The Summer Scoop

By Emily Smith

Anderson’s

With locations all throughout Buffalo, Anderson’s Ice Cream is a great family friendly place to go for a nice sweet treat on a hot summer day. Their delicious homemade ice cream comes with a large variety of choices and flavors. Famous for their frozen custard, Anderson’s also offers soft serve ice cream, as well as some healthy options such as their no fat, no-sugar added ice cream, lemon ice, and sherbet. Not to mention their amazing ice cream cakes. Holly Anderson, co-owner and partner recommends the Pistachio Custard ice cream and a few of their new flavors such as White Chocolate Raspberry Custard and Coffee Caramel Custard. Anderson’s also offers a wide variety of lunch and dinner entrées at a very reasonable price. So whether you’re ready to indulge into a large cone or want to find a healthier option, Anderson’s has something for everyone.

My personal recommendation: Pistachio Custard on a cone. It’s a unique and refreshing summer flavor sure to satisfy your taste buds.

Charlaps

Charlaps, located in Boston, NY is known for their delicious homemade ice cream. This very cute 50’s  style ice cream shop, complete with Marilyn Monroe and James Dean posters and Elvis cut-outs, has a fun atmosphere and a wide variety of cool treats at a very moderate prices. The variety spans from the classic creamy hard ice cream, thick soft serve custard and milkshakes, to some healthier options such as non-fat yogurt smoothies and fat free and sugar free ice cream, to some more unique items such as crunch crème, which is all the name brand candy bars blended with soft serve custard, and they also even have jet tea smoothies. All of their ice cream is made right at the shop site. They also have some to-go items, such as half gallon and quart size hard ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, as well as some other various dairy products. Charlaps recently expanded to new locations in Hamburg and West Seneca.

My personal recommendation: Coconut hard ice cream or PB and Pretzel hard ice cream. The coconut is light and refreshing to cool you down, and the PB and Pretzel, which is chocolate covered pretzels in peanut butter ice cream, is just the right blend of sweet peanut butter and chocolate with salty pretzels. Make sure you come hungry, because the portions at Charlaps are huge!

Perry’s

Perry’s delicious ice cream was started in 1918, established by Morton Perry. It all started in Akron, NY, and is currently located at One Ice Cream Plaza in Akron. Each batch is made one at a time through a slow cooking process to make sure their ice cream is at the highest quality. They not only distribute to New York, but to Pennsylvania, Ohio, New England and Virginia. Perry’s homemade, take home ice cream, which you can find at most grocery stores, has a very wide variety. They have their regular creamy ice cream, light ice cream, sherbet, frozen yogurt, crème Brule and gelato. Perry’s old fashion values transfers through to their ice cream to make a delicious summer treat. Although all of Perry’s ice cream is delicious, what is most famous with the Buffalonians is their Buffalo Bills Blitz and Sabres Top Shelf Sundae. Everyone knows that Buffalo fans are the best fans around, who love to celebrate our teams- so what better way to do that than with Perry’s ice cream! You can also check out their website- www.Perrysicecream.com to learn how they make their ice cream! My personal recommendation: Blueberry Cheesecake or a new summer Neapolitan. The blueberry cheesecake is a creamy blend of blueberries and cheesecake-flavored ice cream has little pieces of graham cracker crust and pieces of cheesecake. The Neapolitan is a mix of coconut, pineapple and mango- a perfect refreshing summer flavor.

Sweet Tooth

Elmwood is a great place to go for a walk in the summer months. With all the small, unique shops and boutiques it’s a great way to spend a summer day. If you need to cool down, stop into Sweet Tooth, located on Elmwood Ave. Sweet tooth has been opened for about twenty years, and was started by a group of friends. It’s a classical ice cream parlor that offers a relaxing atmosphere to sit and wind down after an afternoon of shopping. Sweet Tooth is famous for, well, their sweets! They make whole cakes, party trays, tarts and candy, all on site for some great fresh treats. They offer both an eat in or take out option for you to try their treats. They also have a pick up or delivery option for larger orders. For a cooler treat, they offer sundaes, cones, shakes and sodas, and smoothies. You can get a cone or a cup, or go bigger to get a pint or a quart or their homemade ice cream. My personal recommendation: the Banana Boat Sundae. It’s a classic and yummy summer day treat that tastes a whole lot better at Sweet Tooth.!