7 best San Antonio ice cream shops for surviving summer

Maybe San Antonio doesn’t have the two suns of Tatooine, but R2-D2 never had to deal with humidity. For that, we need ice cream, by the scoop, bowl, or bucket. Consider these seven sweet San Antonio spots your summertime Force, keeping everyone far away from the dark side.

Dorp Creamery
In 2024, Mike Chue noticed a lack of Asian-inspired ice cream in San Antonio and decided to do something about it, borrowing the name of his childhood Staten Island neighborhood. Two years later, the project has infiltrated the city's ice cream scene through a food truck, pints at Pullman Market, and scoops at restaurants like Best Quality Daughter. All of Dorp's flavors are handcrafted — from ube to a coconut yuzu matcha cake selection that miraculously contains no dairy.

Brindles Ice Cream
The Northwest Side’s favorite parlor has been crafting frozen treats — ice cream, gelati, dairy-free sorbets — on Huebner Road for nearly two decades. The family-owned shop prides itself on hospitality and an encyclopedia of flavors. We like the Hokey Pokey with crunchy honey brittle swirled into a sweet cream base. That’s what it’s all about, right foot in or otherwise.

Black + White Modern Creamery
This Broadway creamery is a little hard to find, but we’ll bet it will soon wind up on your Waze recents. Check social media for a lineup of summer flavors such as turtle cheesecake, lavender milk tea, and signature black vanilla. The most intriguing is a Big Red sorbet that begs to be paired with barbacoa.

La Michoacana Handmade Ice Cream and Snacks
Some folks run into ice cream by happenstance; some by birthright. The owners of this North Side trailer inherited their know-how from their mother’s tiny stand. It’s best known for its paletas in Mexican flavors like fresas con crema and arroz con leche. All are frozen with their own decorations (strawberries, cookies, and more); many are striped; and all will give your followers FOMO.

Bee Nice Ice Cream
Alamo Heights is practically an ice cream utopia, so it takes extra oomph to build a buzz. Bee Nice does it with uber-fresh ingredients, many sourced in Texas. Naturally, the state’s pollinators lend a hand in flavors that mix honey with lavender or sweet cream. But Fredericksburg's famous peaches get their own star turn in their own signature flavor.

Justin's Ice Cream Company
The oldest ice cream shop in San Antonio has been keeping locals and tourists cool on the River Walk since 1981. Of course, it gives some puro nods to its hometown on the menu. Many of the flavors nod to Alamo City’s Mexican-American heritage, like horchata or chamoy. It even cheers on the Silver and Black with orange and strawberry sherbet mixed with teal vanilla.

Freshest Ice Creams
It’s quite a claim, but who are we to argue with this Brazilian-Colombian ice cream shop? It’s certainly the lightest, offering coconut milk scoops made with acai, forest berries, kiwi, and lemon. The heavier flavors — Texas pecan, chocolate, and Nutella — are made with lactose-free milk, so there’s no risk of cramps before hitting the diving board.