7. Melt Bakery, 132 Orchard Street

Instead of buying regular ice cream at a grocery store, try Melt Bakery on Orchard Street, which sells only ice cream sandwiches. The cookies are made freshly and the ice cream, also freshly made, comes in flavors other than the conventional vanilla. To make the ice cream sandwich experience truly one of a kind, the baker, Julian Plyter, specifically pairs the cookies and ice cream in non-traditional ways.

Melt Bakery’s signature item is the Classic (chocolate chip walnut cookies with vanilla ice cream). But since the bakery promises diversity in its selections, there’s also the “Lovelet” (red velvet cookies with cream cheese ice cream), “The Morticia” (crunchy chocolate cookies with malted chocolate rum ice cream), and “Elvis” (peanut butter cookies with banana ice cream).

If this doesn’t sound quirky enough already, alternative ice cream flavors have included buttercream, pumpkin pie, and beer.