Big Gay Ice Cream Truck
Multiple locations: Find him on Twitter
Trailblazing founder Doug Quint turns the Mister Softee model on its head, pairing soft-serve with toppings like cayenne pepper and Trix cereal. His chocolate-cookie sandwiches might combine chocolate or vanilla with anything from Nutella to candied bacon, $4.
Insomnia Cookies
50 W. 8th St., nr. MacDougal St.; 212-228-2373
NYU kids’ late-night fix bookends vanilla-fudge ice cream with a pair of warm cookies baked in-house including chocolate chunk, M&M, peanut-butter chip, and s’mores, $3.
Three Tarts
164 Ninth Ave., nr. 20th St.; 212-462-4392
A better description for these patties might be portable ice-cream cakes: lemon cake layering lavender-lemon ice cream and honeycomb crunch gets cut into handheld squares and the same process goes for triple-chocolate ice cream and cake, $4.25.
Stogo
159 Second Ave., at 10th St.; 212-677-2301
Dairy- and gluten-averse can have a happy ending at this dairy-free ice-cream shop, where they combine Babycakes chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies with any specially made flavor, including vanilla-coconut and bananas foster, $5.35.
Peter Pan Donut and Pastry Shop
727 Manhattan Ave., nr. Norman Ave., Greenpoint, Brooklyn; 718-389-3676
Four words we can’t believe didn’t get put together sooner: Doughnut. Ice Cream. Sandwich. Choose old-fashioned or red-velvet-cake doughnut plus pistachio, vanilla, chocolate, cookies and cream, or strawberry ice cream, $3.50.
Sweet Revenge
62 Carmine St., nr. Bedford St.; 212-242-2240
Ciao Bella turned up in our favorite ice-cream sandwiches from 2006, and here their chocolate, vanilla, or mango gelati (and sorbetti) get swiped into housemade peanut butter, English ginger, cranberry pecan, and, of course, chocolate chip cookies, $7.
Xie Xie
645 Ninth Ave., nr. 45th St.; 212-265-2975
This newcomer to the Asian-sandwich trend also advances the frozen-dessert category by smearing their own cocoa tuille cookie with caramel-infused ice cream, $4.