Ottawa's best ice cream and gelato spots you need to try this summer

I’ve been to a few trade shows and at one booth, watched a demonstration for an Italian gelato product. A large mylar bag of powder had its contents dumped into the top of a gelato machine filled with milk. A while later freshly made gelato was piped into cups for the assembled to enjoy.

I’m not certain of how much of anything “natural” was contained in the powder but typically you can expect sugars, flavouring, colour, stabilizers and emulsifiers and the results are sometimes a little too brightly coloured. The best gelateria and ice cream shops will use proper and more expensive fruit purees and nut pastes for their products.

How do you tell the difference between gelato and ice cream? It’s really a matter of where you need to cut back: fats or sugars.

Although gelato can have more sugar, ice cream has more butterfat at 10 percent or above, whereas gelato typically sits at between four and nine percent. Then there’s the matter of mouthfeel or texture. Gelato is denser and ice cream has air whipped into it making for a faster melt.

Below you’ll find a list of preferred ice cream and gelato shops around Ottawa that will make the summer days a little more enjoyable and while there are no guarantees, I’m confident of the flavours and that these places are doing it right.

Mantovani 1946

Located at 87 Murray St. in the ByWard Market, Mantovani is still my top destination for fine Italian gelato. And it does provide us with a little European flair.

Paola Paul and her husband Jim opened their cafe six years ago and they’ve set a new standard for desserts and coffee in the ByWard Market.

The Mantovani family started their business in Naples, Italy in 1946 and before opening the ByWard location, both Paola and Jim trained in Naples with the brother and sister team Marcella and Oreste Mantovani.

They have 24 flavours of gelato in the line-up that are in rotation with a few staples always available such as their award-winning pistachio. You must try this as it is an example of pistachio gelato as it’s meant to be: an olive green rather than 80s dayglo. They also offer vegan and low-sugar options for those with dietary restrictions.

The coffee is an exclusive, roasted for them in Napoli and then shipped to Ottawa, so do yourself a favour and enjoy a little dolce vita when you’re there. And if the mood is not right for gelato then add a pastry to your coffee courtesy of their excellent in-house pastry chef Cristina Panuccio.

Farinella

I’ve written extensively about Farinella before and the care that goes into everything they make and now as the mercury rises, so does their output of gelato. They’ve opened a patio out front of their location at 492 Rochester St., and this past weekend, the seats were full.

New flavours include: cinnamon sugar puff, mascarpone berry ripple, and the following vegan recipes: pineapple/yuzu/cardamom, strawberry lemonade and blood orange. One of Ottawa’s top spots for gelato.

Pietro’s Corner

A woman known simply as “Pietro’s mom” makes the gelato at their fresh pasta shop located at 106 Preston St. While the pasta represents some of the better fresh takeaway options in Ottawa, the gelato at Pietro’s Corner is also worthy of your dollar, although the selection is modest.

A larger selection of gelato is available at their Gelateria del Corso location at 344 Preston St. I first had the lemon sorbetto the day it was delivered to Pizza All’Antica in Manotick last fall and it was something for all lemonheads. Supremely mouth-puckering. And their mango sorbetto is intense — it may as well just be frozen mango puree. So good.

La Cigale

And if you happen to be enjoying the splendours of Chelsea, Que. this summer you’ll soon stumble upon the long line-ups on Chemin Scott at La Cigale. In addition to scoops, you’ll find old-time classics such as sundaes, banana splits and milkshakes. They have vegan options as well and if you’re interested in festive desserts they also offer cakes and pies.

Carp Custom Creamery

My discovery of Carp Custom Creamery at 3763 Carp Rd. was a happy by-product of a visit to the wonderful Carp Farmers Market. I needed to fortify myself for the task ahead and this ice cream turned out to be just the thing I needed.

Owner Dustin Therrien graduated from Guelph University’s Ice Cream Technology program and you and I, dear reader, are simultaneously amazed that there is such a program. And a good thing too, at prices like $12 per litre, their products are much better than they need to be.

Check out their raspberry sorbet or the salted dark chocolate, both are vegan, intense, and will have you nursing those tubs of goodness weeks after you’ve got them home.

I generally don’t like pieces of anything in my ice cream, but I made an exception for their sticky toffee pudding ice cream, which is the real thing in all the best ways. Take a cooler when you go and load up, or stop in at the nearby Cheshire Cat Pub for a great meal, and get your tubs there before you head back to the city.

The Beachconers

Britannia was just waiting for The Beachconers at 273 Brittania Rd. to arrive and with their quality ice cream year after year, they developed a deeply loyal following. Clea Morrison and her husband Colin Lipsett opened their cafe seven years ago and nailed it with a name that is both a whimsical play on words and a throwback to those of us who grew up watching the Canadian classic The Beachcombers.

Clea spends a fair amount of time recipe testing and all her creations are made in-house from real ingredients. The cold brew coffee ice cream is certainly a favourite.

The Merry Dairy

Long ago I would stop in with regularity at the Fairmont Grocery Store as it was equidistant between my best friend's house and the junior high school I attended. Today it’s become the Merry Dairy, a beloved destination for ice cream that bills itself as a nut-free facility.

They take great care in providing gluten-free, non-dairy, non-vegan, soy-free and vegan options for folks with sensitivities, and they offer a variety of merchandise including their newly published book Great Scoops: Recipes from a Neighbourhood Ice Cream Shop. Of course, it’s also mandatory to try the vanilla frozen custard, the item that started it all for the Merry Dairy Ice Cream truck.

Moo Shu Ice Cream

During the occupation, Moo Shu made it into the news because of the horrible way its staff was treated. In response, Ottawans came out in support of the staff and the business. It’s been a favourite of mine since moving back to the city many years ago and I’m delighted to see that they have moved to a Living Wage model for their staff. It may mean higher prices for customers, but as often as most people eat ice cream it’s something many consumers can bear. And for those who can’t, there is a scoop bank program “seeded with free scoops from recent donations” according to their website. Simply civil and responsible.

They offer a variety of vegan options at their 447 Bank St. location, unique ice cream sandwiches and my go-tos black sesame, Hong Kong milk tea, black currant and cream cheese, and Korean banana milk. How wonderful to see a business whose principles are as good as its products.

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