The Fountain on Locust | St. Louis, MO: Opened in 2008, the Fountain on Locust has been voted St. Louis’s best ice cream, and its design lives up to the title. Locust Street’s Historic Automotive Row housed many early car showrooms in St. Louis, and in 1916, the current location for the Fountain on Locust was built. Originally featuring The Supreme Car Co., the building was made to showcase luxury cars such as the Stutz Blackhawk and the Stutz Bearcat. Instead of showing custom-made cars, the Fountain uses their building’s history of handcrafted perfection to echo their love for making ice cream, cocktails and food from scratch. Bring your kids for an afternoon treat, your date for a unique bite to eat or a friend out for a drink. Perhaps even better than its food is the Fountain’s interior; an Art Deco design boasts bright colors and interesting patterns from the murals to the black-and-white flooring all the way to its light fixtures, and its high ceilings give customers a sense of grandeur unique to the building’s time period and influence. No matter what time of year, the Fountain on Locust is the place to take any guest.
Izzy’s Ice Cream Kitchen | Minneapolis, MN: When owners Jeff Sommers and Lara Hammel opened their first ice cream shop in St. Paul, they had no idea how popular they would grow to be. When business started to boom, they opened a second location in Minneapolis; this new location allowed them to express their love for environmental thinking. Located along the Mississippi riverfront by Gold Medal Flour Park and Nouvel’s Guthrie Theater, they strove to be an example of “environmental stewardship and a humane work environment.” The blue on the exterior signifies the color of Guthrie’s Theater, and the red is Izzy’s main brand color. The colors are meant to give a comfortable and bright environment to both employees and customers alike. The building features high parapet walls that will allow for the installation of solar panels, which add to the owners’ love of the environment and sustainability, as well as a space for a rooftop garden for growing ice cream-flavoring herbs. Izzy’s is the perfect place to visit for any environmentally friendly customer. Not in the mood for ice cream? Check out their retail shop on the second floor!
LODOVNIA Ice Cream Shop | Poznan, Poland: LODOVNIA Ice Cream Shop’s architects focused on the store’s main item of sale for its structure and design: the ice cream cone. mode:lina architecture studio wanted the exterior to look like a piece of art on the streets of Poznan, Poland. They succeeded in this through the use of nearly one thousand white cones around the exterior; not only do the cones mimic the shape of an ice cream cone, but they give the building a striking facade to bring interested customers to their door. Large glass panels let natural light into the small space and also reflect the surrounding cityscape. The interior also reflects the “V” shape central to the ice cream shop’s logo design. Natural wood-toned and white triangles make up the counter, meant to continue the white cones’ design on the inside of the shop. Stark white flooring meants deep black, diagonally sectioning the shop into two sides. This ice cream shop appeals to an artist’s sensibilities as well as to the handcrafted taste that any ice cream lover will enjoy.
