by Megan Bungeroth, Annie Denes, Whitney C. Harris, Jon Lentz, Adel Manoukian and Amanda Woods

In honor of the scorching heat and National Ice Cream month, we scouted out a half-dozen frozen treat purveyors on the Upper West Side to find out who’s got the best sweet and cold desserts. Going off the beaten path of national chains, our tasters sampled an array of types—ice cream as well as gelato, sorbet and frozen yogurt—as well as flavors both classic and wacky to give our readers the inside scoop. But we want you to decide who’s got the very best frozen treats; vote for your favorite at nypress.com/best-ice-cream-uws.

Screme Gelato Bar
2030 Broadway, 212-362-2111,
screme.com
One scoop coconut gelato; $5
Flavor: 4
Inventiveness: 3
Value: 4
Brain Freeze: 5
Melt Factor: 1
Presentation: 2
Creaminess: 4

This gelateria uses whole milk instead of the usual cream gelato is made with, a good note for those conscious about their weight. The tiny café holds a minimal amount of flavors that occasionally change and are all unique. If you want a refreshing mojito, look no further: The place has a virgin mojito sorbet. It tastes identical to the drink, with flecks of spearmint leaves. Other interesting flavors include butter cookie, chocolate chip cookie, Snickers and Madagascar vanilla. Screme’s most popular flavor is the chocolate sorbet, probably because it tastes like ice cream but with fewer calories. Their coconut flavor had a nice hint of vanilla. Better save this place for a hot day, as the ice cream is very chilly—yet still creamy as it melts in your mouth. Take your gelato to go; the place has limited seating and no tables.

Emack and Bolio’s
389 Amsterdam Ave., 212-362-2747, emackandbolios.com
Small salted caramel chocolate pretzel ice cream; $4.50
Flavor: 4
Inventiveness: 5
Value: 5
Brain freeze factor: 3
Melt Factor: 4
Presentation: 4
Creaminess: 5

Emack and Bolio’s is a tiny shop, but that didn’t stop many customers, young and old, from stopping in on a Sunday afternoon to grab a few bites of their award-winning ice cream. Emack and Bolio’s has received a Best Dessert in New York City title and a Fruit Smoothie of the Week designation, among others. We tried the salted caramel chocolate pretzel ice cream—though it may seem unusual to combine the sweet and the salty, this is a must-try. The flavors of the chocolate-covered pretzel and the caramel swirl mix well together, and the creaminess of the ice cream doesn’t take away from the pretzel’s crunchiness. No need to worry about melting—this ice cream remained solid and cold, yet perfectly creamy, several minutes into eating it. Try the shop’s popular “Sundae in a Slice,” which looks like a pizza slice, made with a brownie crust, vanilla bean ice cream, hot fudge and marshmallow. If you’re visiting with a group, be sure to try the Emack Attack, a gigantic 20-scoop sundae.

Grom.

Grom
2165 Broadway, 212-362-1837, grom.it/eng
One scoop each of dark chocolate, tiramisu and espresso bean gelato; one scoop of pink grapefruit sorbet; $8.25
Flavor: 4
Inventiveness: 4
Value: 4
Brain Freeze: 5
Melt Factor: 4
Presentation: 3
Creaminess: 5

The stark, clinical aesthetic of this Italian gelato emporium stands in odd contrast to the earth-hugger vibe the company brags about on the wall, proudly proclaiming their organic farm sourcing and recyclable and compostable materials. The flavors, too, belie the cold setting in their ingenuity and similarity to their namesakes. The dark chocolate gelato tastes exactly the way a premium chocolate bar would if it were somehow melted and frozen at the same time, with just a hint of bitterness. It’s best enjoyed along side a creamy, sweet flavor like tiramisu. The espresso gelato delivers a welcome jolt, and the egg-custard-based Crema di Grom flavor is delicious, if a bit too rich for a whole heaping cup. The sorbet selection is fantastic if only for its verisimilitude—the pink grapefruit is spot on and incredibly refreshing.

Épicerie Boulud
1900 Broadway, 212-595-0303,
danielnyc.com/epicerie
Pistachio-black cherry swirl, one scoop; $3. Dark chocolate and blue lemonade, one scoop of each; $6
Flavor: 5
Inventiveness: 3.5
Value: 4
Brain Freeze Factor: 5
Melt Factor: 4.5
Presentation: 3
Creaminess: 5

Start to finish, Épicerie Boulud is everything you would expect from Daniel Boulud. The décor is clean and modern, with the sleek gelato counter accessable from the sidewalk. The staff was friendly and, most importantly, the gelati were well-executed—creamy, flavorful and made with fresh ingredients. The pistachio-black cherry swirl, one of the most popular options, had the right balance of sweetness and nuttiness. Most surprising was the value. At $3 a scoop, you receive a sizeable portion of excellent gelato at the same price as an ice cream bar from a street vendor, making Épicerie Boulud well worth the trip.

16 Handles.

16 Handles
325 Amsterdam Ave., 646-861-1281, 16handles.com
10.7 oz of a Chocolate Love Affair-Coffee Break-Cookies & Cream blend, topped with brownie bites, cheesecake bites, chocolate-covered pretzels, cookie crumbs, Reese’s Pieces and milk chocolate caramel chunks; $6.05
Flavor: 4
Inventiveness: 4
Value: 3
Brain Freeze Factor: 4
Melt Factor: 3
Presentation: 5
Creaminess: 2

If you’re a control freak when it comes to frozen treats, rest assured: 16 Handles allows you to be the master of your own dessert destiny. This self-serve, pay-by-the-ounce frozen yogurt paradise lets you decide what, how much and in what delicious design your cold concoction is prepared. Not one to normally mix and match, I flew “off the handle” and combined three froyo flavors with myriad toppings, creating a symphony of chocolate, caramel, peanut butter and beyond. If you’re a fruit fanatic, 16 Handles offers green apple tart and pomegranate raspberry, begging to be topped with blackberries, kiwi, mango and more. But the urge to indulge needn’t be tempered—nutrition info is displayed above each flavor. Plus, without having to wait for some college kid to muscle your scoops into a cup or cone, you’re in and out of the store faster than you can calculate the calories.

Momofuku Milk Bar.

Momofuku Milk Bar
561 Columbus Ave., 347-577-9504,
milkbarstore.com
Pink lemonade soft-serve; $4.50. Pretzel milk shake; $6.
Flavor: 2
Inventiveness: 4
Value: 2
Brain Freeze Factor: 4
Melt Factor: 4
Presentation: 4
Creaminess: 3

Momofuku Milk Bar, known for its inventive baked goods and addictive pastries, also serves a limited menu of soft-serve ice cream and milk shakes. Sadly, the Upper West Side outpost of the much-talked about East Village original did not live up to the hype. The pink lemonade soft-serve was far too sweet and tart, tasting more like a powdered mix than real lemons and sugar.
The pretzel milkshake, made with cereal milk soft serve, pretzels, salt and chocolate, was too thin and tasted like a melted fudge pop, with just a hint of the cereal milk flavor.

Don’t forget to vote at nypress.com/best-ice-cream-uws!

Just a few of the market offerings at Épicerie Boulud.

The avenues of the Upper West Side, in spots, can feel like someone dropped the Mall of America in the Grand Canyon, a wide-open valley of enormous glass-fronted chain shops and banks. And while elected officials and community members work to change zoning restrictions to prevent this disorienting trend from spreading, there are many spots where it’s already too late.

It’s a community of local favorites—residents know where to go for the best bread, the quiet drink before dinner, the best burger. But these aren’t always obvious to the naked eye. A casual stroller can end up pounding the pavement for hours just to find a non-Starbucks cappuccino, wondering all the while, “This can’t be it, can it?”

No, it can’t. Thankfully, one of the city’s most beloved chefs, Daniel Boulud, has taken it upon himself to relieve these huddled masses, opening not one but three of his eponymous establishments as a beacon to the confused, the hungry, the frustrated. If you have no idea what’s good around you, just look for the magic word “Boulud,” and you know you can stop trying to puzzle it out.

Boulud Sud is a Mediterranean take on his classic French training. Bar Boulud is a more casual approach to that classic French food, minus the starched tablecloths. And Épicerie Boulud is…everything else.

Going to Lincoln Center but have some time to kill beforehand? Taking a stroll in Central Park and want to take along a picnic? Need to pick up something to make for dinner? Épicerie Boulud has you covered.

The market/cafe/bar opened just under a year ago next door to the established Bar Boulud at Broadway and 64th Street, creating a mini-empire on the block. The glass-fronted shop is studded with elbow-height steel tables, with a granite-topped bar along one side and a dazzling array of deli cases stretching the length of the back wall. Baked goods and cashiers take up the other wall, while minimal market shelving separates the shopping and eating zones.

At breakfast you can take your pick from a delicate yogurt parfait to a Spanish egg tortilla. Lunchtime will get you anything from a thoughtfully composed cheese plate to a classic Parisian jambon beurre sandwich (with housemade ham, naturally) and lobster bisque. In the evening, choose from a selection of East and West coast oysters shucked to order or pick up a few éclairs for a late-night treat.

It’s rare that an all-things-to-all-people approach to food is successful, but Épicerie Boulud makes it work. Much of this is thanks to the strength of Boulud’s talent and approachable charm. He comes from a now-endangered species of chef who, while armed to the teeth with accolades and training, ultimately wants to make people happy. He is a chef who, if you want a hamburger, will make you a hamburger—not a deconstructed hamburger or his evocation of the memory of a hamburger, just the best possible hamburger he can make.

This is why one of his perennial bestsellers, so popular it made the leap from his Lower East Side menu to the bar here, is the DBGB dog. Using his impeccable French charcuterie training and his decades of American service, Boulud created a hot dog so perfectly hot doggish it needs no innovation. Similarly, the banh mi uses those same charcuterie skills to make the ubiquitous Vietnamese sandwich a thing both Lincoln Center doyennes and Saigon natives would happily call their own.

It’s a genuine delight to pop into Épicerie Boulud in any state of mind and be able to find just the thing to sate your appetite, but it’s at its best around 7 p.m. That’s when theatergoers lean against the bar with a glass of wine and a dozen oysters, nannies stop in with their charges for a final treat before handing them back to mom and dad and commuters pick up a loaf of bread for the next morning’s breakfast. It’s when it feels most like a community—which, after all, the UWS is.