Vital NYC Ice Cream Updates from Jacques Torres, Davey's, MilkMade, and More

It might not feel like it today, but summer is upon us and so are this year's spate of ice cream shop openings. On Thursday, chocolate master Jacques Torres will relaunch his Lafayette Street store as an ice cream-only shop with a to-go window serving 25 flavors like wicked (i.e. spicy) chocolate, strawberry balsamic, chocolate banana, vanilla rum caramel, and cantaloupe sorbet. There will also be ice cream sandwiches made with Torres's ultra-chocolate chip cookies. Torres recently opened an ice cream kiosk in Grand Central, and has been selling his popular scoops in DUMBO for a while now, so this isn't exactly new, but it's good news for people hanging out downtown.

This summer should be also be a particularly good one for ice cream fans in Brooklyn. The General Greene, where Nick Morgenstern got his start making the cold stuff, opened its first ice cream shop, Fort Grace Ice Cream earlier this month. And artisanal ice cream mini-chain Van Leeuwen is working on a 50-seat experimentation ground/flagship in Williamsburg. Nearby, David Yoo, of East Village favorite Davey's promises he's opening a shop the old Williamsburg Creamery space late in late June or early July, with a few location-exclusive flavors, a full espresso menu, and a tiny slice of outdoor seating. Oh, and ice cream delivery service MilkMade has gone brick-and-mortar in the old Hay Rosie space in Cobble Hill. The official launch party isn't for another week or so, but it should be scooping flavors like a mint chocolate TimTam Slam by the very end of this month.