City: St. Paul, MN

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (651) 603-1458

Address: 2034 Marshall Ave.

Description: Izzy’s immediately became a local favorite when it opened in 2000, but it gained national fame in 2006 when Food Network host Bobby Flay, having been informed that the little St. Paul spot had the best ice cream in America, arrived unannounced to challenge founder Jeff Sommers to a televised ice-cream-making competition—which Sommers won handily. Izzy’s serves an amazing variety of homemade ice cream, including blueberry cheesecake, green tea, Mexican chocolate fiesta, mango, ginger, hot brown sugar, Guinness, crème de menthe, pineapple, Oreo cookie, and coffee, the latter flecked with coffee grounds. Each dish or cone comes with the establishment’s trademark “izzy”—a small scoop of any flavor you’d like added to the top. Izzy’s also offers malts, shakes, floats, sundaes, and egg creams, and to ease your environmental conscience, about a third of the shop’s power comes from solar panels on its roof. Izzy’s is open daily.