Brain freeze never feels so good as during the hot summer months after enjoying the sweet treats of Palm Springs ice cream shops and other Coachella Valley stops.
LAPPERT’S ICE CREAM
A tropical treat in downtown Palm Springs, Lappert’s serves Hawaiian-inspired flavors like ever-popular Kauai Pie (coffee ice cream with chocolate fudge, coconut, and macadamia nuts). Its signature offering, though, is the Dole Whip, a hefty serving of pineapple soft serve. Add pineapple chunks or float it in your favorite liquid.
78206 Varner Road, Palm Desert. 760-772-1777;
130 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. 760-325-1717; www.lapperts.com
NITROINFUSIONS
Sometimes, you’ve got to get the goods yourself. At Nitroinfusions in Old Town La Quinta, your treat comes with a lesson in science as the freshly frozen scoop emerges from clouds of liquid nitrogen. Thanks to the formidable freezing power of the element, this dish is dreamy creamy in creative flavors like roasted pistachio and olive oil. Science never tasted so good.
78010 Main Street, La Quinta
760-771-0700; www.nitroinfusions.com
GREAT SHAKES
To call this a milkshake is to call the Empire State Building tall. The homemade whipped cream is to the packaged version as a bighorn sheep is to Mary’s little lamb.
160 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs.
760-327-5300; www.greatshakesps.com
ICE CREAM & SHOP(PE)
The curious spelling and punctuation are puzzling enough, but there’s no mystery about the rotating menu of yummy flavors here at the Arrive hotel in uptown Palm Springs. There’s ginger, green tea, lavender… Is this a sweet shop or a fashion show?
1551 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs.
760-507-4005; www.icecreamandshop.com
PHOTO BY NEIL HUSVAR
We all scream for ice cream, and when the truck delivering it looks more like a yellow submarine than the van of our youth, it’s gotta be courtesy Desert Cone Zone.
DESERT CONE ZONE
There’s something almost Pavlovian about a cheesy tune issuing from a gaily decorated vehicle rolling through the neighborhood. You’re never too old to respond to the sound of the ice cream truck as temperatures soar into the triple digits.
Beth Smith is co-owner of Desert Cone Zone’s school bus-themed ice cream trucks. “This is the best job I’ve ever had because everyone is always so happy to see us,” Smith says.
Desert Cone Zone is a regular at Palm Springs’ weekly VillageFest, where we’ve been known to hydrate ourselves with the shaved ice. 760-777-2018.
YOUR DATE AWAITS
People who don’t care for dates must be missing a chromosome, especially when it comes mixed with ice cream. Shields Date Garden represents the classic combo of vanilla ice cream and date crystals blended in the back of a store chock-full of date memorabilia for a thorough immersion in local lore.
Shields Date Garden, 80225 Highway 111, Indio.
760-347-0996; www.shieldsdategarden.com