Davey's has long held the title of my all-time favorite ice cream shop in NYC.
I swear everything about that place is perfect. (Or, I should say, those places - I frequent both the East Village and Williamsburg locations enough that I've had a full cone of almost every flavor on at least one occasion.)
They're open late - they'll never close before 10 PM in the summer, and the East Village location is open until midnight on summer weekends.
All of their ice cream is made on site, so it's super fresh.
Both locations are near a ton of great restaurants, raising the odds that your dinner is followed by some dairy delights.
I've never waited on line longer than 5 minutes, even on a hot June day in Williamsburg.
Every single scooper I've met there is exceptionally friendly. I can't imagine how they would be anything less when they're surrounded by ice cream all day.
Everything on their menu feels familiar, even slightly nostalgic, from the toppings to the flavors to the presentation.
The natural light is always perfect. (Don't pretend this isn't slightly important to you.)
They deliver. That is all.
Here's a rundown of my favorite flavors:
Chocolate Chocolate: Bold chocolate. Not too fudgy, not too bitter. Basically, the ideal chocolate ice cream. Perfect topped with Oreos.
Cookies & Cream: I've heard that this is the flavor that made Davey's famous. The chunks of Oreo cookie are massive and well-mixed throughout the base - none of that microscopic-specks-of-Oreo-powder nonsense. You'll feel like a kid again if you get a scoop of this topped with rainbow sprinkles.
Strong Coffee: Exactly what it sounds like. I swear there's a decent amount of actual caffeine in this. I always get my ice cream in a cone, but if I were ever to get it in a cup, it would be so that I could have Davey's homemade hot fudge on my Strong Coffee ice cream.
Speculoos Chocolate Chip: If you've never had Speculoos cookies, they're cinnamon-y biscuit cookies, made famous by Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter. If you can picture what Speculoos tastes like, now picture chunks of it mixed into the smoothest vanilla ice cream base. Yeah.
(Note: The only flavor I haven't actually tasted is the Roasted Pistachio, and that's nothing against Davey's - I just hate pistachio ice cream.)
Chocolate Chocolate: Bold chocolate. Not too fudgy, not too bitter. Basically, the ideal chocolate ice cream. Perfect topped with Oreos.
Cookies & Cream: I've heard that this is the flavor that made Davey's famous. The chunks of Oreo cookie are massive and well-mixed throughout the base - none of that microscopic-specks-of-Oreo-powder nonsense. You'll feel like a kid again if you get a scoop of this topped with rainbow sprinkles.
Strong Coffee: Exactly what it sounds like. I swear there's a decent amount of actual caffeine in this. I always get my ice cream in a cone, but if I were ever to get it in a cup, it would be so that I could have Davey's homemade hot fudge on my Strong Coffee ice cream.
Speculoos Chocolate Chip: If you've never had Speculoos cookies, they're cinnamon-y biscuit cookies, made famous by Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter. If you can picture what Speculoos tastes like, now picture chunks of it mixed into the smoothest vanilla ice cream base. Yeah.
(Note: The only flavor I haven't actually tasted is the Roasted Pistachio, and that's nothing against Davey's - I just hate pistachio ice cream.)
What to get: Chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich with Speculoos Chocolate Chip ice cream and rainbow sprinkles