10 Scoops of Summer

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The Vacation Cone

Daily Scoop

230 County Road, Barrington, 245-0100
446B Thames Street, Bristol, 254-2223
dailyscoopicecream.com
Exotic Flavors: Take Five (light chocolate ice cream with bits of the candy bar mixed in), banana peanut butter cup, lemon custard
Small serving: $2.75
Scooping Season: April to the end of September; Bristol closes a few weeks earlier

The Melt-Down: While the Daily Scoop has two East Bay locations, stop into the one in Bristol, and you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to a far-off seaside destination. With a view of Bristol Harbor and a cone of their super rich ice cream in hand, the experience is unparalleled. Fittingly, owners Robert and Debra Saunders were inspired to open Daily Scoop after their own vacations by boat. During their travels, they sampled high-quality homemade ice cream in several destinations and wanted to offer the same to their fellow Rhode Islanders. Open for eight years in Barrington and four in Bristol, the Daily Scoop uses only the freshest ingredients and toppings, including freshly pureed fruit. Waffle cones and ice cream cakes are made in both locations, and they also sell hand-packed pints in markets throughout the state.

The Urban Cone

Three Sisters

1074 Hope Street, Providence, 273-7230
Exotic Flavors: Trinity Brewhouse beer, kulfe (cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and pistachios), chocolate drunk chunk (coffee and chocolate ice cream mixed with Jim Beam flavoring and chocolate chips)
Small serving: $2.75
Scooping Season: year-round

The Melt-Down: When Maximillian’s closed their doors this winter, it left a void in East Side ice cream options. But a new owner quickly stepped in, renaming the place (after his three daughters) and renovating the space to give it a more upscale look. He also added a list of flavors that are as sophisticated as the redesigned cafe. Luckily the quality of the ice cream, still made using Maximillian’s recipe, did not suffer with the change. With more than 100 flavors, any thirty of which are offered daily, as well as a frozen yogurt product called “Frogurt” from California, there are a number of sweet treats to satisfy. And if you plan on indulging a little, try topping your ice cream with a little “goop,” a gooey concoction of peanut butter, chocolate and caramel. With the warmer weather upon us, East Side soccer moms are surely breathing a collective sigh of relief.
 

The Quintessential Cone

Gray’s Ice Cream

16 East Road, Tiverton, 624-4500
259 Thames Street, Bristol
graysicecream.com

Exotic Flavors: ginger, Grapenut (pieces of the cereal mixed into vanilla ice cream), green tea
Small serving: $2.75
Scooping Season: Tiverton: year-round; Bristol: May to October

The Melt-Down: In its eighty years in business, Gray’s has become as synonymous with summer in Rhode Island as Del’s, clamcakes and chowda. Ask most Rhode Islanders, and they’ll have some childhood memory of standing in line at the Tiverton stand for a cone only to feed the remainder to the cows in the adjacent paddock. The cows (Oscar and Emmy) are still there, and the menu has gone relatively unchanged in recent years. You can still order a thick coffee cabinet, a chocolate “malted” shake or a simple scoop of creamy vanilla in a sugar cone. And the lines still extend from the takeout window to the parking lot on any given summer night. The only difference is that those kids of yesteryear are now adults, who now stand in line with their children, waiting to give them that first taste of Rhode Island summer. 

The Trick-Your-Tastebuds Cone

Krueger’s Homemade Ice Cream and Gelato

7510 Post Road, North Kingstown, 294-4115
Exotic Flavors: chocolate walnut fudge, midnight espresso (coffee ice cream with a fudge stripe), Snickers (vanilla ice cream mixed with melted Snickers bars and combined with chunks of the candy bar)
Small serving: $3.15
Scooping Season: year-round

The Melt-Down: High butterfat content and very little air make for a super-premium product from Krueger’s that is rich and dense. But if you are looking for something that is a little lower on the calorie scale, try the gelato, a frozen treat that is actually denser than ice cream, but made with more milk and less cream. In decadent flavors like Butterfinger fudge and red raspberry chip, you’ll think you’re eating a creamy cone of the real thing. Take your cone outside to one of the tables where chirping crickets evoke a country feel despite the shop’s Route 1 location. For something even more indulgent, try one of Krueger’s brownie sundaes, topped with any number of candy bar, cookie or melted toppings.

The Beach-goers Cone

Brickley’s Homemade Ice Cream and Cakes

921 Boston Neck Road, Narragansett, 789-1784
322 Main Street, Wakefield, 782-8864
Exotic Flavors: pumpkin pie, peppermint stick, bubble gum
Small serving: $3
Scooping Season: mid-March to the end of October

The Melt-Down: On any typical summer afternoon at around 2:30 p.m., a line of cars begins to form along Boston Neck Road (Route 1A) as the beach crowd heads home from another day of sun and sand. Perhaps to assuage their road rage, many wait out the traffic jam with a detour to Brickley’s, an ice cream pit stop that became an instant South County favorite when it opened thirteen years ago. A self-described “purist,” owner Steve Brophy doesn’t mess around with fancy flavors, but instead mixes up forty-eight favorites each season using fresh ingredients, and offers traditional mainstays like “jimmies,” hot fudge and caramel to go on top.