Quest for Rye’s Best: Ice Cream

Nothing says summer like a big scoop of ice cream.

It's the perfect cool-you-down treat on a hot day or after an afternoon at the beach. As the weather hits a sweltering 80 plus degrees, what better time is there to sample a few scoops of the Rye area's best ice cream?

Each of the four parlors I visited—Paleteria Fernandez in Port Chester, Longford's in Rye, Little Scoops and Steiner's Last Licks in Rye Brook—had something unique to offer, but one surpassed all the others.

My first stop, Longford's Own Made Ice Cream, may be the most popular place to get ice cream in Rye. Many of the local restaurants serve Longford's for dessert and it's impossible to walk around Rye without seeing someone carrying a cup or cone from this well-known ice cream parlor. Because of this, I was expecting a lot from Longford's and maybe I was expecting too much. A lover of all things coffee, I sampled the regular size espresso coffee chip in a sugar cone ($4.50). The smooth coffee ice cream made locally was very creamy and broken up nicely with loads of chips of espresso. While the ice cream wasn't bad, I found it a little sweeter than I was expecting, especially for the flavor I was sampling. Longford's may be a little sweet, but it's location in the center of Rye is perfect for those who want to grab a quick scoop to satisfy their sweet tooth.

Located in the center of Port Chester, the small Paleteria Fernandez, with its teal colored exterior, paletas (ice-popsicles) and nieves (ice cream), transports visitors to Mexico, the native country of Paleteria's owners. Made fresh at the ice cream parlor, the vanilla and chocolate ice cream served here isn't what you'd typically expect. The place was packed on recent Saturday afternoon and I couldn't resist trying both the lemon and strawberry ice cream ($2.50 for a small). Made in traditional Mexican sweet cream fashion, the ice cream has a different texture than typical ice cream and is thicker and sweeter. Both the lemon and the strawberry were refreshing on a hot day, and I could easily taste the fresh fruit from which the ice cream was made. While the strawberry was hard and slow to melt, the lemon was the exact opposite, soft and with a flavor that melted both in your mouth and your hands.

With its sports-themed parlor, Last Licks, on the border of Port Chester and Rye Brook, is probably one of the most unique ice cream places around. However, the limited selection of flavors was disappointing, so I settled on mint chocolate chip in a cup ($3.50). While not as creamy as Longford's ice cream, Last Licks also wasn't overly sweet, which gave the ice cream a pleasant taste and a smooth texture.

Little Scoops in Rye Brook was the final spot on my ice cream tour. The small chocolate ice cream I had ($2.50) was one of the larger portion sizes, making this parlor the most affordable. While Little Scoops didn't offer a ton of flavors, I loved that sprinkles didn't cost anything extra and that I was able to put them on myself from the sprinkle shakers at the table. Little Scoops is probably best known for holding parties on the weekends and is only open Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm. Though the ice cream was nothing special (it may have been Edy's brand), it wasn't a complete disappointment. The 1950s-themed restaurant is probably the most affordable ice cream parlor out of all the establishments I visited, so if you're going for value, Little Scoops might suit you just fine. 

The Verdict: The Rye area has a lot to offer in the way of ice cream, from traditional to themed parlors and more exotic fare. But based solely on taste, the freshly homemade ice cream at Paleteria Fernandez out scoops the competition.