Kate Hinds: This is All Of It. I'm Kate Hinds, filling in for Alison Stewart. All week long, we're celebrating the best eats in New York City. Yesterday we talked hamburgers. Tomorrow is taco Thursday, but today, today we are turning our attention to one of life's greatest pleasures, ice cream. The website, The Infatuation, has released a guide to the best ice cream in New York City, and we are here for it. The list highlights everything from a peach cobbler scoop in Harlem to some tasty Vietnamese coffee ice cream at a wine bar on the Lower East Side to Clinton Hill, where you can find a cart that has bright orange cantaloupe gelato.

Listeners, we want to know what is on your best-of list. Tell us your favorite ice cream spot. Does your neighborhood have the best ice cream in New York City? Do you have an Italian ice cart you love? Give us a call or text us at 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC or tell us on social media at All Of It WNYC. Shout out your favorite ice cream. Editor, Sonal Shah, and staff writer, Willa Moor, are here from The Infatuation to discuss what scoops the city is serving up. Welcome to All Of It.

Willa Moor: Thanks for having us.

Willa Moor: Thank you.

Kate Hinds: I assume you both ate-- you did a lot of personal taste testing for this list?

Sonal Shah: Yes, we have. At The Infatuation, we provide expert restaurant recommendations for every single kind of dining situation. That includes, of course, dessert. We go out and personally try. We have a team of four writers and myself, and we try everything. Everything on this list has been tried and tested.

Kate Hinds: You've eaten a fair amount of ice cream lately. What makes a scoop stand out for you, Willa?

Willa Moor: Well, I like chocolate. That's my base flavor that I prefer. Anything chocolate, I gravitate towards. Although that cantaloupe ice cream, which I'm sure we'll talk about more, is also one of my favorites. I'm looking for creamy dreamy cones. I like a sugar cone, but, yes, those are some things that I look for. Sonal.

Sonal Shah: The flavor has to really come through. I need a strong flavor in my ice cream. Unless I'm pairing it with something else. I want a good punchy flavor, freshness, creaminess, all important things.

Kate Hinds: That sounds all delightful. I don't get to eat lunch until a little after 2:00, so this is going to be a real challenge. We already got a text, Eddie's Sweet Shop on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills. I don't even know it. I already want to go to it. It sounds great just from the name alone. How did you go about organizing this guide? Is it done by neighborhood, type of ice cream?

Sonal Shah: We actually have had a version of this guide for a while, and we just keep updating it. We keep an eye out on social media when we're walking around different neighborhoods. The writers go out five times a week to dinners at different restaurants. They're always looking around to see if there's something they could check out. Yes, whenever we see something noteworthy, we go check it out. Then if it's worth it, we add it to the guide.

Willa Moor: We also do love Eddie's Sweet Shop. They make fantastic sundaes, banana splits. It's a real New York institution.

Kate Hinds: Let's start with Caffè Panna. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. It has two locations, one in Gramercy and one in Greenpoint. Why is this one such an instant New York City classic?

Willa Moor: Well, I actually revisited Caffè Panna last night just because I was in the mood for ice cream. They have a lot of really creative flavors. I think one of my favorites is called the Odds Dream. It's a vanilla sweet cream ice cream with these thick shards of peanut butter in it, so good. They also do these rotating sundaes and affogatos. It's like anyone who likes coffee or ice cream could definitely find something for themselves there. The affogato that they currently have has these huge brownie chunks in it. They're just always switching it up and always trying something new.

Kate Hinds: What is affogato?

Willa Moor: Affogato is, I think, traditionally espresso and vanilla ice cream, but they take it to new heights.

Kate Hinds: You write that the quality of their ingredients is part of what makes it so special. They have whipped cream made from an Italian dairy, fresh fruit from the Union Square Farmer's Market with weekly rotating flavors, and you say there are no simple options. What does that mean?

Willa Moor: It's definitely a maximalist take on ice cream, but, like Sonal was saying, I think that the freshness of the ingredients really shines through in all of their flavors.

Sonal Shah: They also do collabs with different restaurants. I think it's almost every week they have a new partnership with someone doing key lime pie. Then they come together, and that sort of symbiosis is what makes it really special and exciting to go again and again.

Kate Hinds: Someone texted, "My favorite ice cream is from Frozen Cow Ice Cream in Long Beach, New York. They have a fig cheesecake flavor that's delicious." Wow, that sounds awesome.

Willa Moor: It does.

Kate Hinds: Another place on your list that I know is a fan favorite here at WNYC, but I have never been is Sugar Hill Creamery in Harlem on Malcolm X Boulevard. What are some standout flavors there?

Sonal Shah: I love Sugar Hill. It's my local ice cream spot and they have a couple of locations. What I like about them is they're constantly changing, and they're a very community-oriented ice cream shop. They'll have drum circles and kids events out there. Their ice cream flavors reflect that too. They take New York history. They take the communities that live in Harlem. They also have a Brooklyn and Stuytown too, locations, but they will work those in. For example, this spring, they had an orange blossom ice cream, with little pistachio cake in it, inspired by a historic train that used to go down from New York to Miami every winter with snowbirds, I guess.

Kate Hinds: Oh, wow.

Sonal Shah: It was like a springtime return to New York Orange Blossom Express special. That was great. Then they have a café touba, which is a Senegalese coffee-inspired ice cream with clove in it and peanut brittle and brownies with spice. It's just fantastic.

Kate Hinds: Oh, my God. We actually have a caller who wants to shout out his love of Sugar Hill. Hi, Joe, you are on the air.

Joe: Hello. Thanks for taking my call. I have one of the Sugar Hill Creameries around the corner and across the street from me. I'm up in Harlem. The one I'm talking about is on Broadway. I've always been a fan of coffee ice cream. They occasionally have an extraordinary one that actually has pieces of honeycomb in it, little chunks of honeycomb. Everything I've tasted there is extraordinary. Do go out of your way for Sugar Hill Creamery.

Kate Hinds: I definitely will. Listeners, we want to hear from you. What are your favorite ice cream places in our area? 212-433-9692. Our guests are Infatuations editor, Sonal Shah, and writer, Willa Moore. There's another Harlem option on your list I want to talk about, mainly because its name is so amazing. Nun Left, N-U-N, and it's on Convent Avenue.

Sonal Shah: That is correct. I found out about this place through my local coffee shop, which is a little hub of various creative people coming together. This is my favorite aspect of discovery in this job is just going to one place and then hearing about another place from them. Nun Left is this woman, Jane. She actually is a pastry chef at Per Se. Found her through Instagram. Again, was intrigued by this logo of a nun on a skateboard. She does small batch ice creams at home. It's the only one on this guide currently that's pickup or delivery only. Although I think we're going to be seeing more of these in the future. Just a really great small batch, really high quality control.

Her flavors are very fresh. There's strawberry, basil with lemon, pepper shortbread in the spring. Right now she's doing a brown, butter, peach flavor, a smoky s'more flavor, which actually involves some kind of campfire, I believe. Really, really good ice creams. I will say that that pint is $15, but it lasted in my freezer super long. That's a compliment because one little scoop of that ice cream just satisfies you because it's so flavorful. Love it.

Kate Hinds: Do you have to order by the pint or can you order smaller amounts?

Sonal Shah: It's by the pint, yes.

Kate Hinds: Let's go now to the Lower East Side to L'Albero dei Gelati.

Willa Moor: I think it's in Park Slope, actually, but there's another gelato shop also.

Kate Hinds: Oh, I'm sorry.

Willa Moor: No, no, it's totally fine. I grew up near L'Albero dei Gelati on Fifth Avenue and Park Slope. It's really just like a stand next to an Italian restaurant that's from the same owners. It's just my favorite gelato in New York, certainly. They do like all the classic flavors, like Nicholas and Stracciatella, which I think I gravitate towards, but they also have some really interesting specials. Last summer, while I was researching this guide, last summer I had this ricotta and tomato and basil ice cream, which was sweet because all of those things can be. It was just fantastic. I absolutely recommend going there if you love gelato.

Kate Hinds: Let's talk to Jesse in Chinatown. Hi, Jesse. Thanks for coming in, All Of It.

Jesse: Thank you. Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is my favorite. The egg tart ice cream. Dan Tat ice cream, it's the Chinese egg tarts. You can get dim sum. Those are amazing. One thing I like is, since I'm lactose intolerant, they use a lot of non-lactose milks in their ice cream, so I never had a problem with them.

Kate Hinds: Wow. What's your favorite flavor there, Willa?

Willa Moor: I didn't know about the lactose thing. That's great. That is also one of my favorites. I really like the black sesame there. I think it has that just great nuttiness, but also just this depth and not too sweet quality that I love in ice cream. Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is going to be 50 years old soon, so it's a true New York classic. I grew up going there. I also couldn't love it more.

Kate Hinds: It's worth the lines.

Willa Moor: Definitely, I think so. Lines are sometimes a reality at ice cream shops, even on our list and off, especially in the summer when people are willing to line up.

Kate Hinds: One of the things I've noticed when I went to the Salt & Straw in my neighborhood, and the line is really long, and it moves really slowly. At Salt & Straw, they encourage you to taste as many flavors as you want. Everyone was tasting five or six or seven things before they committed to making a decision, which on one hand is great, but on the other hand, really slows things down. Then you go to the opposite end, like Morgenstern's, which has a no-taste policy. For me, that was surprising because you have to commit to the flavor, and some of their flavors are a little out there. Where do you stand on tasting versus not tasting?

Sonal Shah: My dream ice cream store, if someone out there is listening and planning, is a place where you could actually Pay say, $5 or maybe $3 and have a little taste of every single ice cream and leave the store and not feel bad about it, because I love to taste all the flavors, and by the time I've tasted all of them, maybe I don't want to commit to a whole scoop, or maybe I just had a heavy dinner for work and I don't need another dessert, but that would be-- Yes, very pro tasting.

Willa Moor: Another spot on our list, Mr. P's in Flatbush, they do a three-taste per customer limit, so maybe that's the best of both worlds.

Kate Hinds: I hadn't even thought about that. Let's stay with Mr. P's for a minute. What's the vibe like when you walk in?

Willa Moor: Well, Mr. P's is an ice cream shop in Flatbush. It opened a few years ago. It's a father and son operation. The dad is Mr. P. It's a Caribbean Ice cream shop. They have a lot of Caribbean-influenced flavors. I'd say my favorite flavor there is the soursop, but you should use those three samples to try things like beet and ginger ice cream. They also have a lot of vegan flavors, a really nice vegan avocado. It's a great spot. You should check it out.

Kate Hinds: Let's go now to Astrid in Ridgewood. Hi, Astrid, thanks for calling All Of It.

Astrid: Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. I want to give a big shout-out to Ice Cream Window in Ridgewood on Woodward Avenue. They are a weekend-only pop-up run by artists and graphic designers, and they make flavors that are inspired by people in the neighborhood's background. The owners are Polish and German, and they have flavors you can't find anywhere else, like Waldmeister, which is made with sweet woodruff, a German herb, and mak, which is Polish for poppy seed.

I think they found a happy medium where the lines get really long because it's just a window and there's only one person scooping, but another worker will come and bring you samples while you're waiting online. You get to taste something while you're waiting and hanging out. Then by the time you get to the front, you're ready to order. It's my favorite thing to do on the weekends.

Kate Hinds: Sonal, you immediately pointed to Willa.

Sonal Shah: Well, she's been there. I have just seen it on social media where they have a very cute Muppet that goes. I think that's the one where the Muppet goes and tastes the ice cream, and it's just adorable. Adorable on account you should go follow them.

Willa Moor: I went there last summer, and I did try the mak, that poppy seed flavor, and it was great. I love how the shop feels like something out of a Wes Anderson movie, really funky. I enjoyed it a lot.

Kate Hinds: We have so many texts and so many calls. I'll just read a couple of the texts. You were all too young to remember Jahn's or Jahn's. It's spelled J-A-H-N-S, in Richmond Hill. There will never be a better ice cream parlor, ever.

Willa Moor: I have been to, I think, Jahn's. They started as an ice cream parlor, and then they closed a bunch of locations, but they still have one in Queens. It's also a diner with a very robust ice cream menu. I did have a sundae there last year while researching a diner guide that was fantastic. Love it.

Kate Hinds: Then if you're going to Fort Tryon Park or the Cloisters, be sure to stop by the Fountain Bookshop on 187th and Fort Washington. It is a lovely local bookstore with ice cream counter, soda fountain. They have creative flavors, like watermelon, cucumber, sorbet, but also classic soda fountain drinks. It's a local gem. Someone else writes in. "My favorite is Brix Haus, small batch handcrafted ice cream. 406 Rogers Ave on Sterling Street, Brooklyn, New York. Hours, Tuesday, Sunday. Taste of the Tropics in Brooklyn has the best ice cream. Grapenut flavor and soursop is the best."

Willa Moor: We were just talking about soursop and grapenut. Another place I love for grapenut ice cream is Island Pops on Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights. It's my local, and I was telling Sonal she has to try the grapenut.

Kate Hinds: I was noticing when I went through your list, some of them had categories like good for kids, a couple were good for a first date. What makes a good ice cream place good for a first date?

Sonal Shah: I would pick Lai Rai, Chinatown, for that. What's good is that you can also get wine, and that's it. There are a few little snacks and they're very good. They're all Vietnamese snacks, but mainly it's ice cream and wine. It's a cute little place. It's got this marble counter, a chill vibe. You can hang out as long as you want. I think those are all good first date things. You can get a whole bottle if it's going well, or you could just have a glass if it's not and get the ice cream and leave. They also have some really cool flavors. They have fish sauce, caramel, and banana leaf. They have this amazing amborella, which is a very seasonal tropical fruit that tastes grassy. Anyway, great conversation starters as well.

Kate Hinds: We got a text that came in. It's from three kids, so you know this is highly recommended from Amari, age 9, Marcel, age 7, and Marlo, age 5. "You have to take this train to Scarsdale to Mimi's by Martine's. They have amazing gelato and really yummy cones. Our favorite is wild berries and yogurt, Tiramisu and pistachio. Delish." Thank you so much, Amari, Marcel, and Marlo. Let's take another call. Let us hear from Daniel in Brooklyn. Hi, Daniel, thanks for calling All Of It.

Daniel: Hey, everybody, thanks for taking my call.

Kate Hinds: What did you want to say?

Daniel: Well, I would just like to shout out The Social in Prospect Heights, which is the original owner of Ample Hills, which I think has taken a dive since they got bought out. I think what he's doing at Social represents the original quality and playfulness of that kind of ice cream. Snap, Mallow, Pop! is still an all-time favorite of mine. I would also like to call out my least favorite ice cream shop, Morgenstern, with their zero taste policy, which I think just goes against everything ice cream and ice cream culture stands for, which is fun and playfulness and good vibes.

Actually, the last and final time I was in Morgenstern's was several years ago. It turned out Mr. Morgenstern himself was working the counter. It was a very Curb Your Enthusiasm Larry David moment that culminated with him showing me his driver's license, indicating that he was Morgenstern.

Kate Hinds: I'm just going to cut you off right there to say we actually had him on the show a couple of weeks ago. Because he has released a cookbook, and we talked to him about his no-taste policy, and it was a really great conversation. I encourage All Of It listeners to go back and listen to it. He takes ice cream very seriously. It's fun and lighthearted but serious business. I also did want to shout out one more text. We got Torico in Jersey City. We always hear about Torico. I'm dying to check that out.

Willa Moor: We'll have to check it out. We're working on some Jersey City coverage right now.

Kate Hinds: Sonal, did you want to throw something in there?

Sonal Shah: Oh, no, but there's another Jersey creamery. I think it's called Moo Creamery or something, which I think just started stocking quietly small-- there are small batch ice creams at a bakery in New York. There's definitely some ice cream action going on in Jersey, which we need to check out for sure.

Willa Moor: For sure.

Kate Hinds: Well, I encourage you all to check out The Infatuation's list of best ice cream in New York. I have been speaking with Willa Moor and Sonal Shah. Thank you so much for joining us. Quickly, what ice cream flavor are you going to have tonight, and where are you getting it from?

Willa Moor: I was telling Sonal my most favorite ice cream flavor in the world is chocolate peanut butter. I still am not sure where to get it in New York. I know where to get it in Pennsylvania. If anyone has recommendations, please let me know.

Sonal Shah: I'm going to get some mint chip ice cream, I think. My new gem.

Kate Hinds: Delightful. We will have more All Of It tomorrow when we continue talking about local food. Next up is tacos. If you want to cast your vote for the city's best taqueria, tune in. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you back here tomorrow.