MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL AREA

Adele's Frozen Custard
Excelsior

Adele's has more than 80 flavors of custard made with fresh ingredients, but only makes a few each day. Check out its monthly calendar to find out if today's featured flavor will be Grasshopper Pie, Butter Pecan or Blackberry Cheesecake. 

Bebe Zito
Minneapolis 

In the short time since they opened their flagship shop in Uptown Minneapolis, Ben Spangler and Gabriella Grant-Spangler have expanded to three more locations, added hot food hits like honey butter chicken sandwiches and smash burgers, and maintained a level of quality and quirkiness unlike anything else in the Twin Cities. Ben's flavors reflect his restless mind, including such instant classics as Blueberry London Fog (the secret ingredient is a savory dash of MSG), Pistachio Puppy Chow, Halva Coffee and Romeu e Julieta, a nod to Gabriella's Brazilian background featuring cream cheese custard, guava ripple and a showering of Ritz crackers and guava sauce. 

Big Dipper Creamery
Blaine 

Nearly 50 handcrafted flavors — ranging from classic chocolate chip to s'mores and salty caramel — make the original location of this family-owned shop a local favorite and loving tribute to the Sarasota business its matriarch (Grandma Sharron) ran for 12 years. 

Bogart's Doughnut Co
Minneapolis

Bogart's slings some of the city's most destination-worthy doughnuts (custardy, sophisticated, and perfectly restrained). But they also have a secret, and that secret is their brown-butter soft serve. We'll say it again: Brown. Butter. Soft. Serve. Poured from a diminutive machine behind the cash, the ultra-creamy, not-too-sweet ice cream is the grown-up version of a nostalgic fast-food cone, and on a hot summer day, we can't resist the call of Bogart's firetruck-red sign. Take your ice cream down to nearby Lake Harriet or Bde Maka Ska and enjoy it by the water — if you can wait out the six-block car ride. We won't blame you either way. 

Bridgeman's Ice Cream Parlor
Woodbury

With roots that reach all the way back to 1936, Bridgeman's Ice Cream Parlor specializes in both traditional and tricked-out sundaes — everything from a familiar banana split to a daring Gray Duck combo of licorice ice cream, marshmallow cream and crunchy marshmallows, topped with whipped cream and a cherry.  

Chill Ice Cream Studio
Farmington

Come for the Chocolate Shoppe ice cream (a popular import from Wisconsin), stay for the '80s arcade games!

Cold Front
St. Paul

For ice cream lovers who could use a jolt of caffeine, head to Cold Front in Mac-Groveland for deliciously old-school fountain drinks, premium ice cream and exceptional coffee daily from morning until night. The super-premium ice cream flavors come courtesy of Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream in Madison, WI, while coffee drinks are made with locally roasted Bootstrap Coffee beans. 

Conny's Creamy Cone
St. Paul

Keep it classic at Conny's Creamy Cone with vanilla, chocolate or a twist of the two, or veer into uncharted territory with lesser-seen soft serve flavors like amaretto, German chocolate, apricot and Irish cream.  

Cup and Cone
White Bear Lake

Family operated, this ice cream shack serves soft-serve specials, Disney World-style Dole Whip, and sherbets. A favorite with locals, it draws a line every evening.

Grand Ole Creamery
St. Paul

Grand Ole Creamery hasn't been here forever — its St. Paul flagship opened in 1984, and a Minneapolis location arrived six years later — but it certainly feels like it has. They call themselves Minnesota's first gourmet ice cream shop, and they're still one of the most popular. As soon as temps hit 60 degrees, the line at Grand Ole can snake down the block, with Saint Paul families lining up for a scoop of strawberry cheesecake or Reese's Pieces ice cream in an old-school waffle cone, topped with the shop's signature malted milk ball.

Honey & Mackie's
Plymouth

Honey & Mackie's became an instant hit thanks to homemade, creative flavors like gingersnap and honey, horchata, an Easter-inspired robin's egg, and lemon poppy blueberry.

Licks Unlimited
Excelsior

Near Lake Minnetonka, this little shop is a great place to get off the boat and grab some ice cream. Choose from a wide variety of flavors, including Zoreo — chocolate/marshmallow ice cream with Oreo pieces.

Mabel's Ice Cream
Bayport

Blocks from the scenic St. Croix River, this adorable downtown shop serves dozens of rotating flavors, made at Cedar Crest just across the border in Wisconsin.

Milkjam Creamery
Minneapolis

The hippest spot in town for a scoop, Milkjam serves flavors you won't find anywhere else, like Thai Tea, Pineapple Lychee sorbet, and a Cereal Killers combo of orange coriander milk and candied Fruity Pebbles. Owner Sameh Wadi (the chef behind World Street Kitchen next door) also honors his Arab-American heritage every April with complex, Palestinian-style combinations like cardamom coffee ice cream with chunks of baklava (Kahwa) and mango ice cream with pistachio swirl and rose petal toffee (Shosho). 

Nelson's Ice Cream
Stillwater

Nelson's has 40-plus flavors of ice cream, but is especially known for its HUGE portions. On a hot summer evening, the line extends down the block. There's also an outpost in St. Paul.

Nita Mae's Scoop
Marine on St. Croix

Tucked away behind the historic Marine General Store, Nita Mae's Scoop features a back patio with a view of the Marine Mill Stream.

Pumphouse Creamery
Minneapolis

This tiny shop features ice cream made from top-notch, all-natural ingredients (their Birthday Cake boasts rich Hope Creamery butter, Sunrise Flour Mills heritage whole wheat pastry flour, and vanilla paste from Vanilla Bean Project), plus homemade caramel and butterscotch sauces.

Schoolhouse Scoop
Hastings

Try any of the 32 hand-dipped premium flavors or shoot for the Hall of Fame if your group can eat 16 scoops in 30 minutes or less.

Sebastian Joe's
Minneapolis

A local institution with locations in Linden Hills, Lowry Hill and Kingfield, Sebastian Joes' makes hundreds of ice creams and sorbets, ranging from basil vanilla in the summer to banana, caramel and chocolate chips (a.k.a. the opera singer-inspired Pavarotti) year-round, as well as vegan and kosher varieties. 

Selma's Ice Cream Parlor
Afton

This classic ice cream shop has been a popular destination for many years in a quaint village in the St. Croix River Valley.

Sweet Science
Edina 

To give you an idea of just how serious Ashlee Olds is about making superior ice cream, it took the Sweet Science founder 20 attempts to ace her Rhubarb Cinnamon Almond flavor. Other standouts from her "periodic table of flavors" include Pumpkin Pepita Brittle, Sweetcorn Blueberry, Grasshopper Pie and Blood Orange Cream. 

The Social
Victoria

This old-fashioned ice cream parlor serves 24 flavors and overlooks Steiger Lake.

Treats
St. Paul

What do you get when you mix Fruity Pebbles, Froot Loops, Trix and berries with soft serve, then top it with gummy bears? This and other cereal-centric concoctions are the focus at Treats Cereal Bar & Boba on St. Paul's Grand Avenue, a block away from another capital city favorite, Grand Ole Creamery.

Two Scoops
Anoka

This downtown shop features super premium ice cream in a wide array of imaginative flavors, which change weekly — try the Fat Elvis, "sweet banana ice cream all shook up with a salty peanut butter ripple and rich chocolate chips" — plus malts and sundaes.

What's the Scoop?
Buffalo

New to downtown Buffalo, this family-owned shop serves 40 flavors of Cedar Crest ice cream, perfect for bringing to a nearby splash pad or Buffalo Lake.

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