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Each summer, we ready our spoons and palates for the cool and creamy onslaught of new treats arriving in the Bay Area. We strive to always offer a mix — fair and balanced journalists that we are — of artisanally inspired treats and over-the-top sugar bombs meant for your Instagram. This year, you’ll find it all, from thick, taiyaki-style soft-serve in Cupertino to gourmet versions of Good Humor bars in San Francisco. Here are our seven new favorites for summer 2019:
Bi-Rite Creamery, San Francisco
Just in time for summer, the mother of Bay Area small-batch ice cream — and salted caramel fame — has re-opened in the Mission District after a mandatory seismic retrofit. And here’s the real earth-shaking news: New ice cream treats. In addition to the 18 flavors in the scoop case, like Black Sesame, Ricanelas and Ritual Coffee Toffee, look for new vegan flavors, ice cream bars and more. Did we mention the newly expanded seating and colorful mural?
The scoop: Soft-serve stuffed doughnuts. Bi-Rite’s nod to Italian brioche con gelato features brioche doughnuts from San Francisco’s Mr. Holmes Bakehouse filled with Bi-Rite’s vanilla soft-serve ice cream and paired with your choice of dipping sauces, including dark chocolate hot fudge, salted caramel, strawberry basil sauce, and coffee + cream, made with Ritual Coffee.
Details: Open from 11 a.m. daily at 3692 18th St., San Francisco; https://biritemarket.com/creamery
Pop Churros, Newark
Churros and ice cream? Yes, please. Open since March in a shared space with Cali Poke, this shop specializes in custom churros served warm with your choice of glaze and toppings. The massive loop of a churro — choose from ube coconut, s’mores, chocolate almond and more — sits on a mound of cool vanilla soft serve. This Instagrammable treat comes with long lines and chronic sugar highs.
The scoop: We’ll take the Cup of Joe Loop — a warm churro covered in coffee glaze and ground espresso beans atop vanilla soft serve. Breakfast, anyone?
Details: Open from noon Tuesday-Sunday (from 5 p.m. Monday) at 5970 Mowry Ave., Suite E, Newark; www.facebook.comPop-Churros
Humphry Slocombe, Berkeley
In March, the ice cream whizzes behind Secret Breakfast opened their second scoop shop in the East Bay. Located inside the Elmwood space formerly housing Ici, Humphry Slocombe’s newest blue and white tiled shop will serve as a lab of sorts for head ice cream maker Jake Godby’s eclectic creations. He’s already released a collaboration with local candy maker OCHO, and we know there will be many more to come.
The scoop: The bourbon ice cream with corn flakes is their signature, but we’ve been loving a simpler classic: Malted Milk Chocolate, made with Guittard milk chocolate and malt powder. Want something more extreme? Queer Eye S’mores, a scoop of olive oil-laced Cookies & Graham topped with hot fudge and torched fluff, is your jam.
Details: Open daily at 2948 College Ave., Berkeley, and at 2335 Broadway Ave., Oakland; www.humphryslocombe.com
I Scream Donuts, Oakland
This already beloved Temescal ice cream-stuffed doughnut shop moved into the former Tara’s Organic Ice Cream at the beginning of the year. Proprietor Katie Wages pays homage by using all the weird and wonderful Tara’s ice cream flavors — think Sweet Corn, Kaffir Lime Leaf or White Pepper Chocolate Chip — inside still-warm glazed doughnuts from Berkeley’s Rainbow Donuts.
The scoop: There’s something magical about a warm glazed doughnut heat-sealed with coffee ice cream, and we’ve heard the floral offerings, like lavender, are totally ethereal.
Details: Open from 4 p.m. daily at 4731 Telegraph Ave., Oakland; www.iscreamdonuts.com
Cauldron, San Jose
This SoCal institution opened its first Bay Area shop in April, and ice cream fiends have formed lines ever since for homemade, small-batch flavors stuffed into puffle cones made from a sweet, egg-based batter. Ice cream flavors rotate quarterly, but the current menu includes Speckled Vanilla made with imported Madagascar vanilla bean, Sea Salted Caramel Crunch laced with housemade caramel and Sun, Moon & Stars, a creamy blend of oolong, jasmine and green teas.
Details: Open noon to 10 p.m. daily at 1088 E Brokaw Road, Suite 60, San Jose; www.cauldronicecream.com
Lottie’s Creamery, Danville
Open since May in downtown Danville, this micro-creamery specializes in small-batch ice cream made with local and seasonal ingredients. Unique flavors, like Lemon Marshmallow, Rose Cardamom Pistachio and Matcha Candied Kumquat, are scrawled on the blackboard, and the menu changes frequently depending on what’s fresh. Enjoy your cup or cone at a sidewalk table or get a pint or ice cream sandwich to go. The cookies are made fresh in-house, too.
The scoop: The rich, vegan Chocolate Sorbet is a dead-ringer for the dairy stuff. Vanilla Salted Almond Toffee topped with freshly whipped cream is easily the stuff of dreams.
Details: Open daily until 10 p.m. at 145 E. Prospect Ave., Danville. Also in Palo Alto and Walnut Creek; www.facebook.com/LottiesCreamery
SomiSomi, Cupertino
Taiyaki, Japanese fish-shaped cones, blew up around the Bay Area last summer, and this Valley Fair scoop shop from SoCal is riding that wave — with its own spin. They use boong-uh-bbang, a Korean fish-shaped cake typically filled with sweetened red bean paste, as their cone. Fill that with red bean, taro, Nutella or custard and top it with one of nine thick, soft-serve flavors, from chocolate and strawberry to horchata, ube, milk and more. Or better yet, a swirl of two.
The scoop: Do you have to ask? Nutella filling with a swirl of Oreo and milk soft-serve ice cream, of course.
Details: Open noon to 11 p.m. daily at 19540 Vallco Pkwy., Suite 160, Cupertino. Coming soon to Santa Clara and San Francisco; www.somisomi.com
