Crème & Chocolats
If you like your soft-serve ice cream ultra-rich and covered in fine chocolate, European-inspired dessert shop Crème & Chocolats at Dana Park is your ticket to paradise. Choose from nine flavors of super-creamy soft-serve (10% butterfat instead of the typical 5% at places like Dairy Queen), then have your cone dipped in one of nine decadent Belgian chocolate sauces. Nine ice creams times nine chocolates equals 81 different combinations.
Doc’s Artisan Ice Creams
Arizona’s first state-certified small-batch ice creamery (which means it can make and pasteurize its own bases), Doc’s offers a variety of gelato, sorbets, and frozen pops completely made from scratch. Owner ‘‘Doc’’ Brown, who shares his no-frills production space with Arizona Sandwich Company, churns out nearly 100 flavors every year for his display case. My most recent fave is Sweet Cream & Sour Cherries. Next on my list to try is Vanilla Bean Bourbon.
Frozen Creamery
Ice cream meets coffee at Frozen Creamery, where affogatos – a Italian coffee-based dessert – highlight the menu. The classic affogato is a shot of hot espresso poured over a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, but you can create your own combination with any of the 19 ice cream flavors, which include salted caramel, apple pie, and (my go-to pick) blueberry cardamom.
Gelato Dolce Vita
Dolce Vita owner Walter Bergamaschi graduated from the famed Gelato University – yes, there actually is such a place – in his home country of Italy before he and his wife moved to Mesa to open their award-winning gelato shop, which features such traditional flavors as stracciatella, amaretto, and nocciola. The business since has added an Italian grocery and deli.
Ice Lab
Ice Lab is one of just two places I know in the Valley to get bing soo, a popular Korean summer treat. Condensed milk is poured into a special machine, creating ‘‘snowflakes’’ that look like shaved ice but taste like ice cream. The flakes can be enhanced with fresh fruit, fruit syrups, chocolate, nuts, cereals, and even cheese. The other bing soo spot is Snowtime in Chandler.
Kokomo Frozen Yogurt
Fro-yo reached the peak of its popularity in the Valley around 2010, and only the best have survived the shakeout since. These include Kokomo, which offers eight mainstream flavors and three dozen toppings, all of which are self-serve. If fro-yo’s not your thing, there’s also gelato, smoothies, and shaved snow ice.
McMahon’s Ice Cream
You’ll likely fall head over heels for McMahon’s, a small, family-operated gem near Mesquite High. The 20-flavor lineup changes often. Recommended are the Choco PB Crunch, Banana Cream & Nilla Wafers, and Coffee & Cookies. There’s even vegan ice cream. After 10 visits, you get to spin a prize wheel for the chance to win free ice cream for a year.
Paletas Betty
Paletas Betty owner Beatriz ‘‘Betty’’ Alatorre de Hong hails from Michoacán, a Mexico state famous for its paletas. The fruit and cream bars come in such refreshing flavors as fresa con crema (strawberry ), limón amarillo (lemon drop), and pepino (cucumber and mint). Look for the signature ‘‘bite’’ taken out of every bar.
Roll Avenue
Roll Avenue specializes in another frozen treat from Southeast Asia: Thai rolled ice cream. A mixture of cream and flavors is poured onto a frozen tray, resulting in a thin sheet of ice cream that is carefully cut and rolled up with a scraper. Several rolls are placed upright in a cup and garnished with toppings. Another good spot for Thai rolled ice cream is I Roll Thai in south Chandler.
Sunny SnoBalls
Never heard of New Orleans-style shaved ice? Unlike the ice in snow cones, which is coarse and crunchy, snoballs are soft and almost fluffy. At Sunny Snoball you can get your snoball stuffed with Thrifty ice cream and topped with housemade marshmallow fluff, candy, sprinkles – even chopped pickles – for an almost endless combination of flavors.
Udder Delights
There’s a certain logic behind a dairy-owning family launching an ice cream shop. At Udder Delights, you can buy fresh milk, butter, and cheeses from Superstition Farm in southeast Mesa, but the ice cream takes center stage. About 20 flavors are available year-round, and an additional two or three are monthly specials, such as Cookie Monster, Black Licorice and even Peeps.
