This summer you can find cold comfort in a cone, on a stick, wedged between two cookies, and topped with waffle chips at Newton’s ice cream shops. 

Add to that flavors inspired by everything from the Charles River to Indian spices, and there is a large helping of whimsy for customers this season. 

Wally’s co-owner Kayla Noblecilla and daughter. Photo by Clara Silverstein

Newtonians have been developing their taste for ice cream for more than 100 years. The first Brigham’s Ice Cream parlor, founded in Newton Highlands in 1914, grew to a chain of nearly 100 restaurants in Massachusetts by the mid-1900s. Today, Brigham’s ice cream is sold only in stores.

Cabot’s in Newtonville, founded in 1969, is the oldest ice cream parlor still operating in Newton. The newest, New City Microcreamery, in May celebrated its grand opening in Chestnut Hill. Hilliards Chocolates in West Newton added an ice cream counter earlier this year.

Below are highlights of some of the treats you can find in the Garden City this summer. Most places also serve frozen yogurt and non-dairy ice cream alternatives for those who have dairy allergies.

Wally’s wafflewiches and scoop of extreme chocolate. Photo by Clara Silverstein

Since husband-and-wife team David Martinez and Kayla Noblecilla purchased Wally’s Wicked Good Ice Cream & Treats in Auburndale last fall, they have added their own touches to the menu of this long-time neighborhood favorite. 

You can find ice cream flights (your choice of four tasting-sized scoops in a special container), ice cream nachos (ice cream topped with waffle chips), and “wafflewiches” (ice cream layered between waffle chips, dipped in a chocolate coating). They also dress up frappes with Nutella, Fruity Pebbles or Biscoff Cookie Butter. 

But some things haven’t changed. “We definitely never remove Graham Central Station or Extreme Chocolate from the menu because they’re so popular,” said Noblecilla. Their Dirty Water flavor also stays on the menu. It doesn’t contain water from the Charles River—it’s a combination of coffee and chocolate.

The Newtonville location of Rancatore’s does a brisk business in unusual flavors, including Bombay (flavored with cardamom, saffron, cashews, almonds and pistachios) and Gingersnap Molasses. This shop has two additional locations and was founded in 1985 by Joe Rancatore, whose brother managed Toscanini’s Ice Cream in Cambridge. 

Rancatore’s homemade ice cream sandwich. Photo by Hadley Mullen

In a nod to old-fashioned tastes, Rancatore’s in Newton makes lime rickeys, including a frozen raspberry version. Yet some of its most popular novelties are designed for an unusual audience. 

“Newtonville is a walking area and people come out with their dogs,” said manager Rose McLaughlin. The shop’s dog treats are made from Greek yogurt and peanut butter or pumpkin puree. “We’re going to keep serving them!” she said.

Hilliards Chocolates is primarily known as a candy company, but its West Newton location now offers ice cream at a counter built along one wall of the shop. Not surprisingly, many of the flavors incorporate other treats for sale in the shop. 

“Our goal is to incorporate as much candy as we can into our ice cream,” said store manager Elizabeth McCue. 

Vanilla-Toffee Crunch adds crushed toffee candy into a base of vanilla ice cream. Chewy Cashew Patty incorporates milk chocolate cashews into coffee ice cream. For maximalists, the Swamp contains seven different elements, including two kinds of chips, brownie bits and malted milk balls. 

“The word is getting out there that we have ice cream,” McCue said, adding that they also make frappes and sundaes. Hilliards started in 1924 and has other locations around the Boston area.

At Cabot’s Ice Cream in Newtonville, Joe Prestejohn, one of the original owners, still works as Ice Cream Ambassador, though Kay and Kevin Masterson purchased the business in 2023.

“We’re an old-fashioned ice cream parlor with glasses, plates and dishes,” he said. “So few places still do that.”

The sundae with “hot fudge running down the sides of the glass dish” is still popular. The shop serves over 40 flavors of ice cream, with peach a summer specialty. Recently the restaurant teamed up with the Farm Grill & Rotisserie to mix that Newton restaurant’s baklava with Cabot’s vanilla ice cream. 

Some of the fountain treats have fun names, such as the Dentist Disaster, with several kinds of candies, including Snickers, Milky Way and Reese’s cups, mixed into ice cream. That’s covered with hot fudge, caramel sauce, whipped cream and Reese’s Pieces. 

“One time we had a dentist with an office nearby who brought us a box of toothbrushes with his name on them,” Prestejohn said. (But that didn’t stop anyone from ordering the dessert.)

He enjoys seeing families come into the shop. “You see every generation of people at one time, from a baby in a high chair to great-grandparents at the table,” he said. “All are leaving with ice cream smiles.”

Also look for frozen summer treats at J.P. Licks in Newton Centre, VanLeeuwen in Chestnut Hill, and Yogurt Beach (frozen yogurt) in Nonantum.

Clara Silverstein is a cookbook author with extensive knowledge of Newton history. She can be reached at clara@clarasilverstein.com.