Ice cream sandwiches are a nostalgic dessert. Many of us probably remember the good old days of unwrapping the decadent rectangles from sticky parchment paper and licking our fingers clean of cookie residue. But in St. Louis, there are many places you can find ice cream sandwiches outside the grocery store. Relive those childhood days by visiting these local ice cream shops that are serving their own version of the summer favorite.
There’s a wide variety of ice cream sandwiches at Colleen’s in University City. They differ from week to week, but you might find popular combinations such as Colleen’s Death by Chocolate cookie with strawberry ice cream or others such as a ginger cookie with peach ice cream and vanilla bean ice cream sandwiched between two campfire cookies – made with oats, rice cereal, marshmallows and chocolate-marshmallow cream. All of the ice cream and cookies are made in house.
314.727.8427, colleenscookies.com
Next time you pop in Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams‘ Central West End shop, try the rotating, seasonal ice cream sandwiches made with its from-scratch ice cream. For example, tangy goat cheese ice cream with tart red cherries is sandwiched between cookies spiced with molasses, ginger, cinnamon and clove, or there’s a sandwich made up of chewy oatmeal cookies and chamomile-Chardonnay ice cream.
314.367.1700, jenis.com
At Tower Grove Creamery, you can find classic ice cream sandwich flavors (vanilla and chocolate) sandwiched by two chocolate chip cookies that are baked in-house. Sometimes sandwiches are made with Tower Grove’s specialty flavors such as birthday cake or mint chip. The ice cream shop also occasionally offers jumbo ice cream sandwiches made with cookies twice the normal size.
314.772.2456, towergrovecreamery.com
Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery offers a twist on the classic ice cream sandwich: The shop’s macaron Nice Cream Sandwich features macaron cookies from pastry chef Simone Faure’s renowned La Patisserie Chouquette in Botanical Heights. The flagship boozy ice cream parlor in Lafayette Square (a second location recently opened in De Mun) currently offers flavors such as strawberry with balsamic, gooey butter cake, pistachio-rosewater and more for their “nice cream” sandwiches. Stay tuned for more sweetness, as the shop is opening locations in Southampton and more.
314.858.6100, clemetinescreamery.com
The famed cookie shop out of Columbia now has locations in the Central West End and Clayton. At Hot Box Cookies, you can create your own delicious ice cream sandwich with a selection of Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery flavors: Madagascar vanilla, gooey butter cake and salted crack caramel. The sandwich is completed with your choice of Hot Box cookie. To make the experience as fun as possible, try choosing two different cookies for the top and bottom half of the sandwich.
314.5899.0909, hotboxcookies.com
Editor’s Note: This story was first published in July 2016. It was updated in May 2017.
Written by Sarah Kloepple. Photo of Collen’s by Jonathan Gayman, photo of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams courtesy Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, photo of Tower Grove Creamery by Jonathan Gayman, photo of Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery by Adam Taylor and photo of Hot Box Cookies by Mabel Suen. This article appears courtesy of Feast Magazine. Feast Magazine is dedicated to broadening the conversation about food and engaging a large, hungry audience of food lovers.