2014 Cary Guide to Ice Cream

Cary, NC — One thing’s for sure, Cary seems to have no shortage of places selling  ice cream or frozen yogurt. By my research, there’s at least 14 places in town to get your fill of the frozen treats. Given Cary’s 64 square mile size, that’s a whole lot of ice cream!

2014 Cary Guide to Ice Cream

When it’s summertime in Cary, thoughts turn to ice cream. Here’s our Cary Guide to the frozen treat, 2014 Edition.

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt

Waverly Place
Corner Kildaire Farm & Tryon Roads

Like most frozen yogurt places, Menchie’s has a fun, inviting atmosphere as you walk through the door. The store boasts 14 flavor options per day, including fresh shredded coconut, mudslide pie, and “cinayumm” bun. Included in the flavor line up are 2 sorbet flavors and a no sugar added. At Menchie’s the yogurt tastes good, but is also good for you. The store makes their froyo with milk from their own hormone free, California cows. Plus, Menchie’s doesn’t use high fructose corn syrup.

Customers can dress up their frozen yogurt with one of over 40 toppings. Menchie’s tries to get toppings locally whenever possible.

The Cary store has been open in Waverly Place since February 2012. The store is just adjacent to the promenade, making it an ideal pick-me-up after a Wind Down Wednesday Concert or shopping at Whole Foods.

Fresca Cafe and Gelato

Waverly Place
Corner Kildaire Farm & Tryon Roads

Fresca’s creates the feeling of a quaint, little European Cafe right here in Cary. This Waverly place establishment also serves coffee and hot meals (like savory and sweet crepes), but is known for its gelato. Admittedly, their gelato is on the pricier side, but they offer may rich flavors like coffee and vanilla bean.

I personally recommend the biscotto. It has a sweet cookie flavor that would pair well with a cup of coffee!

Fresca is open from 7am-10pm Monday through Sunday.

YoPop

Crossroads Shopping off Walnut Street

The ever-bright and cheerful YoPop frozen yogurt store in Crossroads Shopping Center has served up frozen yogurt with a smile since 2011. The store offers 14 rotating flavors. Aside from the classic vanilla and chocolate, the store offers some unique flavors include taro, a purple root vegetable, and green tea.

The topping bar offers a wide variety of fresh fruit, cookies, and candies. The pink and orange “boba” juice poppers are a fun topping that the owner recommends. He said kids and teens love them because biting into the colorful juice filled bubbles causes a flavor explosion.

YoPop is a clean, family friendly frozen yogurt place just around the corner from Crossroads 20 movie theater.

Coldstone Creamery

Crossroads shopping off Walnut Street

Walking into Coldstone Creamery is reminiscent of walking into a vintage diner. According to the co-franchisees Jeff and Dave, there’s 22 ice cream, yogurt, and sorbet options that rotate regularly.  In addition to the familiar ice cream flavors, Coldstone also offers sorbets like lemon custard and tangerine. Most people don’t know that the ice cream is made fresh on-site.

At Coldstone, your toppings are mixed into your ice cream by hand. There’s a seemingly endless list of mix-in options from cinnamon and Nutella to marshmallow fluff and roasted almonds. One of the most popular creations is called the Birthday Cake Remix, which is a cup of cake batter ice cream with brownies and fudge.  Your favorite Coldstone ice cream can also be made into a shake, cake, or pie.

The store is now opperating under summer hours. On Friday and Saturday, the store is open from 11am-11pm. On Sundays, the store is open from 11am-10:30pm Sunday through Thursday.

Hint: If you leave a tip, Coldstone employees will even sing you a song.

TCBY

Shoppes of Kildaire

TCBY  in the Shoppes of Kildaire is one of Cary’s newest frozen yogurt stores. The store sells “Super Froyo”  which offer higher amounts of fiber, protein, calcium, and probiotics. Some of the frozen yogurt flavors are even made with Silk brand milk.Employee, Courtney Lynn recommends TCBY’s  white chocolate mousse or the salted caramel.  She also recommends the sorbet flavors, which rotate regularly. To top it off,  TCBY offers 46 toppings which include fresh fruit, Mrs. Field’s Cookies, and hot Reese’s peanut butter. For a sweet deal, every Wednesday at TCBY is “Waffle Cone Wednesday”. On that day, any frozen yogurt sold in a waffle cone is half off.

Did you know that TCBY stands for The Country’s Best Yogurt? (But we’ll let you decide!)

YoLo Desert Cafe

YoLo Desert Cafe is a upbeat place to get your frozen yogurt fill. The store always offers chocolate and french vanilla daily, but some of the store’s unique flavors include root beer, pink lemonade, and red velvet. Two of the most popular flavors include no sugar added and sea salt caramel pretzel.

You can use your phone or email to join YoLo’s loyalty program. When you spend $40 at YoLo, you get a $4 off coupon.

The store offers over 40 toppings and sauces, a number of which they buy locally.

Goodberry’s

2 locations in Cary: Kildaire Farm Road and Davis Drive

Goodberry’s is a summer staple in Cary. On any given night, a small crowd flocks around the storefront in order to buy their famous frozen custard, which is made fresh every hour. Chocolate, Vanilla, and a rotating flavor of the day can be made into a sundae, float, or concrete. Goodberry’s also promises honest ingredients – no preservatives and stabilizers!

The famous Goodberry’s concrete is a thick frozen custard creation mixed in with one or more toppings. You can mix in anything from wet walnuts to sprinkles. One of the most popular concretes is the mint chocolate chip jamocha.

In the summer, Goodberry’s is open from 11am-11pm Sunday through Thursday and 11am-12pm on Friday and Saturday. There are 2 locations in Cary- one on Kildaire Farm Road and one on Davis Drive.

Baskin-Robbins

2 locations in the Cary area: 1 on Davis Drive across from Grace Park, and the second is on NC 55 near West Park

Baskin-Robbins offers a wide variety of flavors at a wallet-friendly price. They have many ongoing specials, like their current double scoop waffle cone promotion. If you buy 2 scoops of ice cream, you get a waffle cone for free. Flavors include the standard vanilla and chocolate as well as a Daiquiri Ice Sherbert and a Blue and Red Spiderman 2 flavor.

In addition to scoops of ice cream, you can also buy soft serve,  shakes, sundaes, and cakes. The Brownie Sundae, a store favorite, tempts taste buds with an ice cream covered brownie topped off with whip cream, fudge, almonds, and a cherry on top.

If you’re craving ice cream early in the morning, Baskin-Robbins opens at 6am.

Other places to find frozen treats in Cary

Here are a few more places I couldn’t personally visit. I’m trying to stay the same dress size this summer.

• My Berry Frozen Yogurt– in the southern end of Cary at Ten-Ten and Kildaire Farm Road.
• Sweet Frog Frozen Yogurt– located in Tryon Village.
• YoCup Yo Way – East Chatham Shopping Center.
• Dairy Queen– The classic Grill and Chill. 2 locations in the Cary area: Grace Park in Morrisville off Davis Drive and Walnut Street near Cary High School.
• Kilwins – in Stone Creek; makes their own ice creams.

If I missed any ice cream places in Cary, please leave the info in the Comments.

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Story by Kristen Chung, a sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill and summer journalism intern at CaryCitizen. Read more stories by CaryCitizen summer interns.

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Seasonal coverage on CaryCitizen is sponsored in part by Fresca Cafe & Gelato and by YoLo.