Seattle Specialty

The main reason you go to Full Tilt is for the fun of it: This ice cream shop has a mix of new and vintage arcade and pinball machines that make an entertaining afternoon outing for the whole family. As a bonus, there's also local Northwest beers here. (In addition to the original joint in White Center, Full Tilt has locations in Columbia City, University, and Ballard.)

The main reason you go to Full Tilt is for the fun of it: This ice cream shop has a mix of new and vintage arcade and pinball machines that make an entertaining afternoon outing for the whole family. As a bonus, there's also local Northwest beers here. (In addition to the original joint in White Center, Full Tilt has locations in Columbia City, University, and Ballard.)

What makes Bluebird more than your typical ice cream shop? They also make craft sodas and beers in-house, which means you can order things like a ginger beer float or stout-inspired scoops. Of course, there are still plenty of kid-friendly options, too. You can visit Bluebird here in Pike/Pine, or in Phinney Ridge, or Fremont.

The owner of Parfait, Adria Shimada, got her start in the food world with an internship at Amy's Bread in New York, before she headed to the West Coast. Billed as a farm-to-cone shop, Parfait has a garden outside where they grow mint, rosemary, lavender, and berries for their ice cream. Outside of this, they source from organic Washington farms, and get cream and milk delivered from local Smith Brothers Farms. Hosting a large-ish event? Parfait has a food truck that promises to be popular.

Old School temporarily closed its doors in early 2016, but fortunately the shop was picked back up by husband-and-wife duo, CJ and Meg Chaney, who had long been fans of the frozen custard here. Also good news: The menu has largely remained the same, although it's reasonable to expect to see more baked goods come into play from Meg Chaney's cookie business (Meg's Retro Cookies), which were previously featured in the ice-cream sandwiches at Old School.

The name of this gelato and sorbet shop is inspired by the forested PNW and the nuts (i.e. pistachio, hazelnut) that find their way into many of Nutty Squirrel's flavors. All of the ingredients here are seasonal and the menu is consistently updated to reflect what's currently fresh. The original location is located in Maple Valley, Washington; the first Seattle location is here in Phinney Ridge, and now there's also an outpost inside the Eat Local grocery store in Capitol Hill. Plus, there is Nutty Squirrel's charming red tricycle (named Strawberry) that delivers scoops for special occasions.

An extension of thirteen-acre Kurtwood Farms, which is located outside of Seattle on Vashon Island, Kurt Farm Shop is a little store within the Chophouse Row building in Capitol Hill. It's somewhat easy to miss, which makes it all the more satisfying when you stumble inside. The ice cream flavors here are derived from the farm: lemon verbena, rose geranium, bay laurel, blackberries, tomato jam. You can get cones or pints to go—plus cheese from Kurtwood Farms and other regional creameries, along with some plants from the farm.

Arguably one of the best partnerships in Seattle is the one between ice cream shop Molly Moon's and cookie bakery, Hello Robin. The result being a no-brainer: some of the very best ice cream cookie sandwiches around. You can also get cookies sans ice cream at Hello Robin, as well as pints of Molly Moon's. Plus there's the seasonal Molly Moon's walk-up window, where you can get scoops from May to September.

If you ask someone who lives in Seattle where to go for ice cream, Molly Moon's is likely to be one of the first places on their must-try list. Mainstay flavors here include vanilla bean, earl grey, honey lavender, melted chocolate, balsamic strawberry, and Scout Mint (Molly Moon's buys thousands of boxes of Thin Mint cookies each year from Western Washington Girl Scouts). They have a number of do-good policies: Everything used in the shop (from spoons to milkshake cups) is entirely compostable; their Anna Banana Milk Fund sends fresh milk to families in need every week; they source locally as much as possibly. (About 90% of their ingredients come from the Pacific Northwest. They've been working with the same organic lavender farm, Purple Haze, for several years. And the approximately 16,000 pounds of chocolate that they use annually comes from organic, fair-trade Theo Chocolate, which is made in Seattle.) The original Molly Moon's is in Wallingford, which has a parklet outside with swing seats and a baby hill for play. All of the ice cream in Wallingford is made on-site—same goes for the locations in Capitol Hill, Queen…

If you ask someone who lives in Seattle where to go for ice cream, Molly Moon's is likely to be one of the first places on their must-try list. Mainstay flavors here include vanilla bean, earl grey, honey lavender, melted chocolate, balsamic strawberry, and Scout Mint (Molly Moon's buys thousands of boxes of Thin Mint cookies each year from Western Washington Girl Scouts). They have a number of do-good policies: Everything used in the shop (from spoons to milkshake cups) is entirely compostable; their Anna Banana Milk Fund sends fresh milk to families in need every week; they source locally as much as possibly. (About 90% of their ingredients come from the Pacific Northwest. They've been working with the same organic lavender farm, Purple Haze, for several years. And the approximately 16,000 pounds of chocolate that they use annually comes from organic, fair-trade Theo Chocolate, which is made in Seattle.) The original Molly Moon's is in Wallingford, which has a parklet outside with swing seats and a baby hill for play. All of the ice cream in Wallingford is made on-site—same goes for the locations in Capitol Hill, Queen…