COFFEE … BACON … CINNAMON SWIRL AND MAPLE SYRUP … they’re standard favorites on the breakfast menu, but in recent years, they’ve been showing up in ice creams all over the country. These flavors are claiming their place in the mix, along with everything else imaginable; including, sea salt and candy bar bits, to sweet corn, roasted beets to tea, and even curry! Plainly put, we’ve come a long way from plain-Jane chocolate and vanilla. Even the days of 31 flavors can seem like they were part of the ice age. Once so seemingly simple, ice cream has become a canvas of creativity, and whether you stand by your standards, or are down with dipping into the most confounding concoctions to come out of the churn, one thing’s for sure: Young or old, traditionalist or rebel, we all still scream for ice cream. Here’s a look at some Panama City Beach favorites:
Pink Pelican Ice Cream Bar
This unique little spot has the scoop on fantastic flavors, sourcing each of their 40-plus ice creams, sherbets and frozen yogurts from the crème de la crème of the nation’s creameries. Pink Pelican’s menu of sweet treats is so wacky, it might make your head spin. Topping the list is the Pink Pelican Special, a mix of peanut butter cups, Oreo cookie pieces, brownie pieces and Heath Bar bits swirled together with a silky ribbon of butterscotch. One taste of this and you'll be in ice cream heaven!
Thomas Donut & Snack Shop
Rounding up the first of their loyal following when they opened as a donut and snack shop in 1971, Thomas Donut & Snack Shop put the cherry on top of their already successful family-owned business when they built an ice cream shop in 2015. The menu, which offers a daily rotating list of 36 flavors of ice creams, frozen yogurt, sorbets and sherbets, boggles the mind (and freezes the brain). Best-sellers include “C” is for Cookie, Butterscotch Bomb, Garbage Can, Key Lime Pie, Dulce de Leche, and Special Praline.
Chuy’s Gourmet Pops & More
With more than 35 flavors on their menu, Chuy’s Gourmet Pops & More first opened in late spring of 2016. Their fruit-based pops are made using fresh juices and 12 flavors of hand-dipped ice creams. Chuy’s ups the cool factor even further with milkshakes, aguas frescas and fresh-baked treats.
David’s New Orleans Style Café & Sno-Balls
A one-stop shop for New Orleans’s most iconic bites, David’s New Orleans Style Café & Sno-Balls offers everything from massive muffalettas and po’boys to jazzy jambalaya! With more than 60 flavored syrups and 12 ice cream flavors available at David’s, the combinations are endless.
Kilwin’s
Offering handcrafted sweets since 1947, Kilwin’s has become a name famous for their heavenly fudges, premium gourmet chocolates, caramels, toffees, brittles, candied apples and caramel corns. But surely heaven would seem incomplete without ice cream; so they’ve scooped up flavors like Old Fashioned Vanilla, Salted Caramel, Toasted Coconut, Georgia Peach, New Orleans Praline Pecan, Superman and Cookies & Cream.
Funland Arcade and Snack Bar
With its multitude of high-energy arcade games in constant play, Funland Arcade and Snack Bar has been a gamer’s dream-come-true for more than 65 years! Make tracks for a cone piled high with Moosetracks, or lick your way to the next level of happiness with Butter Pecan, Birthday Cake, Strawberry Cheesecake or Cookies and Cream.
Southern Craft Creamery
Having actually attended ice cream school to learn their art, Southern Craft Creamery owners Dale and Cindy Eade took their family’s passion for ice cream and turned it into a family business, using their dairy in Marianna, Florida to supply the milk for their creamy creations. More than 50 flavors are created by hand without the use of artificial ingredients and syrups — a practice that sets them apart and truly licks the competition.
Bruster’s Real Ice Cream
Bruster’s Real Ice Cream churns out all of their creamy dreaminess on location each and every day. Favorite flavors include Cookie Dough, Mint Chocolate Chip, Butter Pecan, Birthday Cake and Chocolate Raspberry Truffle; but with 55 ice creams available, this drive-thru and walk-up shop has the perfect scoop for your craving.
