The soft-serve craze has gone through several iterations, like its rise at dine-in restaurants, and the popularity of Asian-inspired flavors like matcha and ube. This time around, it’s the soft-serve margarita trend on TikTok that had us talking about the frozen treat once more.
Ravenous co-founder Amy McCarthy was the first among us to spot the trend, and is here for it. "I am always looking for more ways to enjoy icy frozen treats during the hottest months of the year, and adding tequila to the equation certainly does not hurt," she says. "I know that most viral trends are terrible, but surely the influencers can’t be wrong about this one. Why wouldn’t I want a margarita that I can eat with a spoon?!"
While margaritas are making the rounds on social media, we’re noticing various trends on how the soft scoop is showing up around the country. So in the name of journalism, we took our teeny tiny spoons and dug deep into soft serve in a handful of cities — Detroit, Chicago, New York, and Dallas.
Brews and soft serve are popping up in Detroit
In Detroit, there’s been a surge of soft serve showing up at bars. After seven years in business, Cold Truth, a popular vegan soft-serve shop, began popping up at two breweries: Bløm Mead + Cider in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Urbanrest Brewing in Ferndale, Michigan. Unlike many other vegan ice cream shops the region, Cold Truth makes its own base, resulting in its signature richer flavor and thicker texture.
Thanks to their spacious interiors, breweries are ideal for fitting large commercial-grade machines. “They satisfied the criteria we were looking for, places with a little extra space and strong programming,” writes Timothy Mahoney, owner of Cold Truth. “From a business perspective, it was a cost-effective way to grow.” Another hotspot, Huddle Soft Serve, has been serving its traditional vanilla and chocolate flavors at its walk-up window under the same roof as the Two Birds bar for several years now. On a typical summer afternoon, kids and adults alike can be found cooling off with a twist on the shared patio.
Another thing to consider is that fewer people are drinking, and perhaps bars and breweries are looking for creative ways to draw in customers. If you don’t want an non-alcoholic beer, a cool dessert could be just as satisfying. Soft serve also pairs well with the right fizzy drink, alcoholic or not. —Frances Dumlao
Summer is more fun with tips, so do us a favor and feed the bird.
In NYC, the froyo lines seem ridiculous. But are they really?
I am old enough to have been around for multiple soft-serve waves in New York. There was the Tasti-D-Lite trend of the ‘90s and early 2000s, fueled by Sex and the City, inspiring girls across the city in those heroin chic times to skip lunch for the supposedly 90-calorie snack. There was Pinkberry and 16 Handles at the dawn of the Great Recession, promising the “health” of yogurt-flavored frozen yogurt and fruit as a topping. That of course came at the same time that Christina Tosi put cereal milk soft serve on the menu at Momofuku’s restaurants, and then opened Milk Bar, which fit well with the highbrow-lowbrow thing David Chang made his whole brand. Culture opened 13 years ago. There were more before my time, and Mister Softee has always been here. [Editor’s note: Let us not forget the halcyon ‘80s when TCBY thrived.]
And now, we are in another “boom” of froyo, this time even more focused on the probiotics and protein of a yogurt base, and with premium toppings like pistachio cream and mango sauce. What’s amusing to me is that at least one location of every store considered part of the trend (Myka, Madison Fare, Mimi’s, Birdie’s) is located basically within a 10-block radius in Greenwich Village, at the intersection of expensive real estate and NYU kids. Meanwhile, around 2015 all the Pinkberry knockoffs in my neighborhood shut down, leaving me with nary an option for a single swirl of froyo and as many caramel turtles as I could pile on. Maybe trickle-down froyonomics will once again fill the outer boroughs with these establishments.
Food writer Luke Fortney recently launched a social video series with the New York Times telling New Yorkers where to go if they want to avoid massive lines. For his dispatch on froyo, he suggests skipping the line you could “count on” at every other froyo place and going to Forty Carrots inside Bloomingdale’s. A counter proposal: just wait a week. Shortly after his video came out some friends and I made our way to West 8th Street, home to both Madison Fare and Culture, and found we could walk right up to the counter of both. Maybe it’s because it was lunch time on a Thursday, but it's also a reminder of the fickle heart of TikTok. We chose Culture, where the whole store smelled of fermented funk. I got the original frozen yogurt with a specialty topping of strawberries macerated in balsamic vinegar, an elegant option, though my wife’s chocolate hazelnut with white chocolate chips tasted more properly of dessert. But I really don’t know why anyone would have waited 45 minutes for any of it. —Jaya Saxena
The Dallas spot that this Ravenous co-founder returns to every year
One of my favorite treats, and one I never skip after a meal, is a tiny serving of soft serve at Fond in downtown Dallas. Since it opened in September 2023, this spot has offered soft serve in tiny glass cups embossed with the design of the Greek coffee cup often seen around New York City. I go to this place for the natural wine bar, the amazing burger only available on Fridays at lunch, and as my preferred dinner spot before any concerts at the Majestic Theater. No one talks about the health benefits of this soft serve or its calorie count since it’s such a small portion with a tiny spoon. It’s just a little sweet treat that the owners like to dress up with flavors that change weekly. I’ve had regular, blueberry, buttered popcorn, olive oil (drizzled), and god knows what else that I’ve forgotten over the years. I guess you could say it’s a fancy soft serve. I just say “yes” to it. —Courtney E. Smith
Soft serve is nostalgic, if not boring
There are Chicago bright spots like Sugar Shack (where they’ll load up soft serve on top of a funnel cake), Vaca’s Creamery (a vegan shop where everything is delicious), and SUGOi Sweets (a confectionary shop that serves vegan soft serve in flavors like matcha and milk tea). But unless it’s in a collectable mini-baseball helmet from Dairy Queen, scoops bring me more joy. I’ve had this conversation with Pretty Cool Ice Cream’s Dana Salls Cree. Soft serve brings nostalgia, but it can be terribly boring. Most places just serve the same formula, mixed in the same machines.
But that’s OK. I relish when my 4-year-old lights up with delight each time we utter the word “Kurimu,” a chain of ice cream shops with Japanese flavors. They’ve done dozens of collaborations, including one with Miffy, the Dutch cartoon rabbit. Miffy is now in the clutches of Starbucks, but that won’t stop the child from asking for “bunny ice cream” adorned with little ears made of vanilla cookies. Sure, there are a handful of fancy restaurants in Chicago that now serve gourmet soft serve — from Brasero to Creepies to Class Act. But I’ll side with suburban Chicago area code haver Helen Rosner. Forgive me, pastry chefs — one of a diner’s best moves is to shun the dessert menu at dinner and to take a walk to your local ice cream shop. At least during Chicago’s summer months. I’ll gladly see a dessert menu when the temps are freezing. —Ashok Selvam
