We are in the dog days of summer and there is no better way to celebrate the heat than enjoying an ice cream or two.
Join Newmarket Today as we explore local ice cream, sorbet and gelato shops located right in your backyard.
Square Spoon
Newmarket resident Rebecca Alton is celebrating five years of creating ice cream and sorbets made with fresh fruit sourced from local farms.
Alton always knew she wanted to work in food. After taking an ice cream making technique class, she decided “(farmers) markets were a good place to start,” kicking off her business at the Newmarket Farmers’ Market.
She started with sorbets, which are dairy free, but are “beautiful and creamy and smooth and refreshing.”
For Square Spoon, “fruit is the focus and I focus on local flavours.”
Alton also offers handcrafted ice cream, including ice cream sandwiches.
You can purchase Square Spoon’s products, which are nut free, at the Newmarket and Uxbridge farmers’ markets, as well as at Nutmeg Bakeshop, 256 Main St. S.
What makes Alton’s products unique is that it’s real food, she said.
“It’s real cream, real eggs. I crack a lot of eggs. The flavours are simple.”
They also change with the season, with most flavours offered for a month before something new comes along. In the spring, she made a rhubarb sorbet, while she has also offered raspberry and strawberry sorbet and ice creams with whiskey caramel and chocolate.
Sweets by Jacob
Newmarket resident Peter Duong has been offering gelato and sorbets at his Mulock Drive store for three years.
When he first opened, he offered Asian-inspired flavours.
“Now I do more unique flavours, caramel apple crumble (gelato) is apple pie in vanilla ice cream.”
That flavour is one of his personal favourites and is a top choice among his customers who come to his location for flavours they can’t find anywhere else
“Not much has changed since we have opened,” said Duong who said they still offer Asian-inspired flavours like black sesame gelato and HK milk tea gelato in addition to more flavour choices. His Lotus Biscoff and his mango gelato are two of his more popular flavours.
“Everything is homemade…We are small shop with the focus on using the finest ingredients.”
Sweets by Jacob is also known for it funnel cake made “with strawberry sauce, vanilla ice cream (made from real vanilla pods and beans) and the funnel cake made from scratch.”
“We want people to come in and be impressed.”
Read more about Peter and Sweets by Jacob.
Gelati De Luxe
Stefano Cuzzucoli is the second-generation owner of Gelati De Luxe, a Newmarket manufacturing facility that makes gelato and sorbet, along with chocolates and cakes.
Originally located in Woodbridge, Cuzzucoli moved the business to Leslie Street three years ago.
“I really enjoy the community and I like the people. I am very happy,” said Cuzzucoli, whose father started the business in 1966. What makes Gelati De Luxe unique is its products.
Customers can enjoy “quality pre-packaged and really unique products. Nobody else makes them.”
Sorbet flavours include blackberry and passion fruit, while gelato flavours include vanilla bean, Bacio and more.
While Gelati De Luxe is a manufacturing facility, Cuzzucoli said his factory story is open to the public in the mornings.
Pablo Cheese Tart
Cream cheese isn’t just the ingredient in the Japanese cheese tarts served at Pablo Cheese Tart on Harry Walker Parkway South in Newmarket, it’s also an ingredient found in their soft serve ice cream.
Using a recipe from Japan and a dairy mixture created by the company, Pablo’s owners Edmond and Rebecca Lee make a soft-serve ice cream that offers “a delightful and indulgent treat that is both creamy and flavourful,” Edmond said.
The addition of cream cheese enhances the texture and flavour of the ice cream, adding a “rich, velvety smoothness.”
The couple try to change their flavours every two months, using the local flavours of the season while incorporating Asian flavours whenever possible.
Flavours have included matcha, black sesame, pumpkin spice and a blueberry cheesecake.
Read more about Pablos Cheese Tart.
Also available in Newmarket:
Cocoa 40
184 Main St. S.
This artisanal shop offers gelato and chocolate.
Kawartha Dairy
5 Alexander Rd.
You can enjoy scooped ice cream, ice cream cakes, milkshakes, among other items.
Pinochi Ice Cream
16850 Yonge St.
The location offers 10 flavours of ice cream, including an Arabic ice cream with pistachios, made in store.
Bene Bene Waffle & Ice Cream
234 Main St. S.
This location offers Kawartha Dairies ice cream, waffles and crepes and more.
