Long Island Ice Cream Tour returns for 15th year
A strawberry crunch ice cream cone at Coyle's Ice Cream in Bay Shore. Credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
It may not have the historical heft of Oyster Bay’s annual Oyster Fest or Glen Cove’s Feast of St. Rocco, but 2025 marks 15 years for the Long Island Ice Cream Tour: This is no fly-by-night gastronomic tradition.
Unlike those two famous, fixed festivals, LIICT is a movable feast that roams all over Long Island in search of the best shops that make their ice cream on the premises.
For the first nine years, co-founder Jeff Noreman tried to stuff all the stops into one belly-busting daylong itinerary, but in 2020 he split the tour into two legs, one covering western Long Island, the other, eastern. LIICT provides the itinerary, and also warns all the shops that a crowd will be descending — there's always a discount, and many do demonstrations or create special treats just for the occasion. It’s up to participants to provide their own transportation, and to pay for what they eat.
On July 20, Eastern LIICTers will convene at 10 a.m. at Snowflake in Riverhead and then make their way to McNulty’s in Miller Place, Mia’s Ice Cream Kitchen in Centereach, Coyle’s in Bay Shore, Old Fashioned Ice Cream Shoppe in West Babylon and, new this year, Mann’s in Amityville.
On Aug. 9, Western LIICTers will enjoy a frozen breakfast at LICS Ice Cream in Northport, and proceed to Cheeks & Bean in East Meadow (another newbie), Frozen Cow in Lido Beach, Hildebrandt’s in Williston Park, Gelateria dei Coltelli in Williston Park and Sweet Treats in Port Washington. (Note: Tour stops are subject to change.)
The cost for one tour is $36 a person; add the second tour for $10. That price includes the official LIICT 2025 T-shirt, orange sherbet this year, which all participants are required to wear. The registration deadline for LIICT East is July 18, for LIICT West, Aug. 4. Details at liict.org/join-us.
