Konafa Naama at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen (Houston)
Picadillo Macaroni and Cheese at 2M Smokehouse (San Antonio)

Times food writer Priya Krishna, who authors the entries for all four Texas dishes, traveled to far west Houston to visit Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen. “The konafa, a signature here, arrives with a molten layer of cheese under a sticky-sweet layer of golden, nutty semolina. The craft is evident, the konafa gone in a few bites,” she writes.

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen Konafa Naama Don't skip dessert at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen.KSayad Mediterranean Kitchen/Facebook

In Austin, Krishna praises the rice pudding at Yeni’s Fusion. “This barely sweet version, lush with coconut milk, aromatic with pandan and as soothing as warm porridge, is the gentlest way to end a meal,” she states.

Already hailed as one of America’s best breakfast spots by Bon Appetit, Krishna singles out a honeybun at Mercado Sin Nombre. “The coiled honey bun at this semi-clandestine cafe looks almost cartoonishly perfect, and the heady scent of cardamom and honey hits you before you even take a bite. Somehow, it tastes every bit as plush and elegant as it appears,” she writes.

The picadillo mac and cheese at 2M Smokehouse showcases how the San Antonio restaurant incorporates Mexican flavors into traditional Texas barbecue. “Imagine Hamburger Helper, but spicier, punchier and even more luxuriously creamy. It’s not easy to one-up the singular, thickly spiced brisket here, but the picadillo mac and cheese — which runs as an occasional special — holds its own and then some,” Krishna writes.

The New York Times regularly shines its spotlight on Texas restaurants, In September, it named four establishments — ChòpnBlọk (Houston), Isidore (San Antonio), Lao’d Bar (Austin), and P Thai’s Khao Man Gai & Noodles (Austin) — to its list of America’s 50 Best Restaurants.

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