Feature

Taste Taste: Ice-Cream Sandwiches

Not to take anything away from the bar, the stick, or the cone, but the quintessential New York ice-cream delivery system is the sandwich— invented on our own gritty streets sometime around the 1890s, long before the Chipwich. Eight of the best, below.

By Robin Raisfeld & Rob Patronite
Published Aug 20, 2006

(Photo: Donald Bowers)

One Girl Cookies
68 Dean St., nr. Smith St., Boerum Hill, Brooklyn; 212-675-4996; $3
The tiniest, and the best of the bunch. One Girl spackles its cakey pumpkin or chocolate “whoopie” cookies with no less than Il Laboratorio del Gelato ricotta gelato.

Ciao Bella Gelato
Grand Central Market, entrance on Lexington and 44th Street; 212-867-8346; two for $7.25
A collaboration between the ice-cream company and Eleni’s cookies of Chelsea Market, this regulation-size sandwich holds together well, and the coffee ice cream’s delicious.

Bierkraft
191 Fifth Ave., nr. Berkeley Pl., Park Slope, Brooklyn; 718-230-7600; $4.95
The best ice-cream brownie-sandwich you’ll ever find in a beer shop. It’s made with Michel Cluizel chocolate, Il Lab vanilla-chocolate-chunk gelato, and Tilburg’s Dutch Brown Ale.

Milk & Cookies
19 Commerce St., nr. Seventh Ave. S. 212-243-1640; $4.28
You pick your cookie from a choice of fifteen, and a moody tattooed countergirl will make your sandwich to order with any of the Il Lab gelato flavors of the day.

’Wichcraft
60 E. 8th St., nr. Broadway, and various Manhattan addresses; 212-780-0577; $3.50
A sleek shape from pastry chef Erica Davis that tastes as good as it looks. There’s one flavor per day. Don’t miss the peanut-butter-ice-cream-and-chocolate-cookie combo.

Ruby et Violette
457 W. 50th St., nr. Tenth Ave. 212-582-6720; $6
The brownie with the fromage-blanc gelato is superb, and the lemon-and-white-chocolate-chunk cookie with mango gelato ($5) is a rare instance of white chocolate not ruining everything.

Jacques Torres Chocolate
350 Hudson St., at King St.; 212-414-2462; $5
Dense and super-chocolaty chocolate-chunk cookies with a choice of vanilla, chocolate, or hazelnut ice cream. Oddly reminiscent (in a good way) of Good Humor’s Candy Center Crunch, the ice-cream bar with a chocolate bar tucked inside.

Otto
1 Fifth Ave., at 8th St. 212-995-9559; $3.50
This is what Sicilians eat for breakfast: a scoop of gelato (try the justly famous olive-oil flavor, or maybe the lemon sorbetto) tucked into a dainty brioche bun.