As the heat in Austin continues to climb through the summer months, ice cream shops have become a necessity to keep Austinites cool with their distinct flavors and features. 

Many of these ice cream shops have their own special characteristics that make them unique, allowing each of them to individually stand out amongst the crowd. These specific attributes range from the flavors of the ice cream to the music the shop plays during the day. According to Meylin Cepero, a staff member at Gelatorio, these features make ice cream shops adored by their workers and customers alike. 

According to Cepero, Gelatoro differentiates itself by its style of ice cream influenced by multiple cultures. She also described other treats the shop sells for those who may not be interested in a cold cone of ice cream.

“This place has Mediterranean style things, like baklavas, which come from Turkey,” Cepero said. “So we have Italian, Middle [Eastern], and Mediterranean influence.” 

This diverse array of desserts in Gelatoro is also shown in other places such as Quack’s, a local bakery in Austin. According to Debrah Bamberg, a Quack’s ice cream worker, Quack’s also sells many desserts aside from ice cream.

“We are an all-encompassing bakery and don’t just focus on one thing,” Bamberg said. “The variety of desserts we have [stretches] from pastries to cookies to cakes.”

Aside from the types of desserts each shop sells, the workers’ personal favorites and the most popular items of each shop also varied from each other. According to Jade Friedman, a former Jeni’s ice cream worker, their bestsellers range from nationwide favorites to statewide favorites in specific.

“Our most popular flavor nationwide is the Brown Butter Almond Brittle,” Friedman said. “In Texas, it’s the Gooey Butter Cake. My favorite flavor of ice cream would be the coffee with cream and sugar, because it tastes the way coffee smells. Jeni’s steams the Nespresso directly into the cream, giving it a more aromatic and stronger coffee flavor.”

Cepero also described a few of the shop’s best selling flavors, showcasing the shop’s various cultural influences in the differences between them. For Cepero personally, her favorites included more than just the ice cream.

“We have four bestsellers,” Cepero said. “The belgian chocolate is one of the most popular and so is the stracciatella, the Italian milk based with chocolate chips. For gelato, I like the blackberry chip, [but] I love baklavas so much.”

According to Bamberg, the particular bestsellers of Quack’s as well as her personal favorites range across different desserts like cakes, muffins, cookies, among other pastries. Quack’s broad array of flavors boasts customer and staff favorites across each section of the menu, with Bamberg noting that favorites are constantly changing and getting re-picked.

“The most popular menu item varies,” Bamberg said. “We have a most popular in all of our categories. Our triple chocolate cake is our most popular cake, our marvelous morning muffin is our most popular breakfast pastry, and our decorated shortbreads are our most popular cookies. I would say my favorite menu item is our double chocolate cupcake. It’s new, all chocolate, and the icing is a chocolate cream cheese icing which is my favorite kind of icing.”

Aside from just their favorite treats to eat while working in their respective ice cream shops, Friedman also described the best parts of working there for her personally. According to her, the best part of working in Jeni’s is the people she’s met there.

“My favorite thing about working at Jeni’s is interacting with the customers,” Friedman said. “As well as getting to know my co-workers.”

For Cepero, some of the best parts of working in an ice cream shop are the types of treats they serve. However, her favorite part of working there is far from just dessert-based.

“I love gelato,” Cepero said. “Everyone loves gelato, [but] I also love watching people come here with kids and I just see so much love here in general.”