Alley-Oop! This Saugerities Ice Cream Shop is a Slam Dunk

Our search for the best ice cream shops in the Catskills continues, and today we’re sharing a tiny treasure: Alleyway Ice Cream, a shop window that peeks into a little alley off Partition Street in Saugerties. The shop doesn’t have any indoor seating, but there are a couple of comfy, customer-ready tables in the alley. And though it’s just a little place, its flavors are mighty.

Alleyway Ice Cream’s mid-summer menu

When you meet Alleyway’s friendly owner, Julian Hom, you can tell that a lot of love goes into every 4-quart batch. His basic flavors include rich chocolate, deeply creamy vanilla, and just-tart-enough buttermilk strawberry (pictured at top, covered with pastel-colored star-shaped sprinkles) — but for me, the real draw here is Julian’s knack for creating innovative ice creams.

Let’s talk about his Ube Heath Bar Crunch:

Ube Heath Bar Crunch at Alleyway Ice Cream

“I actually fell in love with ube when I was in the Philippines,” Julian says. “I added Heath Bar to bridge the gap between our two countries.”

Made with the help of purple Filipino yams, this ice cream has an earthy creaminess and a very Instagrammable lavender hue. In fact, if you search Instagram for #ubeicecream you’ll quickly discover that Alleyway isn’t the only spot making this stuff — even Trader Joe’s carries an Ube Purple Yam Flavored Ice Cream — but we loved Alleyway’s added crunch of toffee-milk chocolate candy bar, especially with a drizzle of the house chocolate sauce and more of those superstar sprinkles.

Alleyway Ice Cream is located at 135 Partition St. Saugerties. The seasonal shop is open late-April through late-October. Follow them on Instagram for seasonal hours, menu updates, and hunger pangs!

>>> Need more Catskills Ice Cream intel? Check out Bittersweet Catskill: Rainbows on the Street, Woe in the Treats