The scoop on D.C. ice cream

I scream, you scream. Let’s face it, we would all kick, holler and yell for great ice cream. In an era of calorie counting, throw caution to the wind and enjoy all the many splendors that this frozen treat brings. As summer approaches and the need for such a treat grows stronger, here is a guide to the best ice cream parlors in the D.C. metropolitan area.

• Pop’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream, 109 King Street, Alexandria, Va. (703) 518-5374

The unlit gas lanterns sit atop the wooden shop signs that swing feverously in the morning breeze. The black and red King Street trolley tumbles down the uneven black tar roads carrying eager and curious passengers who stare adoringly at the many restaurants and clothing stores that align the streets of Old Town Alexandria. At the end of the 100th block of King Street sits a D.C.-area favorite that features a sweet treat that has pleased patrons for almost 70 years.

Pop’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream features creamy and delectable frozen delights that were developed by the ice cream parlor’s namesake when he was only 12 years old, when he worked as an ice cream vendor on Georgia Avenue. The ice cream became a local favorite and was so popular that former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt would often serve it to her White House guests.

Inside the darkened shop is an array of ice cream flavors that would please even the stingiest of pallets. Although the Top 40 songs that play on the loudspeakers skew the 1940s atmosphere, the Victorian style set-up and the menu bring you back into a time when the most important thing about ice cream was its taste and not the calorie count. With flavors like coffee espresso, apple, mango, and cotton candy, Pop’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream continues to wow its audience with these new flavors and old favorites like chocolate and vanilla, creating an interesting balance between the old and new world of ice cream  flavors. The ice cream parlor also offers orange and blue lemon flavored Italian ice and ice cream liqueurs such as Grand Marnier, rum raisin and Kahlua.

Try one of the special feature flavors, peanut butter.  With its sweet and salty combination, this mocha-brown frozen treat is infused with an added surprise of chocolate chips.  

• Cone-E Island, 2000 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. (202) 822-8460

Just 15 or so miles away from Pop’s and a few blocks from the Foggy Bottom Metro station is another ice cream favorite, Cone-E Island. Along the red-bricked sidewalks sit Brownstone-style townhouses converted into restaurants, boutiques and businesses of all kinds. As if to open the small door that leads to the “eatable” room in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” the glass doors that lead to the ice cream shop open up to a rather large mall simply named 2000 Penn Shops. The neon lights of the sign that displays the Cone-E Island name is the first thing you see as you enter the neighborhood mall area.

The parlor offers the regular ice cream fare; however, Cone-E Island takes ice cream flavoring a step further with concoctions like Dulce de Leche, Scout’s Mint Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Éclair. Though the unique single-lane style shop does not leave much space for indecision, the super friendly staff is very patient and willing to suggest popular flavors to new customers or to those overwhelmed by the variety of ice cream flavors and more than 18 candy toppings.  Cone E-Island also offers candy bar (Snickers, Milky Way and peanut butter) influenced brownies called Fantasy Bars, Skinny Minnie frozen yogurt and tropical smoothies.

Try the weirdly but amusingly named Muddy Sneakers. This chocolate chips, nougat and caramel delight smothered in vanilla ice cream is one of the shop’s most enjoyed ice cream flavors.

• Gifford’s Ice Cream and Candy Co., 7237 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, Md. (301) 907-3436

Past the luxury high-rise apartments and the perfectly sculptured shrubbery are avenues and boulevards full of trendy boutiques and coffee shops that make up the cosmopolitan Bethesda Row area. Nestled between Bethesda Row Cinema and Mon Ami Gabi restaurant is the 70-year old confectionery staple Gifford’s Ice Cream and Candy Company.

Behind the doors of this baby blue, yellow and cream-colored haven is a world of custom and homemade cakes, candy and ice cream that is known by Washingtonians and patrons alike, as a place where memories are made. Gifford’s is more than an ice cream parlor but an innovator of new ice cream flavors such as egg nog, honeydew, Andes Chip, champagne, and Coffee Oreo, to name a few. 

The flavors are so extensive that they even split them into four distinct categorizes, Vanilla and Coffee, Cookie and Candy, Chocolate and Liqueur, and Fruit and Nut flavors. Gifford’s also offers homemade butterscotch, Swiss, and hot fudge sauces, fruit flavored sorbets, and shakes.

Try any of the featured flavors of the month, especially the blood orange sorbet and the Thai Iced Tea ice cream.