If you enjoy ice cream and live in or are visiting NYC, you might have a problem. With so many great options, it might be hard to decide where to go for your frozen dessert fill.
It’s hard to pick a favorite, but some of our top picks (in no particular order) are Ample Hills, Blue Marble, Davey’s, Van Leeuwen and OddFellows Ice Cream. You also can’t go wrong by ordering a cone from a Mister Softee truck!
Many of the shops mentioned have interesting and creative flavors with OddFellows Ice Cream probably making some of the oddest.
OddFellows has two locations- the original is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and a newer shop in the East Village in Manhattan.
For a limited time (through Labor Day), a special OddFellows Ice Cream Carnival has popped-up in NoLita featuring interesting and tasty soft serve!
Kim, Lucas and I gave the pop-up a try recently and I’ll preface this post by mentioning that it’s pricey but it was also really tasty.
Here is a review of the OddFellows Ice Cream Carnival pop-up:
We happened to walk by the pop-up a few days before trying it out. When we were in the area again, we decided to give it a try after dinner.
The shop wasn’t really busy but there were people consistently going inside and others walking by commented about it non-stop!
Besides ice cream, there are also some other treats like cotton candy, caramel popcorn and candied peanuts.
There are three special cones on the menu but you can also just pick flavors and toppings that you like.
While we waited to get our treats, we took a look around the small shop which had a fun, carnival theme.
We also took some photos in their photo booth. Too bad the lighting was bad and the photos didn’t come out well! Regardless, Lucas enjoyed taking photos almost as much as he enjoyed eating the ice cream.
I watched as our cones were made and I have to say that it looked like a lot of work and care went into them. At $7.50 per cone, they better have lots of TLC while also tasting great too!
Here is what we ordered:
The Concession Stand: “Caramel soft serve with salted caramel injection, topped with malted caramel popcorn and chocolate pearls.”
I ate the majority of The Concession Stand and it was really awesome. The caramel ice cream was really tasty and if OddFellows regularly offered it, I’d definitely order it.
The caramel injection inside added a punch of extra sweetness which we really enjoyed. The caramel popcorn pieces also were very tasty.
I’d definitely recommend trying The Concession Stand out.
The Cotton Candy Creamsicle: “Vanilla & Tangerine soft serve cone wrapped in cotton candy.”
(It was my mistake to not take a photo of the cone after eating some of the cotton candy.)
I wasn’t really interested in this cone but Lucas really wanted to give it a try. Kim was also curious about it. The cone definitely has wow factor due to cotton candy totally covering the ice cream. Talk about a creative topping!
Kim and Lucas loved this cone and urged me to give it a try. I hesitated at first because I didn’t think that I’d like the tangerine ice cream…
First of all, cotton candy makes a really great ice cream topping! Since I don’t have a photo of the ice cream, the best way to describe it is as a twist just with tangerine instead of chocolate.
The tangerine ice cream was actually really good, a bit tangy and best described as orange ice cream, just not exactly! Confused?
Bottom line- it’s really good too.
The other cone offered is The Pink Dip: “Raspberry sherbet soft serve dipped in pink chocolate with freeze dried raspberry gold dust and topped with pop rocks.”
If you’re interested in checking out the Oddfellows Ice Cream Carnival, head over to Chef’s Club Counter at 62 Spring Street in NYC.
