Beat the heat at these four local ice cream shops

Walk into Fantasticks with your phone’s camera ready to go, because this adorable Gaithersburg shop specializing in decorated-to-order gelato bars on a stick—or, the fanciest popsicles you’ve ever had—is an Instagrammer’s dream. The display case is a colorful sight to behold, filled with 40-some flavors of gelato, yogurt and vegan sorbet ready to be topped with goodies. Among the rotating choices are passion fruit, lime, coconut chia seed, parfait (a yogurt base with fresh fruit and granola), banana Nutella, birthday cake and pistachio.

The premise is simple: Half the gelato is plunged at a 45-degree angle into one of three sauces (caramel biscotti, dark chocolate or chocolate hazelnut). Then, up to three toppings are pressed into the sauce. Among the topping options: green chocolate chips, mini Reese’s pieces, shaved coconut, chopped hazelnuts, gummy bears, rainbow sprinkles, butterscotch crunch, chocolate pearls and unicorn dust (adorable mix of sprinkles, gold unicorn horns and chocolate balls coated with iridescent pink, blue and green hues). Each pop is then finished with strawberry, caramel or white or dark chocolate drizzle. (Sticks: $5; sauce: 75 cents; toppings: three for 75 cents)

Fantasticks is the brainchild of Kishan Bikki, who owns the local chain with his wife, Anusha Alla. He earned a master’s degree in computer science from George Mason University in 2006 but fell into the restaurant business, working for a pizza company and dabbling in a yogurt concept during a 15-year career. Realizing the yogurt market was saturated, he came up with the idea for Fantasticks and launched it in Ashburn, Virginia, in 2019. “I’m a sweets person with a passion for food and desserts, so I wanted to be in this industry,” he says. He signed the lease on the Rio space (ironically, a former yogurt shop) in 2019 but had to put off the opening until May 2021 due to COVID setbacks. He opened in Tysons Corner in November 2021.

All the sticks are made in-house. Half the offerings are vegan, made with oat or cashew milk or fresh fruit. An assortment of gelatos by the scoop is also available. The store seats 20 inside and 10 outside.

Rio Lakefront, 215 Boardwalk Place, Gaithersburg; 301-339-8158; myfantasticks.com

There’s gold in them thar’ Gaithersburg hills, and it’s all over the brown sugar boba sundae at Doki Toki Dessert Shop, which opened in Downtown Crown in May 2022. In addition to boba drinks, cakes, mochi donuts and mochi ice cream, Doki Toki serves soft-serve milk, matcha and milk/matcha swirl ice cream in a cone or cup ($5.50 to $6.50), offered with a variety of toppings for 50 cents each: Oreo crumbs, boba, lychee jelly, corn flakes, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, brown sugar and, for $3, gold leaf.

In Japanese, doki means “heartbeat” and toki means “moment,” so the name represents a moment of excitement, explains the store’s owner, Gaithersburg resident Jeff Li. Li earned an undergraduate business degree from Penn State in 2019, but his passions have always been dessert-making and Japanese culture. He developed the recipes for Doki Toki and for Kyoto Matcha dessert shop in Rockville, which he co-owns.

The brown sugar boba sundae—milk soft-serve with oodles of gooey brown sugar caramel sauce—is utterly delicious and all the more intriguing thanks to the chewy boba bubbles. Opting to have it topped with gold leaf was literally gilding the lily; it didn’t add anything in the way of flavor, but I left Doki Toki feeling like a million dollars.

202 Ellington Blvd., Gaithersburg; 301-781-6606; dokitokidessert.com

When brothers Tim and Mitch Ryoo were looking to open an ice cream shop, the only potential Montgomery County landlord to respond to them was Edens, which had a property available in Cabin John Village. What made that space especially appealing is that it had been a Baskin-Robbins that the brothers, who grew up in Cabin John, used to frequent. “I think there were bigger ice cream shops interested in that spot, so we offered to make some ice cream for them,” says Tim. “We met the leasing representative in front of the store with five samples. After the first bite—it was strawberry—she offered us the lease.” (Baskin-Robbins moved to Potomac Woods Plaza.)

The brothers, who attended Winston Churchill High School and earned bachelor’s degrees in business from Montgomery College, were on track to take over the family business of 20 years—dry cleaner stores—but wanted to do their own thing. Tim was into coffee and dessert and Mitch was into cooking, so they started researching ice cream and taught themselves the craft in two years of trial and error. They make their own ice cream base from milk, sugar and cream (no eggs) and use natural flavorings.

Thirty-two flavors of ice cream and sorbet, some of them vegan, are available at The Scoop at any given time from a repertoire of about 150 flavors. The store opened in August and quickly gained a reputation for offering creative flavors in addition to standard ones, earning a spot on the annual Best of Bethesda list in this magazine in January. Look for baklava (they fold actual baklava they buy from Rockville’s Yasaman Bakery into honey, cinnamon and pistachio ice cream), blue moon (a Midwestern specialty that is neon blue and tastes like Fruity Pebbles), ube honeycomb, mocha Nutella brownie and banana Oreo cheesecake. They also take customer submissions and develop recipes from them, such as animal cracker and Barbara’s mud pie. “Barbara is the name of the customer’s grandmother whose recipe we adapted. It’s made with coffee ice cream, Oreos, toffee and fudge swirl,” Mitch explains.

The Scoop keeps the menu simple: scoops, cones, sundaes and milkshakes. A single scoop is $4.69, plus 25 cents for a sugar or cake cone and 75 cents per topping. (Sample toppings: Butterfinger, waffle cone chips, gummy bears and M&Ms.) Sundaes: $8.99. Milkshakes: $8.29.

7909 Tuckerman Lane, Potomac; 301-296-2159; thescoopice creams.com

As Alan Weiner tells it, 12 years ago, his mother, Sharon Weiner, wanted to retire from her job in medical sales for Kaiser Permanente and do something on her own. “She called me and said, ‘Think ice!’ and I said ‘No!’ and hung up on her,” Alan recalls. “I called her back and said I was in. She deserved to do something for herself.” (Sharon says she was the one who did the calling back.) So, Alan and his parents (Sharon is “Grandma”), who all live in Olney, franchised the first of what are now four Kona Ice shaved ice trucks.

In 2022, they decided to expand into making soft-serve ice cream—adding waffles for extra pizzazz—and looked for a brick-and-mortar space that also had room to store and service their four trucks. They opened Grandma’s in February 2023, focusing on waffles as a way to set them apart from other ice cream businesses. The menu features savory items, too, but no Kona Ice—the Kentucky-based franchiser nixed it.

I flipped for the vanilla ice cream-topped waffle loaded with fresh strawberries and bananas, chocolate sauce and whipped cream ($13.99). Custom ice cream waffles ($7.99) with fresh fruit ($2) and various toppings ($1 each) are also available. Oreos, Fruity Pebbles, sprinkles, gummy bears, peanut butter cups, caramel syrup and marshmallow cream are among the topping options.

Alan makes all the ice cream bases and churns them in a Baylor soft-serve machine. Six flavors, including vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, mango and banana, are available at a time. Vegan vanilla and a vegan fruit flavor are always on hand. The 1,800-square-foot space seats 20 inside and 24 outside.

389 E. Gude Drive, Rockville; 301-545-2158; grandmasicecreamandwaffles.com

This story appears in the July/August issue of Bethesda Magazine.

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Beat the heat at these four local ice cream shops