These 10 extraordinary ice cream shops are the perfect antidote to sweltering summer days and are worth going out of your way to visit—even if that means hopping in your (air-conditioned) car. They specialized in churning up creative flavors using local Hudson Valley ingredients. How cool is that?
Alleyway Ice Cream
135 Partition Street, Saugerties
Some of the freshest scoops can be found, yep you guessed it, in an alleyway. Owner Julian Hom first opened the tiny shop in 2017—and it’s since grown into something very special. Foodies travel from near and far to order buttermilk strawberry, Key lime crunch, matcha salted pistachio, and Thai tea cookies and cream.
Taste this: Ube Heath bar crunch. Ube, a yam from the Philippines, is all the rage thanks to its pretty purple hue and nutty flavor. Alleyway blends the tuber with toffee for a creamy-yet-chewy texture. Level up your order with a warm waffle cup.
Cow to cone: All milk and buttermilk are sourced from Hudson Valley Fresh, a Poughkeepsie-based, farmer-owned company.
Foodies travel from near and far to Alleyway Ice Cream in Saugerties to order Buttermilk Strawberry, Key Lime Crunch, Matcha Salted Pistachio, and Thai Tea Cookies and Cream.
Carmel Creamery
105 Towners Road, Carmel Hamlet
Adult ice cream lovers: listen up! Carmel Creamery has five fun flavors—coquito, vegan coquito, maple bourbon pecan, dirty banana, and mudslide—that are infused with liquors like Kahlúa and rum for a boozy kick.
Taste this: This shop offers just about everything—from old-fashioned scoops, cups, and sundaes to Italian ice, fruit sorbets, ice cream sandwiches, milkshakes, and floats. Popular flavors are Cookie Monster (which is dye free), salty Oreo (swirled with sea salt caramel), and blackberry basil.
Cow to cone: Milk and cream are sourced from Hudson Valley Fresh. Other ingredients are also local—including berries, goat cheese, maple syrup, and honey. Carmel Creamery also offers gluten-free and vegan options.
Cherries
4166 Route 209, Stone Ridge
This old-school stand has attracted locals and day trippers alike since the 1950s. And when Jolene Delisle and Lawrence O’Toole—who moved to Kerhonkson in 2020—heard its legacy was in jeopardy, they stepped in. Four years later, Cherries continues to wow with inventive flavors like coffee toffee, cookie monster, and coconut raspberry, plus ice cream sandwiches, soft serve, and special sundaes.
Taste this: Lavender honey blueberry. The super-refreshing flavor is infused with clover honey from New York bees, ripples of blueberry jam, and French lavender.
Cow to cone: All of Cherries’ hard ice cream is hand-churned at Del’s Dairy Farm in Red Hook. The soft serve is sourced from Gardiner’s Gillette Creamery.
Coxsackie Creamery
12 Reed Street, Coxsackie
There’s a bit of history with every scoop: this Reed Street building once housed an ice cream parlor in the early 1900s. Owner Sharon Mahota—retired from a career in social work—decided to bring back sweet treats to the growing downtown of Coxsackie. Flavors range from peanut butter munch to killer chocolate; you can also purchase pints to go.
Taste this: Order a coffee cookie scoop in the house-made Belgian waffle cup topped with Mahota’s fresh hot fudge. (Be on the lookout for special flavors come fall such as ginger snap molasses, caramel apple spice, and pumpkin spice.)
Cow to cone: The creamery’s 24 flavors are sourced from Jane’s Ice Cream, an almost 40-year-old family business based in Kingston that uses dairy from cows raised synthetic-hormone free.
Culture Cream
318 Warren Street, Hudson
Founder Katiushka Melo whips up gut-friendly, fermented treats—think froyo but created with kombucha and kefir. You’ll find three types of scoops: kombucha sorbet, vegan ice cream (house-made cashew and coconut milk, and cocoa butter), and kefir ice cream. Popular flavors are blueberry thyme, passionfruit lemon balm, and earl grey lavender.
Taste this: Kefir mango merquén ice cream. Merquén is a smoked chili used in South American cuisine.
Cow to cone: The kefir is sourced from Five Acre Farm (a Brooklyn-based company that works with farms within 250 miles); herbs and spices are foraged by Melo in the Catskills; and the sorbet is made with Yesfolk kombucha, a functional beverage company based in Troy.
Fortunes Ice Cream
55 Broadway, Tivoli
Dreamed up by two Bard alums who returned to their college stomping ground in 2015, Fortunes specializes in seasonal ingredients and fruit-forward flavors. Foodies go crazy for the labne sour cherry, but the lemon ricotta blueberry, hojicha (a roasted Japanese green tea) milk chocolate, and toasted milk strawberry are also divine. The ice cream sandwiches are stuffed with harmonious combos of chamomile raspberry and matcha macadamia. Don’t miss their sundae specials—past creations include the Dreamsicle (Cara Cara orange sherbet, vanilla ice cream and cookies, pineapple dream sauce, and dehydrated strawberries) and Banoffi coffee crunch.
Taste this: If halva honeycomb is on the menu, get it. This fusion of Persian confectionery and local honey packs a delicious punch.
Cow to cone: Fortunes’ dairy is from Ronnybrook Farm in Pine Plains. Seasonal fruit and berries are sourced from local farms, like Fix Bros. Fruit Farm (Hudson), Mead Orchards (Tivoli), Montgomery Place Orchards, and Rose Hill Farm (both in Red Hook).
Fortunes’ Dairy is from Ronnybrook Farm in Pine Plains. Seasonal fruit and berries are sourced from local farms including Fix Bros. Fruit Farm in Hudson and Mead Orchards in Tivoli.
Midnight Ferry
12 Front Street, Newburgh
This husband-and-wife owned shop, which opened last summer on the Newburgh Waterfront, is already a hot spot. It won last year’s award for “best gelato” by Hudson Valley readers so be prepared for a wait at the takeout window, especially after dinner. Top ice cream picks include cappuccino explosion, vegan rocky road, and birthday cake.
Taste this: The signature bomba—nutty pistachio and Amarena cherry (a bitter Italian fruit) gelato stuffed into an Italian donut—is the bomb.
Cow to cone: Hard ice cream is sourced from Gifford’s in Maine, a fifth-generation dairy farm. Soft serve is delivered by Gillette Creamery in Gardiner.
Moo Moo’s Creamery
32 West Street, Cold Spring
Amazing flavors + awesome Hudson River and mountain views = perfection. Every day, Moo Moo’s serves up 16 options, from caramel cashew and walnutella to red raspberry and kiwi strawberry sorbet. If a flavor catches your eye, order it—you never know when it will be back in rotation among their 100 delicious varieties.
Taste this: Shortbread cookie ice cream is simple yet so delicious. The black raspberry and chocolate thin mint flavors are very close runners up.
Cow to cone: All of Moo Moo’s ice cream is made fresh on site daily.
Nancy’s of Woodstock Artisanal Creamery
297 Tinker Street, Woodstock
Welcome to chocolate heaven. Every variety crafted at Nancy’s is made with bars from award-winning Fruition Chocolate Works in Shokan. Choose the Peruvian chocolate (a custom blend of Fruition’s best sellers), chocolate and peppermint, or the chocolate-chocolate sundae. Other picks include cinnamon and caramel swirl, cream cheese carrot cake, and cookies and sweet cream (with homemade Oreos). There are also seasonal vegan flavors, floats, and milkshakes.
Taste this: Nancy’s Mishmash blends vanilla ice cream with flourless brownies, chocolate chip cookie dough, and crunchy toffee pretzels.
Cow to cone: Pine Plains’ Ronnybrook Farm supplies all milk and cream.
Zoe’s Ice Cream Barn
1181 Route 55, Lagrangeville
Fun fact: Zoe’s co-owner Bob Ferris is a fourth-generation dairy farmer with Dutchess County roots dating to the 1800s. In 2016, he and daughter Katie, a CIA-trained pastry chef, opened this spot which places a premium on freshness. Their motto is “36 hours from cow to store.” Among the standout flavors are peach strawberry crumble, cannoli, mud pie, and raspberry jalapeño.
Taste this: Make the hard choice between the two most popular sundaes: maple waffle (with two sugar pearl waffles and Dover Plains’ Soukup Farms syrup) and fried Oreo, perfect for county fair lovers.
Cow to cone: Zoe’s dairy is from Hudson Valley Fresh in Poughkeepsie.
