Food Lover's Guide to Seattle

Where to shop for just about anything that's great to eat.

By Laura Cassidy and Shauna JamesWith contribution from Robbie Corey-Boulet, Will Mari, Chris Nishiwaki, Britt Olson, and Jessica Voelker

The Straight Scoop

The sweetest local frozen confections.

French-Style Ice Cream

“It’s just one of those things that brings a smile to everyone’s face,” says Eats Market Café’s Toby Matasar of ice cream. For the French-style stuff she makes at her West Seattle eatery, butter, not cream, is the prime ingredient, giving it uncommon depth and texture. Eats Market Café, 2600 SW Barton St, Unit B13, West Seattle, 206-933-1200, www.eatsmarket.com

Dulce de Leche

Latvian-born pastry chef Artis Kalsons wants his desserts to wow you, so artful individual-sized blackberry pies are topped with sour-cream sorbet. Guests of the Fairmont hotel and its restaurants can also have the locally sourced frozen desserts alone; the otherworldly dulce de leche ice cream stands on its own. The Georgian at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, 411 University St, Downtown, 206-621-1700, www.fairmont.com/seattle

Gelato

Maria Coassin comes from a long line of Italian bakers and is committed to honoring their trade. “I hear compliments from customers saying that her gelato is just as good as Italy’s or better,” says Gelatiamo manager Skyler Engberg. For our money, Coassin’s coconut gelato is the most delicious embodiment of that flavor on the planet. Gelatiamo, 1400 Third Ave, Downtown, 206-467-9563, www.gelatiamo.com

Old-World Sorbet

Jerry Perez and Ana Orselli, a husband-and-wife team from Argentina, keep their frozen desserts under wraps. Sealed stainless-steel containers keep Mora’s ice creams and sorbets at optimum temperature until they top your cone. “Our challenge is to make the ice cream like your grandmother would have made it,” says Ana. Our grandmothers never made anything like their goat-cheese-and-fig sorbet, but we’re glad Orselli’s did. Mora Iced Creamery, 139 Madrone Ln, Bainbridge Island, 206-855-8822, www.moraicecream.com

Locally Frozen Treats

Pick up a pint of Snoqualmie at your neighborhood gourmet grocery and you’ll forget about Häagen-Dazs forever. But the best place to enjoy their ice cream, gelato, and frozen custard is atop a stool at their factory and farm café near Woodinville, where you have a complete picture of Barry and Shahnaz Bettinger’s mindful process. Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream, 21106 86th Ave SE, Maltby, 360-668-8535, www.snoqualmiegourmet.com

American Classics

Theno’s serves one-mile ice cream; that is, the milk that makes it comes from cows just down the road. You can taste that distinction in flavors like mountain huckleberry and pumpkin. Theno’s Dairy, 12248 156th Ave NE, Redmond, 425-885-2339