Beat the heat with a frozen icy treat or milkshake from one of these Triangle shops
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Chill out
From ice cream and custard to icy frozen goodness on a stick, here’s your guide to the best summertime treats in the Triangle.
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Few things feel better than tearing into an icy frozen treat on a stick on a hot day, and even the best ice cream cone has to share its summer sweets trophy with the appeal of a good ice pop.
These chilly delights are often water-based, making them a friendlier option for many dietary restrictions, and even when they’re cream-based, they offer opportunities for sharper fruit flavors, bringing the appeal of a cold beverage together with the tactile sugar rush of ice cream.
Whether you like to lick, bite or sip your pop, these Triangle icy dessert shops, paleterías and snow-cone stops have the sweet, sour or even spicy respite to make you smile after long days under the scorching July sun.
Here’s a snapshot of some of our favorite places in the Triangle.
LocoPops
2618 Hillsborough Road, Durham
A mainstay of Durham Bulls games and other Triangle festivities, LocoPops offers exactly the refreshing, light ice on a stick you crave on a hot, steamy day. Both the fruity and creamy varieties are highly concentrated in flavor — no watery pops here — and the flavors themselves are delightful, ranging from root beer float and lavender cream to mojito and passionfruit margarita. The store’s founder and owner first opened the shop in Durham after a stop for gas on a road trip brought her to the city, which “felt like home from the start.” Enjoy an icy treat as you browse the specialty items offered at Sundries, a gourmet grocery shop attached to LocoPops.
The scoop: LocoPops were inspired by paletas, or Mexican-style Popsicles. You can order LocoPops and other goods from the shop online.
Pincho Loco Ice Cream
1918 Perry St., Durham
Down the street from Duke University, Pincho Loco cuts an appealing figure with a colorful mural, pinatas for sale and a strong smell of warm sugar. The family-owned Latin-style ice cream and sweets shop is a relative newcomer, opening its doors in 2017, and it’s fast become a favorite of Duke freshmen. Owners Martha and Luis Morales have even been known to put their ice cream towards a cause, endorsing a Duke student government candidate with a special blueberry cheesecake flavor (“Lanaberry cheesecake”) and distributing ice pops at a COVID vaccination site in 2021.
Pincho Loco, which translates to “crazy skewer,” lives up to its name with an even balance of dairy and nondairy icy pops, which you can order dipped in chocolate. We loved the mango/chili and the lime/chamoy, both spicy, tart respites from the unyielding July heat. The shop also sells flan, pudding, cakes and offers vegan options. It recently debuted some seasonal flavors, so be sure to check out dark chocolate hazelnut, graham cracker and pina colada sherbet.
The scoop: Pincho Loco serves beer and other canned alcoholic beverages, as well as boozy ice cream flavors like tequila, Kahlua and bourbon truffle. You can even order a beer float.
Vida Dulce
836 E. Chatham St., #104, Cary, plus a location in Knightdale
This lively paletería and heladería is a highlight of downtown Cary, with bright pink walls and a full snack menu. The shop, with a second location in Knightdale, was founded by two cousins with roots in Guadalajara, Mexico. There, their grandfather ran a paletería that has now inspired the recipes for desserts and street food served at Vida Dulce, the N&O previously reported.
The shop’s known for paletas, or fruit frozen treats, but don’t miss its 28 ice cream flavors, including five non-dairy options made in-house. If you can’t decide, try an eye-popping churro sundae, featuring three scoops of your choice. We especially loved their mangonada, with an extra layer of mango chunks beneath the nectar-like sorbet and generously drizzled chamoy.
The scoop: Vida Dulce offers catering, and they’ve brought 2,550 icy treats to 56 events so far. They also offer a rolled ice cream station and a selection of packaged snacks to go.
Pelican’s Snoballs
606 Fayetteville St., Durham, plus 74 locations across North Carolina
Pelican’s iconic cups of sticky-sweet frozen fluff started as a tiny shack in Garner in 2001.
Looking to recreate the flavor of summer at her grandparents’ house in Louisiana, 13-year-old Ansley Johnson was joined by her family to kick off a 200-store franchise of brightly painted shave ice stands. There are over 100 flavors, mostly fruit-based and poured in brightly colored streaks over perfectly packed ice, including a few signature creations that match themed gummy animals with color schemes. The signature Sour Tsunami melts to a pool of brilliant blue, but not before you get in several spoonfuls of perfect tart citrus chill.
The scoop: Both Durham locations are drive-throughs, and you can purchase 25 Pelican Bucks — redeemable for $25 worth of shave ice — for $20.
Cook Out
Founded in Greensboro in 1989, Cook Out trays and shakes are a bucket-list summer snack in North Carolina. The chain opened 50 locations in North Carolina within its first 20 years of operation, and didn’t cross state lines until 2010, giving all of us lots of practice mixing-and-matching all 40+ milkshake flavors.
The shakes are so thick and slow-melting that maneuvering the straw takes real effort, and somehow they pair fabulously with any fried morsel on the rest of the menu, especially after a long active day. Watermelon milkshakes, with big chunks of fresh watermelon, are a July special at Cook Out, but don’t miss peach and tart cherry flavors this year as well. If you’re stuck between indulgent peanut butter fudge, tropical pineapple, a fizzy Cheerwine float or something else , check out our guide to ordering or our readers’ choice combinations.
The scoop: The N&O previously reported that a new location may open in Chapel Hill soon, following a purchase by a corporation associated with Cook Out founder Morris Reaves.
Don’t miss these other fabulous freezeries
Paco’s Shave Ice, (102 S. Merritt Mill Road, Chapel Hill)
Rose’s Noodles, Dumplings and Sweets ice cream sandwiches (121 N. Gregson St., Durham)
Lucette Grace macaron ice cream sandwiches (235 S. Salisbury St., Raleigh)
Captain Cookie and the Milkman ice cream sandwiches (500 E. Davie St., Raleigh, inside Transfer Co. Food Hall)
Paleteria La Monarca Michoacana (2000 Avondale Drive, Durham)
This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Beat the heat with a frozen icy treat or milkshake from one of these Triangle shops."