Here’s the Scoop

By Lisa Arnett
June 2026 View more Discover

From classics to new shops, the local ice cream scene is seriously sweet

Rainbow Cone

498 E. Roosevelt Road, Lombard
7417 S. Cass Ave., Darien
305 E. Army Trail Road, Glendale Heights
303 S. Weber Road, Bolingbrook

This South Side Chicago staple is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The colorful stack of five sliced-not-scooped flavors is a true local delicacy. “You look at it and go, ‘Oh, that won’t work,’ but it does. It has for 100 years,” says Lynn Sapp, whose grandparents, Joe and Katherine, opened the first Rainbow Cone in 1926 in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood. “The top flavor is orange sherbet to cleanse your palate. Then pistachio and then Palmer House—cherry and walnut and vanilla—then strawberry, and the bottom is chocolate.” At the original shop, a cone cost a dime. “For a dime then you could get a blue-plate special, a whole plate of food, so it was a sacrifice and a big treat to spend 10 cents on ice cream,” Sapp says. Rainbow Cone has made its way to the west suburbs in recent years via a partnership with Buona. First came Lombard and Darien in 2021, then Glendale Heights and Bolingbrook in 2023. The Lombard shop is ice cream only, while the latter three are dual locations with Buona so you can grab another Chicago favorite—Italian beef—in the same building.

Good to know: Look for the Rainbow Cone truck at local fests during the summer.

Kimmer’s Ice Cream

1 W. Illinois St., St. Charles; 109 E. Front St., Wheaton; 110 W. Park Ave., Elmhurst

Back in college, English major Kimberly Yates heard some memorable career advice. “One of my professors had said, ‘Do what you know, do what you love,’ and I thought: I really only know ice cream,” she says. She had worked at Batavia Creamery throughout high school and college and couldn’t think of anything she enjoyed more. “I just loved serving customers, and the fast-paced vibe was really fun,” she says. “People come in sad because they lost a baseball game, and they get happy because they get ice cream.” When she saw Gramp’s Frozen Custard in downtown St. Charles was up for sale, “I did one thing my college professor told me not to do: go into business with friends or family,” she says. “I took a loan from my parents, who were very supportive of me opening a small business.” After a trip to Ice Cream University in West Orange, New Jersey, (yes, that’s a real thing) to learn how to make ice cream from scratch, she put her own nickname on the sign and started scooping in 2010. Her husband, Isaac, joined the business in 2013, and they now have a shop in Elmhurst as well as one in Wheaton, where the ice cream for all three locations is made. “Our ice cream is 14 percent butterfat, super premium, and also low overrun, which means we don’t whip a bunch of air into it like a commercial ice cream. It’s very heavy because it’s dense,” she says. “And we add the most toppings you could add. Our cookie dough ice cream, for example, is not little pellets of dough—it’s big globs of the real stuff.”

Good to know: While freshly made waffle cones are a favorite, Kimmer’s is known for its signature sparkle cone. “It’s a sugar cone coated with white chocolate, sanding sugar, and Disco Dust [edible glitter],” Yates says.

Pete’s Ice Cream Bar

505 Pennsylvania Ave., Glen Ellyn

When they lived in Chicago, Peter Heidenberger and his wife, Anne, had a long-standing warm-weather tradition of walking to the nearest ice cream shop for a scoop. When they moved to Anne’s hometown of Glen Ellyn, they felt the downtown district was lacking in options. “There are places to get some sweet treats and gelato but not a traditional scoop shop,” he says. “I could never really get it out of my head.” When the space formerly occupied by Rise Cycle became available, he decided the time was right to leave his job in commercial real estate and get into the ice cream biz. The shop is set to open in June and will scoop flavors from a Madison, Wisconsin–based maker. “We are sourcing in my opinion the best ice cream I’ve ever had—the highest butterfat content, 16 percent. It’s really indulgent stuff,” he says.

Good to know: “We will have something for everybody—the classics as well as fun, unique flavors like the Exhausted Parent, which is bourbon-and-espresso-spiked ice cream with big chunks of chocolate fudge in it,” he says. Nondairy and egg-free options also will be in the mix.

Winfield Creamery

27W460 Beecher Ave., Winfield

While out on a walk with her kids a few years ago, Katrina Muenster couldn’t help but feel something was missing in downtown Winfield. “I thought: There really is no place we can get ice cream on a nice day,” she says. When she and her husband, David, saw a vacant storefront in Winfield Market Square, they decided to seize the opportunity. Though loan rejections and construction snafus made for a rocky road to their December opening, they’re intent on providing this gathering place for local families. “There have been a lot of tears and late nights and frustration, but as we are approaching summer, we’ve had such a great response from the community,” Muenster says. The shop serves floats, banana splits, hot fudge sundaes, milkshakes, and 24 flavors of ice cream on any given day. Look for rotating cake-inspired flavors such as cake pop, Oreo cheesecake, carrot cake, and Muenster’s personal favorite, yellow cake batter. “I also really like Cow Tipping, which has a vanilla base with caramel swirls and peanut-butter-filled chocolate pieces,” she says. “If you like chocolate, Michigan Pothole is as chocolate as it gets—a chocolate base, buttery fudge, chocolate ribbons—nd it also has chocolate chunks in it.”

Good to know: Summer specials include Sip-N-Dirty (their spin on dirty sodas) and the Frosted Brew (iced coffee blended with vanilla and chocolate ice cream). On Tuesdays only, stop in for their take on the nostalgic Choco Taco featuring a housemade waffle cone shell.

Hazel Marie’s

24030 W. Lockport St., Plainfield

Since she got her first job at a scoop shop at age 16, it’s been Tammy Barvian’s lifelong dream to open her own ice cream parlor. When a historic 1872 Plainfield building that once housed a pharmacy and soda fountain went up for sale, Tammy and her husband, Ken, realized they could serve ice cream in the front and move their realty business into the back. They opened in 2017 and have since retired from real estate, dedicating their time to running the shop (plus a second location in Crest Hill) from April through October. To complement the building’s original pressed tin ceilings, they added antique-inspired chandeliers, booths, and wooden stools, and painted the walls just the right shade of strawberry. “My husband and I have twin boys so I always say this is the girl I never had,” she says. Top-selling flavors include the fruity red-blue-and-yellow Superman—“You would think it’s a kid flavor, but there’s a lot of adults that order it, too,” Barvian says—as well as This S&@! Just Got Serious (salted caramel base with cashews and fudge), and Ultimate Oreo.

Good to know: “I named the shop for my grandmother, and her favorite ice cream was basically a turtle sundae, so the Hazel Marie’s sundae here is vanilla ice cream, salted caramel, hot fudge, and pecans,” she says.

Batavia Creamery

4 N. Island Ave., Batavia

When Kirk Jansons says he’s been in the ice cream business his whole life, it’s not an exaggeration. He grew up working at Baskin Robbins in Naperville and partway through college became partners with his parents when they opened a Baskin Robbins in Batavia. When the franchise contract expired in 2006, he went independent, opening Batavia Creamery in the same building. He stocks 40-some flavors at any given moment, rotating from a stable of about 150 different options sourced from half a dozen different makers. “I love it when people walk in here and say, ‘I’ve never seen that before,’ ” he says. Popular summer flavors include Key lime pie, dark chocolate-raspberry, and Blue Panda. ‘That’s a blue-and-white sugar cookie dough ice cream with Oreos in it that’s really hot with the kids,” he says.

Good to know: For a deconstructed take on a traditional cone, try the ice cream nachos. “It’s basically a three-scoop sundae with waffle chips, meant to be shared or indulged in by yourself,” Jansons says.

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream

2440 S. Eola Road, Aurora

Evanston native Judy Kim had her first scoop of Bruster’s ice cream while living in Maryland. “My daughter and I had to limit ourselves to going only once a week,” Kim says. “We just loved how it tasted, and when we moved back here 10 years ago, we were like, ‘We miss Bruster’s!’ ” She looked into franchising and recruited Aurora native Tony Ford to team up with her. “I owned a car detailing company, and we met when she brought her car in to me,” Ford says. “We became friends, and she talked me into closing down the shop and going into business with her. I grew up on Oberweis, so it was a hard sell to try to compete with that, but I was convinced.” They opened the first Illinois location of Bruster’s in 2024 in Aurora. “We make ice cream fresh every day right in our store,” Kim says. Flavors are always rotating, and there are typically at least 40 to choose from, including nondairy options made with oat milk. “We have a strict model of ‘You try before you buy,’ so you can sample all day long,” Ford says. In addition to classics like vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and butter pecan, you might see options such as New York Cheesecake, Cotton Candy Explosion, Coldbrew Brownie, or Faluda (rose ice cream with basil seeds). In addition to scoops, they also sell sundaes, milkshakes, and Bruster’s Blasts (ice cream with candy or cookies mixed in).

Good to know: Since there’s no indoor seating customers can hit the drive-through or visit the walk-up window and enjoy their choice of treat out front. “Last year, we got a trailer so we can go to events, and the schools have been so supportive and invite us for fun runs or fun fairs,” Kim says.

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Ice Cream on the Way

Indian ice cream chain Dumont Creamery and Cafe is coming to Naperville’s Block 59 (404 Route. 59) this summer. The brand started with a single shop in Hyderabad, India, in 1999 and has since expanded to the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Ice cream flavors are globally inspired, from Biscoff (a cinnamony Belgian cookie) to Kheer (traditional Indian rice pudding). The shop also serves coffee, bubble tea, matcha, and mazagran (an Algerian coffee-lemonade mix).

Photos: Buona Companies (cone); The Original Rainbow Cone (historic photos); Kimmer’s Ice Cream; Pete’s Ice Cream Bar; Lisa Arnett (Winfield Creamery); Hazel Marie’s; Bruster’s Real Ice Cream; Batavia Creamery