Ice cream is a summer menu fixture for many of us, and we all have our favorite spots. But there’s also a new crop of makers who are pushing the boundaries of flavors and ingredients.
The following 12 destinations, ranging from longtime staples to newer kids on the block, were selected because they proudly make their ice cream in-house, partner with local producers to curate ingredients and bring a mix of beloved flavors and surprising combinations. But the thing that connects them all is a commitment to bringing a little joy in every handcrafted scoop.
The locations we’ve selected are in neighborhoods all over the city, with a few in the suburbs. So, we’re challenging our readers to see who can be the first to visit every location on what we’re calling our “artisanal ice cream bucket list.”
Be the first to visit every location on the list and take a picture of your cone there (only one stop is required for shops with multiple addresses), and you’ll win a Chicago Public Media swag pack. Send your completed bucket list to arts@wbez.org.
Bartleby’s Homemade Ice Cream, 1943 W. Byron St., North Center
With its colorful mural and yellow-and-white striped awning on a North Center residential street, Bartleby’s Homemade Ice Cream is a “funky, friendly, community-centered space” serving classic hand-dipped cones, sundaes and shakes.
“You don’t need to eat ice cream — it’s an indulgence. It’s a choice you make to treat yourself, so the whole experience should be a treat,” said co-founder Rachel Kamins.
Kamins and co-founder Jeff Osborn launched Bartleby’s last year. The menu features 18 flavors and includes a mix of dairy (made with milk from Kilgus Farmstead) and vegan flavors. The vegan ice cream base is made with oat milk, coconut cream and cashew milk. They also partner with local food producers, such as candymaker Jitterbug Sweets, which is featured in Bartleby’s most popular flavor, Honeycomb Crunch.
“Everything that goes into the ice cream is made locally and made by us, and incorporates other great food stuff that we just love, which is fun,” Kamins said.
Must-try flavors: Honeycomb Crunch, Birthday Cake ($6 for a single scoop)
Bella’s Helado de Coco & Italian Ice, 3523 W. Fullerton Ave., Logan Square
This shop specializes in coconut ice cream inspired by Puerto Rico. Their light, creamy and classic scoops are served in coconut shells with generous portions.
Bella’s also sells Italian ice. Their all-natural syrups are made with real tropical fruit juices for flavors like mango, piña colada and passion fruit.
Based in Logan Square, the shop is open year-round, so the refreshing flavors of Puerto Rico can be enjoyed even in chillier months.
Must-try: Coconut ice cream (helado de coco), passion fruit Italian ice ($5 for a small, $6 for a medium, $7 for a large)
Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor and Creamery, 7347 Madison St., Forest Park
Housed in a circa 1886 showhouse turned soda shop, Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor and Creamery opened more than 20 years ago and has evolved into a creamery, bakery and wholesale operation.
Owner Colleen Brown said she opened the business in her hometown because it didn’t have an ice cream shop at the time. “I can’t believe we don’t have an ice cream shop within Forest Park, and it’s where we live,” she recalled thinking. “Everyone remembers going to their favorite place as a kid, right?”
Brown Cow now offers 24 flavors of its rich and creamy ice cream made with 18% butterfat, with the most popular flavors being peanut butter, coconut brownie fudge with homemade brownies and Elvis, with four pounds of fresh bananas, homemade peanut butter sauce and chocolate.
It also partners with local businesses such as Kribi Coffee Air Roastery and the Oak Park bakery Spilt Milk.
Must-try flavors: Peanut butter ice cream, coconut brownie fudge and Elvis ($6.99 for a single scoop)
Bueno Days Coffee, 2901 W. Cermak Road, Little Village
Eddie Lopez has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants from Blackbird in Chicago to The French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley. Wherever he went, he would make ice cream to complement his desserts.
While he was working with Daniel Koester of Bad Butter Chicago, Alma Blancarte-Mora took notice. She reached out to Lopez to make ice cream for Bueno Days in Little Village, the cafe she co-founded with her husband, Cristobal Mora.
“We had a latte on our menu called Abrazos de Invierno, which was tortilla milk with oregano syrup. And I’m like, ‘I have this crazy idea for a tortilla ice cream. What do you think?’ ” Blancarte-Mora said. “And he had also played around with the tortilla ice cream in the past, so our ethos and our brains were aligned and just having fun with food.”
Must-try: Tortilla Affogato ($9)
Nube’s Ice Cream & Coffee Shop, 4442 N. Broadway, Uptown
Angel Zumba and his wife Nube had a dream to open an Ecuadorian restaurant, paying homage to their roots. First, they opted for a Subway franchise, because they wanted a business with broader appeal. “And our second dream was to open this business,” Zumba said of Nube’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop. “Our doors are open to all customers.”
The couple launched the business two years ago, offering coffee and homemade ice cream showcasing Ecuadorian fruits such as tamarillo (tree tomato), soursop (a tropical fruit with a sweet and sour taste) and lulo (a citrus-like fruit that’s a mix between a pineapple and a lemon), as well as blackberry, guava and passion fruit imported from Ecuador. The chef’s kiss is a shower of grated cheese on top of the ice cream (helado con queso), a sweet-and-salty combination that has become increasingly popular in Ecuador.
When asked what makes their ice cream unique, Zumba said, with a twinkle in his eyes, “Grandma’s secrets.”
Must-try flavors: Blackberry, tamarillo and passion fruit ice cream ($4.99 per scoop)
Paulo Gelato & Chocolate, 1058 W. Chicago Ave., West Town
Decadent gelato with loads of unique rotating flavors and carefully sourced ingredients stars at Paulo Gelato. “He doesn’t compromise on quality,” said Manoela Petrykowski, wife of owner Paweł Petrykowski.
Petrykowski, born and raised in Poland, owns three other gelato shops back home. He worked in accounting for years before deciding to shift over to desserts; he is now considered one of Poland’s top gelato chefs and was once crowned Poland’s gelato champion.
He met his wife in a Peruvian jungle while visiting a cacao plantation. He followed Manoela to Chicago for a new job in 2019, and the couple decided to open their first U.S. shop in West Town in 2022.
The shop specializes in small batches made with zero artificial colors or flavoring. Petrykowski’s passion for making gelato comes through in all of their flavors, such as the ricotta thyme gelato.
Must-try flavors: Stracciatella, pistachio ($5.95 for 4 oz. servings of classic flavors, $6.95 for signature flavors)
Pretty Cool, 2353 N. California Ave., Logan Square, and 709 W. Belden Ave., Lincoln Park
Founded by Dana Cree, award-winning pastry chef and author of “Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream,” and Michael Ciapciak, founder of Bang Bang Pie and Biscuits, Pretty Cool Ice Cream specializes in handmade frozen handhelds (think of the goodies that can be found on your favorite ice cream truck). Each ice cream bar, vegan pop, ice pop and ice cream sandwich is hand-dipped and offered in several creative flavor combinations, including Caramel Horchata Crunch and Peanut Butter Potato Chip, as well as plant-based treats.
Pretty Cool works with local artists to create the art and design for each flavor to reflect the city’s diversity and teams up with nonprofits on limited-edition pops. For Pride month in June, Pretty Cool created Harvey Milk Chocolate in collaboration with Bo Durham, the pastry chef at Mindy’s Bakery, to support the LGBTQ resource organization Center on Halsted.
Must-try flavors: Chicago Brownie: chocolate custard ice cream with gluten-free fudgy brownie, covered in Pretty Cool’s signature chocolate shell with a sprinkle blend inspired by the Chicago flag ($6.25)
Richard’s Super Premium Ice Cream, 11033 S. Langley Ave., Suite 100, Pullman
A native of Chicago’s West Side, Dr. Rickey Singleton wears many hats. He’s a pastor, author, teacher, musician and entrepreneur, and he’s been making ice cream since 1999 at Richard’s Super Premium in Pullman.
Richard’s sells ice cream by the scoop and by the pint, inspired by classic desserts such as their best-selling banana pudding ice cream.
“I asked my family members for their banana pudding ice cream recipe, and I tweaked it. That’s been our No. 1 seller for 24 years,” Singleton said.
The Far South Side ice cream shop’s motto: “Create genuine happiness.”
Open year-round, all of the ice cream is made in-house. And while some of the most popular offerings are butter pecan, black walnut and peach cobbler, Singleton said he’s always experimenting.
Must-try flavors: Sweet Potato Pie, Black Walnut ($7 for a single scoop)
Runaway Cow, 608 W. 31st St., Bridgeport
This vegan ice cream spot, which opened last May, offers soft serve, shakes, snowstorms, malts and even hot dogs, many of which are made with the recipes of vegan owners Alison Eichhorn and Aaron Gutierrez. Eichhorn, who grew up working in the Dairy Queen owned by her grandfather and then her mother in Lansing, Michigan, always dreamed of owning a vegan ice cream shop someday.
“The intention is to make a really cool ice cream spot that was good [and] could mimic all of the favorite treats you had at your local ice cream spot in the summer, but they all just happen to be plant-based,” Eichhorn said.
Runaway Cow works with Addison-based ice cream brand Temptation, which uses oat for their soft serve mix.
“The point of going to the ice cream shop is to leave happier than when you came in,” Gutierrez said.
They also serve rotating flavors of soft serve, some past hits being pistachio, matcha, Thai iced tea, chai and cherry lime.
Must-try flavors: Cheesecake Snowstorm (starting at $5.44), Soft Serve with Krunch Kote (starting at $2.27)
Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream, 46 E. 47th St., Grand Boulevard
This ice cream shop in Bronzeville (with a second location in Olympia Fields) is a community staple and features the Barack Supreme, a double scoop of ice cream named after the former president. One scoop is chocolate; the other is praline-flavored.
With more than 30 flavors and eight vegan options, Shawn Michelle’s also makes pound cakes and classic desserts like blueberry cobbler and banana pudding in-house.
The best way to enjoy a little bit of everything is by ordering a slice of pound cake with peach cobbler topping and a scoop of Grandma’s Old Fashioned Vanilla ice cream.
Must-try: Lemon Pound Cake, Blue Moon and Lemon Sunbeam
Tates Old Fashioned Ice Cream, 25 S. Ashland Ave., LaGrange
Fifteen years ago, Maria Marciniec purchased this downtown LaGrange community staple from the original owner, Sharon Skoumal, who had named her shop after her sons when she opened it in 1987.
Skoumal handed over her recipes and taught Marciniec how to make large batches of ice cream. On their menu, classics like vanilla and chocolate are always in rotation. Everything is made in-house, with popular flavors including Bordeaux cherry, Superman, triple chocolate and salted caramel.
Marciniec and her team have also made some “outlandish” ice creams, including a pine needle flavor for a local chef. She knows just about everyone who comes into her shop, especially children.
Must-try flavors: Bordeaux cherry (starting at $4.42 for a single scoop), Pineapple Ice Cream Soda ($5.29 for a small)
Vaca’s Creamery, 1436 W. Blackhawk St., Wicker Park, and 2324 W. Giddings St., Lincoln Square
Dylan Sutcliff and Mariana Marinho met in Austin, Texas, where they were working in 2016 at Sweet Ritual, one of the country’s first vegan ice cream shops. After a year of working there together (and six months after they started dating), they decided to open up their own vegan ice cream shop in Chicago.
Marinho, who is self-taught, develops all of the ice cream recipes using a homemade oat milk base, which is a particular point of pride. (They also make bases using almond milk and coconut milk and offer a water-based sorbet for people who can’t have oats or nuts.) You can find soft serve staples such as vanilla and chocolate, as well as specialty flavors such as mojito and orange creamsicle. For those who want to take ice cream to go, there are more flavor options, such as sweet corn.
“We try to focus on sustainably sourced ingredients as much as possible and ethically sourced as much as possible. We think if we can do it ourselves in a way that is better for the planet and people, I think it’s a point in our favor in every way,” Marinho said.
Must-try flavors: Strawberry Shortcake Sundae, Cookie Monster Sundae ($7.75 for a regular cup, sauces and toppings $1.25 each)