Margit's Top Five Picks for Ice Cream to Beat the Summer Heat!
By Margit Bisztray, Food Critic

Hot enough for ya? Few agree with me, but I love, love, love the heat. Too many years of my life were spent living up north where winter wipes away any memory you might have of summer heat. So I have a lot of catching up to do, even after fifteen years. But instead of differing, let’s agree: ice cream is a sure way to beat the heat. And ice cream has gotten LOTS better, LOTS more interesting in the last few years.

Now, there’s gelato and there’s gelato. GOOD gelato has NO air in it, which is why it is the creamiest, dreamiest textured substance on ice cream earth. The first time I tasted the difference was in Milan. I lived there for six months, long story, but being that I was there in the fashion business, I was NOT supposed to be gaining any weight, and the gelato won, (particularly a white nougat kind I miss so much I could cry.) At the time, I thought I’d never find equal gelato in the United States, but in the last few years it’s become more and more available. Case in point, Paolo’s Gelato Italiano in my favorite neighborhood, Virginia Highlands, in Atlanta. The texture is heavenly, the flavors, especially sour cherry and German chocolate, absolutely up there with the best. Yum Yum.

If you’re in Myrtle Beach, Kirk’s Ice Cream right on King’s Highway looks like a retro classic American ice cream parlor because it is. Kids will love it, just like you loved it when you were a kid. Here I go for that unbeatable, timeless flavor: mint chocolate chip. They do kid portions too, which is handy.

Key West has only one ice cream parlor in my mind and that’s Flamingo Crossing. I know first hand, because I know the owners and people who’ve worked there, how time-consuming the process of making this ice cream is. It’s a labor of love, and when you’re somewhere where the power kicks off randomly all the time, an act of sheer faith as well. I love the mangrove honey black walnut, but the tropical fruit flavors (like papaya) are also superb. Oh, and the green tea, too!

New Orleans, where nothing in the way of food has permission to be average, has its own share of remarkable ice cream sources. But the one Rachel Vella, our general manager in the city said I absolutely could not miss is Angelo Brocato (fine Italian ice cream and pastries) near City Park. They have “ice cream parlor chairs” and ceiling fans, but the flavors are as authentic old Italy as it gets–––with ingredients imported from Sicily! The lemon ice has a perfect, fresh crisp bite, and will cool you down to the core. Nut lovers (yup, that’s me) will love the hazelnut or chestnut, rich as candy.

In Panama City Beach at the Shops at Edgewater there’s Kitchens, locally owned (yes, I will always recommend locally owned!) and serving some 40 flavors, including some that are so over the top and ridiculous, you just gotta love em’ (not only “Cookie Monster” but “Cookie Monster the Sequel”) Sweet, gooey, kid-pleasing, Kitchens ice cream is just about the joy. Still, I keep it simple with blackberry or pistachio. Then you can head over to the Movie Theater or Rock’it Lanes, dunk yourself in Arctic air conditioning and forget what you meant when just a minute before that ice cream cone, you were complaining it was too hot.

Happy Summer!

NOTE: Margit Bisztray has been reviewing restaurants and writing about food for ten years. She has published three editions of The Complete Key West Dining Guide, and her work has appeared in such publications as Vogue, Gourmet, Islands and Metropolitan Home. To read more restaurant reviews, log your own personal opinions, rate your favorite restaurants and watch streaming video archives of these shows and other reviews, visit Margit's Top 5.