We eat so much ice cream. The average American eats 12.1 pounds of it a year, according to current industry data. Ice cream is a bigger part of our lives than we may want to admit — ever present, ever comforting. Parlors and stands across the region offer everything from a classic soft serve twist to a cone of smoked peppers and corn. There’s room for everybody and so much to try. Here are just a few of the shops to which locals and visitors flock.

Berkshire

SoCo Creamery
5 Railroad Street, Great Barrington, MA

Founded in 2004 as a scoop shop in Great Barrington, SoCo now sells its top-shelf ice cream in stores around the region. Even so, their in-house shop is still the best way to try some. SoCo source all of its dairy from a fourth-generation family farm in Vermont and makes its flavors from scratch.

Photo from SoCo Creamery

SoCo has become well known and awarded for its two decades of quality and inventiveness. Everything from Dirty Chocolate and Madagascar Vanilla to Blueberry Honey Lavender and The GOAT featuring goat cheese and hot peppers, are given the same level of creative attention. After nearly two decades SoCo has cemented itself as an icon of local ice cream.

The Farmstead Creamery at High Lawn Farm
535 Summer Street, Lee, MA

With their golden coats and soft giant eyes, the happy Jersey cows of High Lawn Farm in Lee are some of the most beautiful animals on the planet. Friendly and relaxed in their rolling pasture, they produce milk that has been keeping the farm’s customers happy for generations. So it’s no surprise they produce great ice cream.

Photo from High Lawn Farm

At High Lawn’s on-site farm store you can grab a cone or a tub of their ice cream, as well as milk, yogurt andother dairy products. You can even tour the farm and get up close and personal with the cows responsible for your scoop. High Lawn is a family operation in a fairytale setting complete with a Disney-esque tower overlooking the Berkshires.

Dutchess

Fortunes
55 Broadway, Tivoli, NY

When Lisa Farjam and Brian Ackley, husband-and-wife owners of Fortunes Ice Cream, moved back to Tivoli after attending Bard College together, they wondered why the eclectic, tucked-away village didn’t have an ice cream shop. Now Fortunes is making some of the most unique, locally sourced flavors in the area.

Picture from Fortunes

The vibrant  shop in the center of the Main Street quickly became a community staple. Fortunes is regularly changing flavors with the seasons, using Ronnybrook Farm dairy and sourcing fruit from area farms like Klein's Kill Fruit Farm in Germantown, Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook, Montgomery Place Orchard, Fix Farm, and Greig Farm. Thoughtfully crafted flavors include labne sour cherry (made with a yogurt-kefir base), vegan blueberry verbena, halva honeycomb, and apricot bay leaf sherbet. It's the type of really good ice cream where, if you think about it accidentally, you won't be able to stop thinking about it until you have some, and then you just think about it some more.

Holy Cow
7270 S Broadway, Red Hook, NY

Holy Cow is a foundational element of Red Hook’s community identify. For local families it’s been the go-to destination for a scoop after a game, performance, birthday, graduation, or just because. It is nostalgia on a cone and you'll pay less for it here than anywhere else. On warm summer nights the line into the place can snake around the building, but it can be busy here even on a winter weekday. Run like a well-oiled machine by a tight staff of grandmas, moms and daughters, Holy Cow is a marvel of delicious efficiency.

Photo from Holy Cow

They have a huge menu here — soft serve, hard ice cream, sundaes, tons of toppings, cookie sandwiches, ice cream cakes and more. They also sell “udders,” which are incomprehensible but everyone in Red Hook loves them. It's a scoop of ice cream in a cupcake wrapper. They're the messiest thing in the world and people here buy boxes of them to give to groups of kids. It’s a disaster every time. You either have to eat it really fast while it’s still cold (and risk brain freeze), or wait and the heat of your fingertips will melt the frozen treat through the thin paper and all over your face, hands, and clothing. It's so strange but it’s a local custom so you can’t question it.

Columbia

Culture Cream

318 Warren Street, Hudson, NY

Man, Culture Cream is cool. First it makes you feel a little nervous, because you don’t know what to expect from the lineup of ice creams and sorbets made with fermented ingredients like kefir and kombucha. Then the Warren Street storefront welcomes you in with its bright design by artist and owner Katiushka Melo, who has combined the art of her Chilean heritage with modern geometric lines to create a dreamlike space. Finally, once you’ve tasted the flavors here, you can’t imagine how you lived without them. Melo, who calls herself an “ice cream witch,” has brewed up something new and special here.

Photo of Katiushka Melo by Mariana Garay for Culture Cream

The inclusion of probiotic elements gives the ice cream a lighter feel and mixes wonderfully with inspired and unusual flavor combinations like Mango Marquan made with traditional smoked chilies or a sweet corn flavor that triggers the same pleasure sensor in the brain as buttery corn on the cob.

So not only does Culture Cream have a cool concept, a cool look, and a cool owner, but it also might just be the most inventive, game-changing ice cream anywhere … which is cool.

Litchfield

Popey’s Ice Cream Shoppe
7 West Street, Morris, CT

Popey's has been a family favorite in Litchfield County dating back to the 1970s. Suzanne "Tinka" Skilton and husband Richard opened Popey's in what was once an old family garage. Their two sons would be so excited to go to their grandfather "Popey’s" garage that when it came time to name the business, it was right in front of them. As the years went by, the menu grew, the staff grew and the building grew. Popey's became a landmark destination for locals and travelers alike.

Photo from Popey's

After 40 years, the Skiltons retired and longtime employee Kristen Worden picked up right where the Skiltons left off. Worden, who grew up nearby and began working at Popey's in 1999 as a summer job, now runs the place. Her great-grandfather was the owner of Worden's Dairy and Worden's Delicious Ice Cream, so the job is in her blood. She and her crew continue to serve up the same great experience that has been provided for generations in Litchfield.

Arethusa Farm Dairy
822 Bantam Road, Bantam, CT

The revitalization of Arethusa Farm started in an attempt to save an historic Bantam farm from development in 1999. Now restored to, and beyond, its former glory, with over 300 cows, Arethusa has expanded to multiple locations and sells its ice cream (and other milk products) across the region. But Arethusa’s flagship shop in Bantam, a stone's throw from the farm, captures the essence of the company’s mission. When they saved the farm they saved a piece of the community and added a hub in which to gather and enjoy delicious, local as it gets, ice cream.

Photo from Arethusa Dairy Farm

From rescued acreage to regional icon, Arethusa now has five locations off the farm including two scoop shops in Bantam and New Haven, the West Hartford Dairy and Cafe, and the stunning fine dining restaurant Arethusa al tavolo. In all its iterations, Arethusa seems committed to making everything in the most rewarding way — by hand.

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Written by

Jamie Larson
Jamie Larson