It's officially summer and the season for the most popular summer time treat, ice cream! We all love ice cream so don't even try to deny that when you're standing in line at an ice cream bar staring at all the different flavours, you don't want to just do a face plant into the cooler – we all do! To feed our obsession there are lots of ice cream bars around the region and I pick the one I want go to by the mood I'm in. So here are a few of my favourites based on how I feel when I become inspired to indulge.

Farm & Country: Avondale Dairy Bar
The Avondale Dairy Bar on Stewart Road in Niagara-on-the-Lake is the best place in the region for a country family experience. Located on a large farm with a giant dairy factory in the back (which is their landlord) Ron and Deb Sheehan are making ice creams their way. Using fresh Ontario milk, each batch uses the best quality flavour ingredients they can find for their rich ice creams that are not shy of cream but short on whipped air for a higher quality produce. In the 70s style ice cream bar there are 60 to 70 different flavours from which to choose. Their specialty is their fresh fruit sundaes made with Niagara fruit, rich vanilla ice cream and a huge helping of whipped cream. For the Sheehan's nothing but real whipped cream will do for their premium ice creams. www.avondaledairybar.com

Fun: Cow's Ice Cream
An import from Prince Edward Island, Cow's Ice Cream on Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake is nothing short of just plain fun, but they're not kidding about their ice cream. Like the others, they use approximately 16 per cent butterfat content and very little air. This makes for a luscious, velvety mouth feel and a serious ice cream. The bright store has a long counter full of really fun flavours such as Gooey Mooey, a burnt sugar ice cream (caramel), with their own home made English toffee, caramel cups they make themselves and chocolate flakes. Their other most popular flavour is Wowie Cowie made with almost the same ingredients as Gooey Mooey but instead of the caramel cups, it has Moo Crunch, their version of a Skor bar. In the centre of the store is a the most photographed dairy cow in the region and loads of fun cow stuff from T-shirts to pencils, coffee mugs to ear rings. www.cows.ca
 
Romantic: Italian Ice Cream
The Italian Ice Cream shop on Victoria Avenue in Niagara Falls is one of Niagara's best known ice cream shop and the most romantic. In the Italian-style coffee shop you'll find 16 different gelatos and a few sorbets in a small bar loaded with espresso machines. The talented ice cream maker and owner, Andrew Vergalito makes the creamiest sorbets in the region and his pink grapefruit flavour is perfect to quench a thirst on the hottest summer's day. Unlike an ice cream bar, a gelato bar is a seductive display of heaping mounds of glistening, luscious gelato studded with chunks of garnish that tempts everyone. Andrew explains he's perfected the creamiest gelato in the region with a secret process. While he's not giving up any secrets, if you ask me I think he's using dry ice to freeze his product quickly so there are no microscopic ice particles like other ice creams. I came across this process in San Francisco and it's brilliant! This is only the second time I've had ice cream this dreamy. Like the other ice cream makers in this story, there's not a lot of air whipped, yet there is a healthy amount of cream for a luxurious flavour and texture. www.italianicecream.ca

Sexy: Toute Sweet
It's the cute ice cream and chocolate shop on 19th Street in Jordan Village that owner Kelly Nemeth explains, “I started Toute Sweet eight years ago and it was the first.” Kelly's talking about the installation of a granite slab that would keep the ice cream frozen while custom-mixed flavours for her customers. Kelly smears ice cream on her frozen slab of granite and explains, “the ice cream would disappear if it had lots of air in it.” Kelly designs ice cream just for this purpose, then she gets creative. She crafts flavours like fresh Niagara strawberries marinated in sambuca with fresh cracked black pepper laced through rich Madagascar vanilla ice cream. Her fresh fig and port wine is as popular as the eggy thick French vanilla ice cream with maple fudge chunks and bacon bits. In fact, Kelly cooks up thick slices of artisan bacon and coats them in chocolate and pipes the fat layers in white chocolate. Try one when you're there, the flavours really do go well together. Toute Sweet is a one woman operation and only opened  from Thursday to Sunday. www.toute-sweet.ca

Lynn Ogryzlo is food and wine writer for Niagara this Week newspaper, Niagara Life Magazine, award winning author of Niagara Cooks and The Ontario Table. Lynn has a new role as Ontario's Local Food Ambassador. You can reach Lynn for questions or comments at www.ontariotable.com


Photo captions:
For the classic cone, complete with sprinkles on top, Avondale Dairy Bar in Niagara-on-the-Lake is the place to be. Manager Rachel Schmidt is always ready to make up a cone, one scoop, or two.

Ice cream gets sexy at Toute Sweet in Jordan Village where Kelly Nemeth mixes fresh Niagara ingredients right into velvety smooth ice cream on cold marble.

Toute Sweet in Jordan Village features ice cream for the more refined taste. Flavours like fresh Niagara strawberries  marinated in sambuca are melded with cracked black pepper and Madagascar vanilla ice cream.

Some fruity toppings

Sprinkle on some colour