First it was doughnuts. Then, for a while, it was cupcakes. Now the latest food trend going through Seattle is upscale ice cream parlors. The craze essentially started with the the buzz that built around Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream in Wallingford. Eventually Molly Moon’s opened a store on Broadway, and several competitors followed suit; by last summer four hipster-frequented ice cream shops were open within 3 blocks of Molly Moon’s Capitol Hill location. Although this strip of frozen delight in Pike/Pine is the hippest way to get your fix, it is by no means the only place. Between the new offerings and some old classics you should be able to find the perfect place to cool off on these scorching 65 degree March days.

The Ratings:
★ — Prune Nut
★★ — Fudgesicle
★★★ — Rocky Road
★★★★ — Phish Food

King Deli
★★★
For $2, the soft serve cone you get is enormous. There’s not really much you can do to mess up soft serve, and King Deli hasn’t found a way. The price is right, and it makes a great pairing with ridiculously cheap hot dogs.

Walgreen’s 
★★
Not a very impressive showing, although the store does have fudgesicles and its own brand of ice cream. The ice cream is decent and cheap, though not up to snuff for a discerning ice cream snob.

Cold Stone Creamery
★
The ice cream is pretty good, and it’s hard to say no to mashed up candy bars in a creamy treat. Unfortunately, the ice cream alone is not enough to redeem Cold Stone for their inhumane business practices. I am talking, of course, about how they make their employees sing. They make them sing songs for everything. They make them sing songs when you put bananas in your ice cream. They make them sing songs when you put peanut butter in your ice cream. They make them sing songs when you tip a dollar. A single dollar. Cold Stone Creamery has to be the second most depressing place a person can go to while carrying a stack of ones.

Ben & Jerry’s
★★
Ben & Jerry’s is great, but you can’t find their stores anymore in Seattle; the Broadway and U Village locations both closed. You can still get Ben & Jerry’s in pints at the store, and it’s still delicious, but the experience is significantly less awesome. Still, Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream flavor is one of the best grocery store-bought pints out there.

Molly Moon’s
★★★
The original gourmet ice cream eatery, Molly Moons is leading the pack on Capitol Hill with lines that take half an hour to wait in, even in the dead of winter. Maybe it is the anticipation that is leading to the incredible hype around this place. Molly Moon’s is just okay. It’s not bad by any measure, but it certainly isn’t the second coming of Christ in ice cream form as some suggest. The freshly made waffle cones are very tasty, but the ice cream itself is a little bit bland. Molly Moon’s does have a selection of interesting offbeat flavors, but this is little more than a gimmick. However, their coffee is classically scrumptious, and their bacon maple ice cream is worth a try. Most of the fun in Molly Moon’s isn’t really in the ice cream, though; both locations attract a microcosm of their neighborhoods. People are encouraged to spend some time making their ice cream choice, making Molly Moon’s a leisurely experience with decent ice cream.

Bluebird Homemade Ice Cream and Tea Room
★★★★
Bluebird takes the concept Molly Moon’s started and runs with it effortlessly. The weird flavors are done well; they serve up a snickerdoodle ice cream that tastes like the real thing. Bluebird is next door to the Elysian brewpub, and utilizes this location to make a beer flavor that is actually quite delicious. If you have to choose between Bluebird and Molly Moon’s, choose Bluebird; everyone likes an underdog and the ice cream is just better.

Healeo
★★
This vegan health food store makes hemp ice cream. Instead of milk, Healeo uses a mixture of hemp seeds and water for their base. It sounds weird, and yes, it is weird, but it’s also pretty good. The hemp seeds give it a unique, almost nutty taste. It’s a good option for the lactose intolerant and the lactose unwilling.

Old School Frozen Custard 
★★★★
Old School makes frozen custard that is simple, creamy as hell, and yummy. They don’t have a wide variety of flavors (in fact they only have three at a time: chocolate, vanilla, and a rotating flavor of the day), but it’s so good that vanilla is all you need. The store is furnished with historic pictures of local high schools from the city: Roosevelt, Franklin, and even the now closed Broadway High School. The only one that’s missing? Garfield. Make sure to harass them about this when you stop by to pick up a cone of delicious custard.

Scoopy’s Ice Cream and Deli
★★★
I can’t exactly give this place a recommendation from firsthand experience, since it just opened, but from what I hear, it’s going to be a promising addition to Seattle’s ice cream selections. Plus they’re offering free cones to anyone who stops by next week; hit it up.