While you\u2019ll almost always find a line at this COVID-pop-up turned regular-weekend-affair, it\u2019s expedited by a little-white-hat-wearing shopkeeper offering samples. The flavors are a real ode to Ridgewood, whether that\u2019s the Waldmeister (German sweet woodruff; a vanilla-like herb) or Mak (Polish for \u201cpoppy seed\u201d) which honor the immigrant history of the neighborhood, or the Linden, which is available only in June when the neighborhood\u2019s Linden trees are in full bloom. There\u2019s something undeniably whimsical about getting a cone at this micro shop, thanks, in part, to the orange puppet that runs the Instagram account, announcing Saturday and Sunday\u2019s flavor rundown. \u2014Jessica Sulima<\/p>\n
Locations:<\/strong> Chinatown, Lower East Side, Kips Bay, Flushing, Long Island City, Downtown Brooklyn The most difficult part about ordering at Soft Swerve is picking which flavor you want\u2014not because there is an overwhelming number of choices, but because each one is so delicious, you won\u2019t be able to choose which is your favorite. The benefit? You cannot go wrong. While they do have a string of tasty hard-packed ice creams, I tend to make a beeline for the soft serve, where they absolutely excel. They serve a delicious rendition of my current favorite ice cream flavor (ube), which pairs well with black sesame\u2014the almost marshmallowy sweetness and the sesame nuttiness being the perfect complements. While I usually stop to revel in the flavors of the soft serve alone, the red velvet or chocolate waffle cones are decadent add-ons, and there are a plethora of toppings to choose from to personalize your treat, from cereal marshmallows\u00a0and Reese’s Puffs to bite-sized Mochi rice cakes. \u2014Jamie Spain<\/a><\/p>\n At Lai Rai, unlikely ice cream flavors are served alongside natural wines.<\/p>\n Annie Zhou\/Lai Rai<\/p>\n The Vietnamese natural wine bar sits in Chinatown and is a great place to keep cool.<\/p>\n Annie Zhou\/Lai Rai<\/p>\n Location:<\/strong> Chinatown At this Vietnamese natural wine bar\u2014which comes from the same team behind neighboring M\u1eafm and Greenpoint\u2019s \u0110i A\u0306n \u0110i\u2014you could get really nerdy about which rice wine pairs well with fish sauce caramel ice cream, or you could just enjoy an unlikely scoop with a little bit of a buzz. A chalkboard presents the rotating list of house-made flavors (expect a few sellouts) which can include the L\u00e1 Chu\u1ed1i, a pungent banana leaf that\u2019s earthy and sweet, the Hoa C\u00fac, a chrysanthemum for floral ice cream lovers, and the Ph\u00f4 Mai, a creamy cheese inspired by Laughing Cow, the French provision that became a cultural staple in Vietnam. \u2014Jessica Sulima<\/p>\n Courtesy of Glace<\/p>\n Locations:<\/strong> Upper East Side, Rockefeller Center
What to order:<\/strong> Soft serve, of course, in flavors like ube<\/p>\n
What to order:<\/strong> L\u00e1 Chu\u1ed1i (Banana leaf)<\/p>\n
What to order:<\/strong> Everything…but definitely frozen hot chocolate, any of their brown butter soft serve specials, and their waffle cones<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While you\u2019ll almost always find a line at this COVID-pop-up turned regular-weekend-affair, it\u2019s expedited by a little-white-hat-wearing shopkeeper…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,988,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-110881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-restaurants","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114954834222778634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}