Junge’s
1850 K St., NW.
Located inside the Square, the Spanish-leaning downtown food hall, Junge’s offers soft-serve that’s all about simplicity: chocolate, vanilla, or swirl. Order the crispy mini churros and use the ice cream as a dipping sauce, or get them with the more classic hot chocolate.
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Malai
1407 T St., NW.
This Logan Circle spot is drawing crowds for a reason: The eggless South Asian-inspired ice cream is really good. Choose from 12 scoop flavors, plus soft-serve, kulfi pops, and pints. We especially love the saffron-kissed Shahi Toast and the crunchy-meets-creamy Spiced Peanut Crunch.
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Shuga x Ice
8200 Dixon Ave., Silver Spring.
This counter in the new Solaire Social food hall serves four African-inspired core flavors–Tea + Bread features pieces of buttered agege bread, while Gbas Gbos has a milk-chocolate base with a kick of peppers. Four more rotating flavors highlight a different African country each month. To come: plantain splits and ice-cream sundaes featuring puff puffs, deep-fried Nigerian dough balls.
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Tipsy Scoop
675 I St., NW.
Yes, you get carded before you buy these boozy scoops in flavors like Dark Chocolate Whiskey Salted Caramel and Cake Batter Vodka Martini. The Chinatown “barlour” is known for its tasting flights and maximalist sundaes with adornments such as brownie bits or a whole doughnut. Nonalcoholic flavors are available, too.
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Mimi’s Handmade Soft Serve
5406 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase.
This local chain’s soft-serve-only location in the Heights food hall has a concise list of classic and Asian-leaning flavors. Order them in a fish-shaped taiyaki cone or buy pints to go. There’s also a small selection of Japanese treats and snacks.
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Authors
44933 George Washington Blvd., Ashburn.
Formerly known as Doughboy Creamery, this Virginia farmers-market stand opened a shop in April, serving small-batch ice cream, coffee, and its signature doughnut panini. Yep, that would be a doughnut shell filled with ice cream and toppings of your choice, then placed into a panini press.
This article appears in the July 2024 issue of Washingtonian.
