Hamptons Verified

Cold dessert

Ice Cream

Where to get ice cream on the East End. Old soda fountains, roadside soft-serve, seasonal scoop shops. Honest about which have the line and which are quiet enough to walk up to.

Breakfast: coffee + early morning countersBeaches: the canonical post-beach moveSunset: pair a late scoop with golden hour

Filters15 scoop shops

7 spots

  • Frozen yogurt · Southampton

    BuddhaBerry Southampton

    Self-serve frozen yogurt and sorbet, with smoothies, bubble tea and coffee at the same counter

    The Southampton branch of a small East End group. Its own locations page lists a full seven-day week with no seasonal note, but the sibling shop in Sag Harbor is already filed summer-only here after a manual check, and a seasonal shop wrongly called year-round is the error that sends someone out in February for nothing. Filed summer-only on that basis, checked 2026-08-22. Named with the hamlet, matching data/teens.json, because the plain "BuddhaBerry" is the Sag Harbor shop 14.7 km away — two identical names at two points is exactly what audit-coord-consistency exists to stop.

    Hours · Daily 12 PM – 10 PM

    $Summer onlyParking: street
    Website
  • Soda fountain · Hard serve · Southampton

    Sip 'n Soda

    Homemade ice cream made on the premises since 1958

    The Parash family opened the soda fountain in 1958 and still owns it — the East Hampton Star, writing up the Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen's centennial, calls Sip 'n Soda "still owned by the Parashes to this day." They have been making the ice cream here the whole time: sixteen or so permanent flavors under a seasonal rotation that runs fresh peach and cantaloupe in summer, pumpkin and candy cane in winter. The Lime Rickey is enough of a house move that it now has a storefront of its own. It is the one venue on this list that is also a sit-down breakfast-and-lunch counter, breakfast until noon and lunch after.

    Hours · Breakfast 7:30 AM – 12 PM, lunch 12 PM – close (site posts winter hours only: to 4:30 PM, Sun to 4 PM)

    $Year-roundSeatingParking: street
    Also on /breakfast
    Website@sipnsoda4,715
  • Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen
    Photo: Quintin Soloviev (CC BY 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons
    Soda fountain · Hard serve · Bridgehampton

    Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen

    On-premises hard pack from a kitchen running since 1925

    Opened on Main Street on May 2, 1925 and passed down three times since: the Parash family — who still own Sip 'n Soda in Southampton — sold it in 1943 to the Stavropoulos family, and Gus Laggis bought it from them in 1981. His daughters Jamie Laggis and Maria Laggis Lima run the day to day now, and his son-in-law Mauricio Lima makes most of the ice cream, thirty flavors of it in summer, still on the premises and still, in the family's words, "the old-fashioned way." The menu runs a proper diner breakfast through lunch, so a scoop here usually comes attached to an order of home fries and an egg. It is the morning-or-lunch ice cream answer on the South Fork, not an after-dinner one.

    Hours · Diner hours, breakfast through mid-afternoon (no hours published anywhere; call ahead)

    $Year-roundSeatingParking: street
  • Hard serve · East Hampton

    A La Mode Shoppe

    Handcrafted hard pack from a nut-free, sesame-free, egg-free kitchen

    The rare Hamptons scoop shop where an allergy kid can actually order: handcrafted, small-batch hard pack out of a kitchen the shop describes as nut-free, sesame-free, and egg-free, with gluten-free and dairy-free options running right through the flavor list. Nine of the published flavors are dairy-free, sorbets on top of that. The East Hampton storefront posts the same hours every week with no seasonal caveat, which makes it one of the few on this list you can still count on in February.

    Hours · Sun–Thu 10 AM – 9 PM, Fri–Sat 10 AM – 10 PM

    $Year-roundSeatingParking: street
    Website@alamodeshoppeeasthampton544
  • Hard serve · Fudge + ice cream · Montauk

    Fudge 'n' Stuff

    Hard-pack scoop counter and a fudge kitchen off the Montauk Circle

    On Carl Fisher Plaza off the Circle — a scoop counter and fudge kitchen a minute from the Montauk traffic circle, with candy and popcorn alongside. The operator's own site is a locked storefront that says only that online ordering is off for the summer, so nothing about the flavour board is published anywhere: turn up and look. The scoop shop for the kid who has already seen John's Drive-In three times this week.

    Hours · Daily into the evening in season (the operator publishes nothing; call ahead)

    $Summer onlyParking: lot
    Website@fudgenstuffmtk508
  • Hard serve · Soft serve · Montauk

    John's Drive-In

    Homemade hard pack and soft serve next to a burger and fried clam line

    Since 1967, a roadside walk-up on Montauk Highway that presses its own burgers, fries its own fish, and, in its own words, makes its ice cream on premises. The soft serve is the move after a day at Ditch, but the revolving homemade hard-pack flavors are the reason to come earlier. The queue moves fast because there is no seating — eat on the hood. They stay open year-round, closing for major holidays and the odd snow day, and post no hours at all: the contact page just says to call. You can order ahead through Square for fifteen-minute pickup and UberEats delivers, but the full ice cream menu is walk-up only: "You'll have to visit us in-person for that."

    Hours · Open year-round; the operator publishes no daily hours and asks you to call

    $Year-roundParking: lot
    Website@johnsdrivein6,554
  • Frozen yogurt · Sag Harbor

    BuddhaBerry

    Frozen yogurt, made-to-order crepes and bubble tea, open late

    Not technically ice cream, but the closest thing to a walk-up cold dessert on Sag Harbor Main Street that is actually open late — 10 PM most nights, 11 on Friday and Saturday. Frozen yogurt with the usual fruit-and-Nutella toppings, and a real dairy-free lane: a vegan matcha milkshake built on coconut-milk frozen yogurt and almond milk, dairy-free Ghirardelli dark chocolate sauce over whatever you like. Also pours made-to-order crepes and waffles, bubble tea, and proper espresso drinks if the person you are with cannot commit.

    Hours · Sun–Thu 12 PM – 10 PM, Fri–Sat 12 PM – 11 PM

    $Summer onlySeatingParking: street
    Website@thebuddhaberry5,786

1 spot

  • Hard serve · Shelter Island

    Tuck Shop

    The Mashomack S'mores Sundae, hand-made ice cream cakes, and pints and quarts to take home

    The island's scoop shop, halfway along Menantic Road, and the one place on Shelter Island still handing out cones after the kitchens have shut. Northforker's 2025 round-up calls it an island favourite for coffee, sundaes and ice cream cakes and singles out the Mashomack S'mores Sundae; pints and quarts go home in the cooler bag. It runs on the season rather than the calendar — open through the summer, open late.

    Hours · Daily 11 AM – 11 PM in season

    $Summer onlyParking: lot

2 spots

  • Hard serve · Soft serve · Frozen yogurt · Westhampton Beach

    Shock Ice Cream & Dessert Cafe

    The Carnival Cone cotton-candy cone, twenty-five years on Main Street

    The shop is "celebrating 25 years in the Hamptons" and bills itself as home of the InstaFamous Carnival Cone — a cotton-candy cone the teen crowd treats as an obligation. Ice cream, Italian ice, frozen yogurt, milkshakes. The Main Street walk-up answer after a show at the Performing Arts Center. Its site is a menu and a mood board with no address and no hours on it, so check before you make the drive.

    Hours · Afternoon into the evening (the operator publishes no hours; call ahead)

    $Summer onlySeatingParking: street
    Website@shockicecream2,099
  • Hard serve · Hampton Bays

    Gemelli Gelato

    Gelato made on site, plus a gelato cart the owners take to events across Long Island

    A gelateria rather than an ice cream counter, on the Montauk Highway stretch through Hampton Bays. Their own site announced the 2026 season opening, which is why this is filed summer-only rather than year-round.

    Hours · Daily 1 PM – 9:30 PM

    $Summer onlySeatingParking: lot
    Website

5 spots

  • Hard serve · Riverhead

    Snowflake Ice Cream Shoppe

    Homemade ice cream from 1953 recipes, rotating flavor of the week

    Opened by Herb and Joan Kunitz in 1953 on West Main Street in Riverhead, and the current owners — who took the place over in 1988 "after leaving our Wall Street jobs" — still use the founders' original recipes. The flavor of the week is a low-stakes tour of why a third generation keeps coming; the one running when we checked was mint with dark chocolate flakes and a peanut butter weave, named DJ Jazzy Jif and the Fresh Mints. Open every day of the year until 11 PM, which makes it the rare scoop shop worth an off-season Sunday drive east.

    Hours · Daily 10 AM – 11 PM

    $Year-roundSeatingParking: lot
    Website@snowflakeicecream5,967
  • Hard serve · Soft serve · Mattituck

    Magic Fountain

    Custom homemade flavors in sampler trays, chipwiches, novelties

    "Crafting delight since 1966" is the shop's own line, and it is the canonical North Fork ice cream stop — the reason Main Road traffic backs up at 8 PM on a summer Sunday. Customizable novelties are the specialty: sampler trays of the homemade flavors, six-pack ice cream sandwiches, chipwiches built to order. The parking lot is big enough that the line never actually feels like a line. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday, both of them — plan around it.

    Hours · Thu–Mon, closed Tue and Wed; the operator's own contact page posts both a 10 AM and a noon opening, so call before an early stop. Closes 9 PM.

    $Year-roundSeatingParking: lot
    Website@magic_fountain5,206
  • Hard serve · Greenport

    Amazing Flavors

    A rotating flavor of the week, plus a coffee counter pouring an exclusive blend roasted at Hampton Coffee Company

    A Front Street scoop shop in Greenport village, a short walk from the ferry dock, with a full coffee counter beside the ice cream — which is why Google types it both ice_cream_shop and coffee_shop. It still opens at 1 PM, so it is a dessert stop rather than a breakfast one. Checked 2026-08-22.

    Hours · Sun–Thu 1 PM – 10 PM, Fri–Sat 12 PM – 11 PM

    $Year-roundParking: street
    Website
  • Hard serve · Frozen yogurt · Greenport

    Greenport Creamery

    Homemade ice cream, gelato, sorbet and Greek frozen yogurt, dairy and not

    "Over 48 years making the best homemade ice cream" is the claim, and the range backs it up: ice cream, gelato, sorbet, sherbet, Greek frozen yogurt, gourmet Italian ice, affogato, non-dairy and vegan across most of it, homemade waffle cones, frozen lemonade. A better answer than Ralph's if what you want is one considered scoop rather than a hundred-flavor board. Pricier by a dollar, worth it. It is at 142 Main Street, not the 308 that floats around online. Note the opening date: this one does not unlock until mid-May.

    Hours · Seasonal; 2026 season opens May 15. Operator posts Wed 12–6 PM, Fri 12–10 PM, Sat 12–11 PM, Sun 12–6 PM, closed Mon–Tue (Thursday is disputed — call ahead)

    $$Summer onlySeatingParking: street
    Website@greenport_creamery572
  • Hard serve · Soft serve · Greenport

    Ralph's Famous Italian Ices and Ice Cream

    Over 100 flavors of Italian ice and ice cream, a block off the harbor

    The Greenport outpost of the canonical Staten Island Italian ice shop, on Front Street rather than Main — worth knowing, because the two are a walk apart. Over a hundred flavors, plus sundaes, shakes, smoothies, Twisters, Icebergs and açaí bowls. It opens May 1 for the season and the posted hours carry a "weather permitting" on them, which on the North Fork is not boilerplate. Not the homemade-hard-pack experience of Magic Fountain, but the right answer on the walk back to the car after a Claudio's lunch.

    Hours · Mon–Thu 2 – 8 PM, Fri–Sat to 10 PM, Sun 11 AM – 8 PM (weather permitting)

    $Summer onlyParking: street
    Website@ralphsofgreenport973

Goes straight to a human. Not a public comment.