And while summer 2026 has brought on a major fro-yo craze in New York—with much ado about the hordes of people waiting in line at places like Mimi’s, Myka, and Birdie’s—it seems we’re also in the middle of a soft-servennaisance. This summer has seen the arrival of the soft-serve margarita, a viral TikTok treat, plus the new downtown ice cream shop Unnecessary, from the Double Chicken Please team (who are known for food-inspired cocktails), which offers dirty martini soft-serve and other cocktail-inspired flavors.
Once the province of ice cream trucks, boardwalk shops, and roadside dairies, soft-serve is finding a prized place on the menus of neighborhood spots and high-end restaurants alike. While it’s not the first time soft-serve has swept the culinary world and spurred flavor experimentation (who can forget, for example, Milk Bar’s signature Cereal Milk soft-serve?), it does feel like a golden age for restaurant soft-serve. And as the food writer Emily Wilson recently observed, restaurants have some of the best ice cream around.
A non-exhaustive list of New York restaurants that offer soft-serve: Ambassadors Clubhouse, Cleo, Comal, Cote 550, Dante Aperitivo, Double Knot, Echo Lake, Howoo, La Tête D’Or, Leo, Lilia, L’Industrie, Milu, Momofuku Noodle Bar, Or’esh, Rule of Thirds, Sofreh, Shukette, and Wild Cherry.
Cleo’s chocolate profiterole vanilla soft-serve ice cream sandwich.
Photo: Sacha Perlstein
Why? Well, there’s the obvious: Who doesn’t love soft-serve? But aside from its crowd-pleasing qualities, the silky dessert appeals to restaurants from both a creative and business standpoint. You can have fun with the flavor combos, and it’s easier to prepare and serve than more elaborate pastries or other sweets.
“We take pride in making ours as natural as possible, using real ingredients and authentic flavors,” says Daniel Boulud, whose French-inspired steakhouse La Tête D’Or offers a soft-serve sundae with little ramekins of toppings including house-made sprinkles, passionfruit marshmallows, raspberry meringue, cookie dough, and brownies. It’s a mini sundae bar at your table, letting you customize each bite.
La Tête D’Or’s vanilla cassis-red berry swirl.
Photo: Bill Milne
