Food & Drink

The Best Places to Get Ice Cream in Portland

Gelato, Soft Serve, and More
July 13, 2022
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Get yourself a swirl of soft serve made with real fruit from Nico's Ice Cream. (Nico's Ice Cream)
Not that you needed an excuse to treat yourself to a waffle cone brimming with your favorite flavor, especially when the warm weather practically demands it, but National Ice Cream Day is this Sunday, July 17. (Plus, July is National Ice Cream Month, so the festivities can last all month long.) We've taken the opportunity to round up this list of the myriad creameries in Portland. For more delicious ideas, check out our food and drink guide.


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When they say "handcrafted rolled ice cream," they really mean that. It's not just a clever turn-of-phrase: This place really does roll up your ice cream, and they're more than happy to mix stuff into it, from candy to marshmallows, to... Flamin' Hot Cheetos?
Goose Hollow
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

Beaux Berry
Purveyors of "super-premium" ice creams, Beaux Berry is best known for their magic ice cream machine, which was imported from New Zealand and blends (or swirls, more accurately) real fruit, berries, herbs, and other mix-ins into your soft-serve cones or bowls.
St. Johns
Pickup

Cheese & Crack Snack Shop List
Devoutly dedicated to all things dairy, this snack shop specializing in cheese plates also happens to offer glorious soft serve ice cream. Choose vanilla soft serve in a chocolate ganache-filled cone and get it dusted with a sprinkle of powder (espresso, matcha, beet, chocolate malt, or strawberry), or opt for one of the eminently craveable sundaes, like their s'mores-inspired house sundae (chocolate ganache, cinnamon butter cracker crumble, vanilla soft serve, torched house-made marshmallow fluff) or the "Mud Sundae" (vanilla soft serve, cookie chunks, dark chocolate sauce, Maldon sea salt).
Kerns
Pickup, dine-in

Cloud City Ice Cream
A strong contender for best ice cream joint in Portland, Cloud City has too many bests to choose from! Okay fine, go for the Sea Salt Cookie Dough... or better yet, the Chocolate Toasted Coconut... or to top ’em all, the Unicorn that pairs red velvet cake and a swirl of strawberry in creamy vanilla. Goddammit, just get all threeWM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
Woodstock
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

Cool Moon Ice Cream Company List
This small-batch shop has over 200 flavors in its repertoire, ranging from birthday cake to rosewater-infused kulfi to marionberry. Twenty-six are usually available at any given time. They also offer shakes, floats, sundaes, and their own natural frozen fruit pops in a variety of flavors (available during the summer only).
Pearl District
Pickup, dine-in

Dairy Hill Ice Cream
That traditional ice cream shoppe (with the e and everything) vibe is alive and well at Dairy Hill, down to the sundaes served in little baseball helmets, banana splits and ice cream cakes on the menu, and handmade ice cream sandwiches they consider to be their specialty.
Hawthorne, Hillsdale, West Linn
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

Doe Donuts List
Your favorite vegan donut shop has branched out into the ice cream world, and the results don't disappoint. Current seasonal flavors include s'mores, strawberry lime, bubblegum, and passionfruit, while year-round flavors include chocolate, birthday cake, maple coffee, chipped mint, and soft serve in blackberry or sweet corn.
Powellhurst-Gilbert
Pickup, delivery

Eb & Bean
Not ice cream: Frozen Yogurt. But frozen yogurt made with the sort of care and consideration that gourmet greatness deserves, with rotating seasonal flavors, no artificial ingredients, and locally sourced toppings aplenty. The Mercury's EIC calls it "soft-serve perfection," and when it comes to frozen desserts, he's definitely something of an expert.
Irvington, Division/Clinton, Nob Hill
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

Fifty Licks
This is the ice cream that happens when a food nerd and former brewer focus all the powers culinary science can muster into making ice cream from scratch with just the right texture and all the right flavors, including "Chocolate AF" and "Water Avenue Coffee."
Hosford-Abernathy, Kerns, Northwest
Pickup, delivery

Holler Treats List
In response to the popularity of its ice cream, this nostalgic dessert bar in Sellwood-Moreland reopened List as a scoop shop last month, with ice cream, milkshakes, sundaes, and other creamy treats. Holler pastry chef Danielle Bailey serves up flavors like banana caramel streusel and strawberry rhubarb sorbet.
Sellwood-Moreland
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

Hurry Back Ice Cream

This ice cream cart deep in the heart of Sellwood may seem unassuming, but they’re pumping out some of the best ice cream in Portland. While there’s a lot to choose from, start off with their Rocky Road, filled with chocolatey richness, macadamia nuts, and marshmallows. Easy to see why this is a fave for kids and adults. WSH
Sellwood
Pickup

Kate's Ice Cream List
Katelyn Williams' plant-based, gluten-free ice cream brand has become a hit, even for those without dietary restrictions. The ice cream is made with a coconut and cashew milk base, and fans love the unique flavors, like marionberry cobbler and rosewater cardamom almond. The company is also teaming up with the nut butter brand Ground Up to release a special almond and cashew butter made with Kate’s vegan and gluten-free waffle cones.
Mississippi
Pickup, delivery

Kulfi
List Married couple Kiran Cheema and Gagan Aulakh of the ice cream pop stand Kulfi, a familiar fixture at markets like the Portland Flea and Montavilla Farmers Market, opened this brick-and-mortar shop with a walk-up window and outdoor seating this spring, featuring signature flavors like Vietnamese coffee and rosewater alongside treats like falooda (a cold Indian dessert made with vermicelli noodles) and soda floats with vanilla pops.
Vernon
Pickup, dine-in

Lovely's Fifty Fifty List
Sarah Minnick's acclaimed wood-fired pizzeria also makes ice cream that's just as thoughtfully sourced as its pies, with seasonally inspired flavors like mint stracciatella, strawberry buttermilk, parsley vanilla bean, and buckwheat honey toffee.
Mississippi
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

Magna Kusina List
Chef Carlo Lamagna's modern Filipino restaurant makes its own ice cream for its halo-halo, the beloved summertime treat that features a mix of flavors and textures (the name translates to "mix-mix" in English). Their version includes various gelees and fruits, plus shave ice, flan, and ube ice cream.
Division/Clinton
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

Nico's Ice Cream List
This ice cream maker specializes in New Zealand-style ice cream, which is blended with fresh fruit to order and has a texture similar to soft serve. Local berries sourced from Willamette Valley Pie Co. do the twist with Tillamook vanilla in an ice cream machine Vergara had imported from the small island country. Plant-based eaters will likely be familiar with Nico’s vegan base Coconut Bliss, which is based out of Eugene. JANEY WONG
Mississippi
Pickup

Pinolo Gelato List
Known as a place to get your authentic gelato and espresso fix, Pinolo’s clear crowd favorite is the Stracciatella, which combines the Fior De Latte (AKA “the flower of milk”) with a rich, intense chocolate. The Cioccolato is great too, for people who love their chocolate deep, dense, and not so sweet. There are usually just a handful of dairy-free specials here, and the Blood Orange flavor is the stand-out. It’s light, sweet, and complex—hey, just like you. WSH
Richmond
Pickup, delivery

Ripe Cooperative List
Naomi Pomeroy's cafe and marketplace happens to make some pretty extraordinary frozen custards in irresistible flavors like Fudgesicle, Almond Joy, Madagascar vanilla bean, passionfruit, and blood orange dreamsicle.
Concordia
Pickup, delivery, dine-in

Salt & Straw
This local chain is nationally recognized for a very good reason: They take big swings (remember when they did a whole ice cream Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes & gravy flavors?) and hit home runs with startling consistency. If you're feeling at all adventurous, chances are Salt & Straw's handmade ice cream will come in a flavor that would have never occurred to you before it became your absolute favorite. In honor of National Ice Cream Day, the business is also debuting a series of "culinary perfumes" which are intended to enhance ice cream flavors for the wearer.
Nob Hill, Vernon, Lake Oswego, Division/Clinton
Pickup, delivery

What's the Scoop
This North Portland creamery serves up small-batch premium ice cream and sorbets infused with locally sourced ingredients. They not only take care to make sure their goods are all-natural and hormone-free, but they also strive towards sustainability and make sure they're donating a portion of all their proceeds to community organizations. Oh yeah, and their ice cream is flat-out delicious.
Boise
Pickup

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