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A relative newcomer on the St. Louis ice cream scene, this Benton Park shop is known for its small-batch, locally sourced ice cream. It’s offered in flavors such as peachy dream and Reese’s peanut butter heaven, which you can sample in store and have packed up by the pint to take home.
Open year-round in Glen Carbon and seasonally in Edwardsville, Annie’s has a wide array of homemade custard available to take home in quarts. Favorites include fresh peach, black raspberry with chocolate chunks, and orange Dreamsicle. Annie’s also offers a 98 percent fat-free vanilla option, as well as a sugar-free option. Cakes and pies are available, too. And be sure to check out a mini-Mississippi Mud pie.
Drive through Maryville on IL-159, and you’ll notice a crowd in front of a flashy retro drive-in that looks like it could have been in American Graffiti. Frozen custard is made fresh every hour, and you can order it plain or fancy. Lots of folks love the famous Turtle sundae. Take-home half-pints are available in six flavors, and quarts come in vanilla or chocolate. Specialty flavor quarts need to be ordered in advance, as do ice cream pies and cakes. A drive-thru lane is available, too.
After initially experimenting with mint from her garden and later on her farm, Rachel Burns learned to make fresh mint ice cream. That experiment gave birth to her wonderful ice cream brand, Bold Spoon Creamery, which is known for its all-natural gourmet flavors, such as brown butter with miso caramel and goat cheese with fig jam.
Clementine’s Naughty & Nice Ice Cream
Tamara Keefe’s creamery began as a humble Lafayette Square ice cream parlor, but it’s grown into a powerhouse of a brand, thanks to her creative flavors, such as Italian butter cookie and decadent coffee, as well as boozy concoctions like maple pecan bourbon and pink champagne sorbet. Oprah herself deemed Clementine’s gooey butter ice cream the “sexiest ice cream alive,” a ringing endorsement for one of St. Louis’ most thrilling culinary exports.
An icon of the St. Louis dining scene, Crown Candy has been dazzling diners for more than a century with its handmade chocolates, malts, and shakes. Its homemade ice cream, still made in an antique copper kettle, is beloved for its rich texture. Flavors such as black cherry, pineapple, and chocolate are sold by the pint or quart at the restaurant; they’re good on their own or make the perfect at-home milkshake.
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Famous for its homemade orange sherbet, the family-run ice cream stand in Caseyville, Illinois, is open from spring through fall. It’s cash-only and has a drive-thru and pickup windows. Take-home ice cream options include soft-serve vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, and twists: orange, chocolate, and strawberry. A wide array of shakes, malts, concretes, sundaes, cones, floats, and slushes are listed on a big board. Don’t miss the Big Wheel Ice Cream Sandwiches and house-made Drumsticks.
A Florissant institution (with an additional location in St. Charles), this custard shop is known for its wonderful concretes, which rival the bigger names in town. Dine in or roll through the drive-thru window for concoctions topped with anything you can imagine, or take home a fresh-packed pint or quart of its famous custard, a four-pack of handmade drumsticks, or a six-pack of ice cream sandwiches.
Mr. E’s Donut and Custard Shop is located at Eckert’s Belleville Farm, where the complex includes pick-your-own fruit fields and orchards, the country store, the country restaurant, a garden center, and the Cider Shed entertainment venue. Homegrown fruits (currently blackberries and peaches) are among the toppings for concretes and sundaes, and a specialty sundae called The Apple Knocker is a slice of Dutch Apple Pie with caramel and pecans. There’s even a doughnut sundae made from a homemade cider doughnut. The pickup window is open daily.
Located on The Hill and in Kirkwood, this delightful shop offers a transportive trip to an Italian gelateria without having to hop on a plane. Flavors, which can be packed up by the pint or quart, change regularly, but be on the lookout for delights such as amaretto and chocolate hazelnut, as well as non-dairy offerings such as pineapple and pink grapefruit.
This Shaw neighborhood gem is known for its nitro ice cream, a process which flash-freezes the confection in an instant for a silky smooth texture. While the ice cream is great to enjoy right off the presses, it makes an equally enjoyable take-home treat, available by the pint in vanilla or cherry cordial flavors.
When you hear the name Jilly’s, the first things that come to mind are its outrageously delicious cupcakes, which put the shop on the map. The café puts the same care into its ice cream, however, as it does its famous baked goods. The Delmar shop offers several flavors of handcrafted ice cream, such as Cuban coffee, chocolate fudge swirl, and blackberry passion fruit sorbet, by the pint for pickup. Or they will deliver to your doorstep—a dangerous proposition indeed.
Gerard Craft’s essential Italian dining spot in is known for its excellent homemade pizzas and pastas, as well as its handcrafted gelato, in flavors such as black raspberry swirl, sprinkle cake, and pistachio. You can get these chef-driven frozen delights by the pint at the restaurant in Clayton.
Considered by many to be the pioneer of locally made ice cream, Ronnie’s has been dazzling St. Louis with its sorbet, ice cream, and delectable Rocky Mountain chocolate- and peanut-covered cones since 1979. Mostly, the brand shows up at restaurants around town such as Hi-Pointe Drive-In, Mac’s Local Eats, and the newly opened Four Hands + Peacemaker at Kirkwood, but you can also grab the ice cream to go at Half Pint by The Annex in Webster Groves.
For two decades, Beckie Jacobs’ Serendipity has been a staple of the local ice cream scene, thanks to her charming scoop shop and placement on some of the best restaurant dessert menus in town. You can also stop by the Grove location to grab some of her sweet treats by the pint—hand-packed from current offerings such as cookie monster and blueberry cheesecake, or pre-packed with classics such as gooey butter and gold coast chocolate.
The beloved frozen custard spot may be synonymous with customizable concretes enjoyed from the walk-up window or drive-thru line, but Silky’s offers its delectable, impossibly rich custard in chocolate, vanilla, or specialty flavors by the quart to enjoy from the comfort of your own home.
Sugarwitch’s ice cream sandwiches and novelties, such as choco tacos, are the taste of St. Louis summer, but the Carondelet shop also offers its outstanding milk-based and vegan ice cream on their own via store pickup or delivery. Flavors are whimsical and creative, such as rainbow cereal milk, chili cherry chocolate milk, and vegan matcha Oreo.
The biggest name in St. Louis frozen treats sells its magnificent concoctions online and at select grocery stores. (There are several always-stocked flavors, but you can special-order additional ones.) Now, you can stock up your home freezer for anytime a craving hits.
Cones, concretes, floats, and sundaes can be enjoyed via a walk-up window or inside this downtown Belleville institution, which opened in 1947. You can choose from ‘hard’ homemade ice cream or soft-serve. A freezer case is stocked with such items as ice cream sandwiches (with either chocolate wafers or chocolate chip cookies) and ice cream pies (in such flavors as Grasshopper, Oreo, and Turtle), in addition to pints and quarts. White Cottage also offers sugar-free quarts, as well as take-home toppings.
