Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
MN Nice Cream
Summer wouldn’t be summer without ice cream. Take the ice cream out of lazy days and lakeside festivals, baseball games and small-town parades, and you’ve got a hole in your summer psyche. As we bask in those sun-drenched days (all 11 of them), it feels right to have a sticky rivulet of soft serve flowing down your arm. These days, it’s not just the ice cream, but a teetering tower of sprinkles, candies, cookies, and edible glitter. Think of this mega-cone as the embodiment of summer: We always want more, and just this once, you can have it.
Who invented soft serve? Competing legends claim ownership. Some trace the invention back to New York, in 1936, and a man named Tom Carvel; others credit the Illinois creators of Dairy Queen, in 1938. We do know that in the late ’40s, a young chemist named Margaret Thatcher worked with Mister Softee to develop a soft-serve recipe for Britain. Later on, she gained some notoriety for the lesser achievement of becoming prime minister of Great Britain.
MN Nice Cream
When Katie Romanski decided to launch a soft-serve ice cream truck in 2016, she had no idea how popular it would be. After a couple years garnering epic lines at festivals and fairs, she realized she would need a store. Her first MN Nice Cream location, in Northeast, gave her a bigger laboratory for her fantastical ice cream creations. Her colorful cones, with their electric flavors and eye-popping candies on top, have become Instagram celebrities on their own. Plus, it’s all lactose-free, and some options are vegan. Her second location in Stillwater just opened last month. 807 NE Broadway St., Minneapolis
Conny’s Creamy Cone
An ice cream shack at sundown, with bikes piled on the sidewalk, and picnic tables loaded with neighbors: Is this your picture of paradise? At St. Paul’s favorite spot, Conny's Creamy Cone, off Dale at Maryland Avenue, you can choose from more than 24 different soft-serve flavors: pistachio nut, cotton candy, Irish cream. They’re only open seasonally, which means in the 90 days of summer you can get through a three-peat of every flavor (and a fourth round for your faves). 1197 N. Dale St., St. Paul
The Cone Conundrum
Of course, you can have it in a cup. But why would you settle, when you can follow the brilliant inspiration that comes to us from Hong Kong: bubble waffles? At Waffle Bar in Lyn-Lake, you can pile your ice cream and toppings into a magical bulbous wrapping. 2758 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis
Straight From the Dairy
Don’t care for the frills: the mountains of toppings you weigh by the metric ton? Purists looking for a straight-up cup of cold, dairy-pure soft serve can head to the stainless steel counter at Plainview Milk Products Cooperative Dairy Store. Mix your chocolate with your vanilla and add a plop of raspberry if you want: You literally (soft) serve yourself. A small cup costs $1.25. 1701 Vermillion St., Hastings
