When the weather turns hot and muggy and the ice cream truck music starts floating through the neighborhood, I know it’s time for my yearly tradition: the first soft-serve of the summer. I always stick with the classic—a chocolate and vanilla twist topped with rainbow sprinkles—usually from a street truck, and it’s always amazing. But this year, I had my first soft-serve of the season somewhere unexpected: a restaurant.

It was a vanilla soft-serve with soy sauce caramel at Cote 550, the new Midtown location of Simon Kim’s popular Korean BBQ steakhouse. Served in a paper cup with a flat wooden spoon and a cookie, the ice cream felt like a surprising way to end a meal of wagyu beef, toro, and lychee martinis. And that’s exactly why Kim likes it.

“Soft-serve isn’t something people usually associate with fine dining,” says Kim, who has offered the dessert since Cote Flatiron opened in 2017. “But if you look at it from a flavor standpoint, it’s something everyone can enjoy.” Kim first introduced soft-serve as “a memorable way to finish a meal without needing a full pastry program.” Years later, even though the team now has a pastry program, he says “soft-serve remains a key part of our identity.” Cote added their own twist (pun intended) with the soy sauce caramel. “We loved the idea of taking something familiar like salted caramel and adding soy sauce for that umami kick that ties back to our Korean roots,” Kim says.

And while summer 2026 has brought a big frozen yogurt craze to New York—with lots of buzz about the long lines at places like Mimi’s, Myka, and Birdie’s—it seems we’re also in the middle of a soft-serve renaissance. This summer has seen the launch of the soft-serve margarita, a viral TikTok treat, plus the new downtown ice cream shop Unnecessary from the Double Chicken Please team (known for their food-inspired cocktails), which offers dirty martini soft-serve and other cocktail-inspired flavors.

Once mainly found at ice cream trucks, boardwalk stands, and roadside dairies, soft-serve is now earning a prized spot on menus at both neighborhood spots and upscale restaurants. While this isn’t the first time soft-serve has taken over the culinary scene and sparked creative flavors (who can forget Milk Bar’s signature Cereal Milk soft-serve?), it does feel like a golden era for restaurant soft-serve. As food writer Emily Wilson recently noted, restaurants now have some of the best ice cream around.

A quick list of New York restaurants offering soft-serve includes: 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.

Why is it so popular? Well, there’s the obvious reason: who doesn’t love soft-serve? But beyond being a crowd-pleaser, the silky dessert appeals to restaurants from both a creative and practical angle. You can play around with flavor combinations, and it’s simpler 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 like house-made sprinkles, passionfruit marshmallows, raspberry meringue, cookie dough, and brownies. It’s like a mini sundae bar at your table, letting you customize every bite.

When I told friends and colleagues I was working on this story, the first word out of most people’s mouths was “Leo.” Indeed, the Williamsburg restaurantSince it opened in 2019, this place has been a go-to spot for soft-serve. “We had it from the beginning,” says Mike Fadem, chef and co-owner of Leo. When they started the restaurant, the goal was to keep things simple. “I loved the idea of pizza slices and soft-serve, and how that kind of reminds me of growing up in middle America,” he says. After all, soft-serve brings back pure nostalgia—it’s a quick way to tap into childhood memories.

Leo’s strawberry-pistachio soft-serve is a standout. They finish it with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt, and they rotate the flavors every few months. Right now, they’re serving a summer favorite: corn and blueberry. That one, along with the next flavor—peanut ice cream with grape sorbet—are the ones “that people are constantly reaching out about, constantly DMing, constantly coming in and begging us to make again,” Fadem says. The team waits for the produce to come into season and aims to capture the fruit’s true taste as closely as they can. “It’s not like a big moneymaker for us, but it’s definitely fun,” Fadem adds.

Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about soft serve ice cream in the summer written in a natural conversational tone with clear answers

1 Why does soft serve melt so much faster than regular ice cream
Soft serve is churned to incorporate more air and is served at a warmer temperature than hard ice cream That extra air and warmer temp mean it starts melting the second it hits the warm summer air

2 Is soft serve actually ice cream or is it something else
Its a frozen dairy dessert but technically it might not be ice cream by legal standards Real soft serve uses milk cream and sugar but many commercial mixes add stabilizers and emulsifiers to keep it smooth The FDA requires ice cream to have a certain amount of milkfat which soft serve often doesnt meet

3 Why does soft serve give me a stomach ache but hard ice cream doesnt
This is usually a lactose intolerance issue Soft serve has a higher liquid milk content and less milkfat than premium hard ice cream Milkfat actually slows down digestion so the higher lactosetofat ratio in soft serve can hit your stomach faster and cause discomfort

4 Whats the best way to eat a soft serve cone without it dripping all over me
Dont go for the top Eat the crunchy bottom tip first to create a plug that catches the melting ice cream Then as the soft serve melts it pools into that hollow cone base instead of running down your hand

5 Why does soft serve taste so much creamier than regular ice cream
Its the combination of lower fat and higher air content The overrun is much higher in soft serve usually 4050 This makes the texture light and velvety coating your tongue differently than the dense heavy texture of hard ice cream

6 Can I make soft serve at home without a fancy machine
You can get close but you cant get that perfect swirl The easiest hack is to take vanilla ice cream let it soften slightly and whip it in a stand mixer with a splash of milk until its fluffy Freeze it in a piping bag to get a semisoft texture but it wont have that machinedispensed consistency