Cream of the crop

Roll on Two A hollow pastry is basically wasted if it’s not filled with ice cream. When Andrei and Orit Paunescu opened their little Hungarian chimney cake bakery in the early spring, they had a soft serve machine on their shopping list—and lucky for us it happened in time for summer. The puffy, perfectly golden cylindrical cakes (kinda like a cinnamon bun, but less dense) are a perfect vessel for the cold stuff, with a smear of Nutella and your choice of toppings. 1810 Granville Street

Common Confections AND Dairy Bar Last summer the ultra-creamy soft serve at Manual’s Dairy Bar became the stuff of legend and they continue to set the pace with delicate and creative flavours like raspberry-elderflower and ginger-turmeric. Eat it on its own, as a twist, as a sundae or tucked into a pillowy profiterole. And now vegans can take joy, too, as Dartmouth’s newly minted Common Confections is offering vegan scoops through the Dairy Bar in a parade of equally divine flavours like rhubarb and coconut. 1489 South Park Street

Sweet & Tears This adorable little tea house has a lot of great stuff going on, from tea to ramen and a host of exquisite Japanese desserts. Start off simple with a bowl of creamy green tea ice cream, or go wild and get their towering parfait, with your choice of ice cream toppings, cool strata or fluffy whipped cream, a moist crumble of matcha cake, luscious macerated berries, crunchy granola and tart yogurt. 5475 Spring Garden

Dee Dee’s Ice Cream You can’t talk about ice cream in Halifax without talking about Dee Dee’s. It’s been offering up classic flavours and inventive ideas for years, and they just keep getting better. The Shaker Lemon and Banana Cardamom ice creams remain unmissable. This is the place to go for everything from a scoop to a pint, to an ice cream sandwich or a milkshake. 5668 Cornwallis Street

Scanway Catering, Cake & Pastry Scanway is not messing around when it comes to dessert. You can never go wrong with a classic waffle cone or sundae—especially since Scanway has a ton of fun toppings, like rainbow sprinkles and crisp caramel corn—but you can also also find icy soft serve served up with piping hot espresso in affogato or served up sandwich style in one of its delightful doughnuts. 1567 Grafton Street

Cream of the crop: the city’s coolest cones

Ice cream index

<br An emergency action plan for any ice cream craving.

Hard ice cream

Avery’s Farm Market 278 Cobequid Road

Black Bear Ice Cream Halifax waterfront*

Chicken Little 1531 Bedford Highway*

Chilly Willy’s Ice Cream Barn 210 Waverley Road

COWS Ice Cream 1869 Upper Water Street*

Crocodile Ice Cream 10 Cumberland Drive* (also serves soft serve)

Go2Eat 5518 Spring Garden Road

Funky Munky 95 Montebello Drive*

Holy Cones 130 Forest Hills Parkway

Ice Cream Hut 1129 Sackville Drive

Marble Slab 278 Lacewood Drive

Point Pleasant Grocery 506 Tower Road

Polar Bear Express 8003 Highway 7, Musquodoboit Harbour*

Robyn’s Dairy Bar 6169 Quinpool Road

Sugah! Bishop’s Landing and the Public Gardens *also serves soft serve

Soft serve

Coffee Tea & Sea 18 Government Wharf

Dairy Queen 3515 Dutch Village Road 188A Chain Lake Drive 162 Main Avenue 7001 Mumford Road 21 Micmac Boulevard 752 Sackville Drive

Giggles Dartmouth waterfront (outside Alderney Landing)

Gelato

Fox Hill Cheese House 2760 Robie Street

Humani-T 5755 Young Street
1451 South Park Street

Ristorante A Mano 1477 Lower Water Street

il Mercato 1595 Bedford Highway

Il Trullo 67 King’s Wharf Place

Pete’s Fine Foods 1515 Dresden Row 1595 Bedford Highway

Frozen yogurt

Goji’s Frozen Yogurt 5486 Spring Garden Road

Food trucks

Benny’s Ice Cream Truck

Chicken Little Mobile Ice Cream

This article appears in Jun 15-21, 2017.

Cream of the crop

Cream of the crop: the city’s coolest cones