Now that the weather is getting warmer and summer is getting closer, it’s time to get outside and enjoy San Diego’s most amazing and unique ice cream shops. There is no better excuse for ice cream than a hot day or a late night craving. We all have our go to ice cream shops and favorite ice cream flavor, but these five San Diego ice cream shops will change the way you look and feel about the sweet treat.
CREAM:
Photo courtesy of @cream_nation on Instagram
CREAM was first opened in Berkley in 2010 and they now have 28 locations in California, Nevada, and Florida. They currently have two locations in San Diego. CREAM offers a wide variety of flavors and toppings… what more could you ask for? On top of that, CREAM has ice-cream cookie sandwiches, brownie ice cream sandwiches, and ice cream tacos. They have ten different cookie flavors that include butter sugar, peanut butter, red velvet, and turtle. Of course, each cookie sandwich can have toppings too.
#spoontip: If you are gluten free or vegan they have six cookie sandwich options for you too.
Photo courtesy of @cream_nation on Instagram
Their ice cream tacos are a great alternative to try instead of the traditional Taco Tuesday. Each ice cream taco comes with three ice cream scoops of your flavor choice and any two toppings.
#spoontip: If you get an ice cream taco on Tuesday it is $1 off.
Photo courtesy of @cream_nation on Instagram
If you are not a cookie lover, they have a brownie ice cream sandwich option for you too. Choose between any ice cream flavor and any topping smushed between either a regular brownie or a brownie with walnuts.
Bobboi Natural Gelato:
Photo courtesy of @bobboi_naturalgelato on Instagram
Bobboi Natural Gelato ice cream shop is located in La Jolla. They use natural, organic, and local ingredients to create their ice cream flavors. Their flavors change on the daily; some include salted caramel, berry lavender, banana bread (pictured above) and charcoal vanilla (pictured below).
Photo courtesy of @bobboi_naturalgelato
Amongst their flavors, they have six dairy free options including blood orange, strawberry and dark chocolate.
#spoontip: check their website for their daily flavors.
Hammond’s Gourmet Ice Cream:
Photo courtesy of @hammondsicecream on Instagram
Hammond’s Gourmet Ice Cream, home of mini ice cream cone flights, now has three locations in San Diego: North Park, Pacific Beach, and Point Loma. Hammond’s offers over 300 flavors of Tropical Dreams super premium ice cream and sorbet made in Hawaii. Super premium means that it is handmade with 18% butterfat, creating that rich and creamy texture.
At Hammond’s it’s too hard to commit to one flavor so they offer many different sizes of ice cream flights. Some of their flavors include honey lavender, blueberry cheesecake, pineapple coconut cream, and chocolate peanut butter oreo.
The Baked Bear:
Photo courtesy of @thebakedbear on Instagram
Baked Bear was opened by two San Diego natives in 2013. They made ice cream even better than it already is with their ice cream sandwiches, brownie sandwiches, and glazed donut ice cream sandwiches. All of their cookie recipes are homemade from scratch and made daily.
Photo courtesy of @thebakedbear on Instagram
At Baked Bear you can make an ice cream cookie sandwich or a brownie ice cream cookie sandwich or a combination of both. Above is a double stacked ice cream cookie and brownie combination sandwich… can you say mouth watering? And of course, who could forget about the toppings.
Photo courtesy of @thebakedbear on Instagram
Along with all their other ice cream sandwiches, Baked Bear goes one step further to give us glazed donut ice cream sandwiches. Who would have thought ice cream could get any better.
Photo courtesy of @thebakedbear
Baked Bear’s most recent creation is the Bear Batter Ice Cream Sundae: blue cake batter ice cream with brownie chunks and fudge.
Pappalecco:
Photo courtesy of @pappalecco on Instagram
Pappalecco is not only an ice cream shop, but an Italian cafe too. Pappalecco is in the heart of Little Italy. They sell sandwiches, lattes, and gelato of course.
Photo courtesy of @pappalecco on Instagram
Pappalecco offers the traditional decadent gelato flavors such as nutella, hazelnut, mixed berry, and stracciatella. In addition to their gelato they have an amazing affogato; a scoop of vanilla ice-cream with a shot of espresso poured on top.
Photo courtesy of @pappalecco on Instagram
Lastly, Pappalecco stuffs a soft and flaky croissant with two scoops of gelato creating a wonderful combination of creamy and buttery flavors.