Ice Cream Venues of Greater Cleveland
Many years ago butterandjelly assembled a list of all the ice cream places she went to in a year. Her list started as aspiration and ended as a historical record. As someone who greatly enjoys ice cream myself, I thought having a similar list might be useful for my own purposes. I whipped this up off the top of my head, so I'm sure I missed a few things. Feel free to suggest some. No rankings are implied by the order here.
The Best of the Best
1. Mitchell's - Rocky River and several other locations. Probably the overall best ice cream in the Cleveland area.
2. Malley's - Lakewood and two more locations. The best place for old fashioned sundaes, and I can walk to the one in Lakewood.
3. Tommy's - Coventry. The best milkshake in Cleveland. Or possibly in the world.
Does Something Really Well
4. Cone Zone - West Park. Lots and lots of soft serve options.
5. Ice Cream Joy - Lakewood. Near my house, with a nice selection of delicious interesting flavors made on site.
6. BA Sweeties - Connected to a candy warehouse store with minigolf, and it has interesting flavors.
7. Cowhaus Creamery - Oberlin. If this was closer to Cleveland it might surpass Mitchell's in my heart.
8. Menchie's - Lakewood and several other locations. It's a frozen yogurt chain, but sometimes you just want to pay by the pound for vast quantities of toppings.
9. Dairy Queen - Lakewood and many other locations. Yeah, it's a big corporate chain, but an Oreo Blizzard is one of my all time favorites.
10. Piccadilly - University Circle. Liquid nitrogen ice cream is fun to watch being made.
11. Mason's Creamery - Ohio City. They have the most inventive different flavors, like black sesame (which is delicious).
Not Unique, But Still Tasty
12. Jeni's - Chagrin Falls. Lots of interesting house flavors, like Ice Cream Joy and Cowhaus.
13. Graeter's - Westlake. Basically, the Mitchell's of Cincinnati.
14. Addicted - Lakewood. The second ice cream / coffee shop to open near my house (after Ice Cream Joy) has basic ice cream options.
15. Scoops - Tremont. Old fashioned ice cream parlor.
16. Honey Hut - Old Brooklyn and other locations. If Mitchell's wasn't a thing, they might be the best in town.
17. Popcorn Shop - Chagrin Falls. This place has been around since 1875, but with Jeni's just across the bridge it's not even the best in sight.
18. Sweet Moses - Gordon Square. Another old fashioned ice cream shop.
19. Strickland's - Cuyahoga Falls. A custard place; they used to have one in Coventry and it was quite good.
20. Pierre's - Progressive Field. It's right by my season tickets, so I eat it quite often although it's comparatively pedestrian next to most of these.
Restaurants with Good Milk Shakes
21. Flipside - Rocky River, Chagrin Falls. Burger joint with good milkshakes.
22. Red Lantern - West Park. Like Deagan's, but with boozy milkshakes.
I Have Not Been But Am Curious
23. Weber's Frozen Custard - Fairview Park. Several people have told me they have great custard.
24. Dairy King. North Olmsted. I'm mostly entertained that somebody actually went with that name, but supposedly it has great custard.
25. Mootown Creamery - Berea. It was on butterandjelly's list, but I have not heard of it otherwise.
26. Rosati's - Northfield. A summer only place.
Ice cream is one of those things where so far as I can tell there's no geographic region that has the best ice cream in the world. There seems to be a ceiling of ice cream quality, which Mitchell's, Mason's and a few other places hit. I've had some great ice cream in other cities - Salt & Straw (PDX and San Fran) and McConnell's (Santa Barbara) come to mind - but I'm not sure I've ever had ice cream so great that it would justify travel all its own.
The Best of the Best
1. Mitchell's - Rocky River and several other locations. Probably the overall best ice cream in the Cleveland area.
2. Malley's - Lakewood and two more locations. The best place for old fashioned sundaes, and I can walk to the one in Lakewood.
3. Tommy's - Coventry. The best milkshake in Cleveland. Or possibly in the world.
Does Something Really Well
4. Cone Zone - West Park. Lots and lots of soft serve options.
5. Ice Cream Joy - Lakewood. Near my house, with a nice selection of delicious interesting flavors made on site.
6. BA Sweeties - Connected to a candy warehouse store with minigolf, and it has interesting flavors.
7. Cowhaus Creamery - Oberlin. If this was closer to Cleveland it might surpass Mitchell's in my heart.
8. Menchie's - Lakewood and several other locations. It's a frozen yogurt chain, but sometimes you just want to pay by the pound for vast quantities of toppings.
9. Dairy Queen - Lakewood and many other locations. Yeah, it's a big corporate chain, but an Oreo Blizzard is one of my all time favorites.
10. Piccadilly - University Circle. Liquid nitrogen ice cream is fun to watch being made.
11. Mason's Creamery - Ohio City. They have the most inventive different flavors, like black sesame (which is delicious).
Not Unique, But Still Tasty
12. Jeni's - Chagrin Falls. Lots of interesting house flavors, like Ice Cream Joy and Cowhaus.
13. Graeter's - Westlake. Basically, the Mitchell's of Cincinnati.
14. Addicted - Lakewood. The second ice cream / coffee shop to open near my house (after Ice Cream Joy) has basic ice cream options.
15. Scoops - Tremont. Old fashioned ice cream parlor.
16. Honey Hut - Old Brooklyn and other locations. If Mitchell's wasn't a thing, they might be the best in town.
17. Popcorn Shop - Chagrin Falls. This place has been around since 1875, but with Jeni's just across the bridge it's not even the best in sight.
18. Sweet Moses - Gordon Square. Another old fashioned ice cream shop.
19. Strickland's - Cuyahoga Falls. A custard place; they used to have one in Coventry and it was quite good.
20. Pierre's - Progressive Field. It's right by my season tickets, so I eat it quite often although it's comparatively pedestrian next to most of these.
Restaurants with Good Milk Shakes
21. Flipside - Rocky River, Chagrin Falls. Burger joint with good milkshakes.
22. Red Lantern - West Park. Like Deagan's, but with boozy milkshakes.
I Have Not Been But Am Curious
23. Weber's Frozen Custard - Fairview Park. Several people have told me they have great custard.
24. Dairy King. North Olmsted. I'm mostly entertained that somebody actually went with that name, but supposedly it has great custard.
25. Mootown Creamery - Berea. It was on butterandjelly's list, but I have not heard of it otherwise.
26. Rosati's - Northfield. A summer only place.
Ice cream is one of those things where so far as I can tell there's no geographic region that has the best ice cream in the world. There seems to be a ceiling of ice cream quality, which Mitchell's, Mason's and a few other places hit. I've had some great ice cream in other cities - Salt & Straw (PDX and San Fran) and McConnell's (Santa Barbara) come to mind - but I'm not sure I've ever had ice cream so great that it would justify travel all its own.