Every shop below comes from LAist's current guide, with the addresses as LAist gives them. We have grouped them by where you would actually be standing when the craving hits.

San Gabriel Valley and Altadena

Fosselman's, 1824 W. Main St., Alhambra. Open since well before most of the competition and still carrying the 1950s fountain-soda-shop look. If you want the historical version of this whole exercise, start here.

Kinrose Creamery, 140 Mills Pl. in Old Pasadena, with a second shop at 16915 Ventura Blvd. in Encino. Persian and Egyptian ice cream from Maria Oveysi and Moe Kamal. Saffron pistachio rose and kanafeh are the signatures.

626 Ice Cream, 160 E. Duarte Rd., Ste. E, Arcadia. Amber Tan and Waldo Yan opened it in 2020 in the old Ace Frozen Yogurt space, with Asian-inspired flavors.

Bulgarini, 749 E. Altadena Dr., Altadena. Leo Bulgarini is a Rome native and a trained sommelier, and the gelato is made accordingly. He also does pasta and tasting dinners, so this is the one that can turn into dinner.

The Eastside

Scoops, 5105 York Blvd. in Highland Park and 727 N. Broadway, Ste. 125 in Chinatown. Tai Kim has been at this for more than twenty years. The flavors are deliberately unusual and rotate constantly, and there are non-dairy options.

Magpies Softserve, 2660 Griffith Park Blvd. in Silver Lake, 5049 York Blvd. in Highland Park, and 18971 Ventura Blvd. in Tarzana. Founded by the chefs Warren and Rose Schwartz.

South LA

All Chill, 3415 W. 43rd Pl., Leimert Park. Small-batch ice cream with a hip-hop museum built into the shop and flavors tied to the neighborhood. The most specifically Los Angeles entry on this list.

Downtown

Sad Girl Creamery, at ROW DTLA, 777 S. Alameda St., and popping up at Smorgasburg every Sunday. SueEllen Mancini makes nostalgic Latino ice cream novelties.

Westside and central

AWAN, 5630 Melrose Ave., 866 Huntley Dr. in West Hollywood, and 540 Rose Ave. in Venice. Entirely vegan and gluten-free, Indonesian-inspired, and it started as a walk-up window in West Hollywood.

Mateo's Ice Cream and Paletas, 1250 S. Vermont Ave. in Koreatown, 4234 W. Pico Blvd. in Mid-City, 4929 Sepulveda Blvd. in Culver City, and 11551 Santa Monica Blvd. in West LA. Latin American-style ice cream and paletas, going since 2000.

Ginger's Divine Ice Cream, 12550 Washington Blvd. in Culver City and 8430 W. 3rd St.

Spread across the region

Wanderlust Creamery, in Atwater Village, Costa Mesa, Venice, Irvine, Sawtelle, Pasadena and Tarzana. Globally inspired flavors, formulated to melt slowly, which in August is not a small consideration.

Handel's, founded in 1945, with dozens of Southern California locations.

Salt and Straw, the Portland chain, with several locations here and a rotating list of deliberately odd flavors.

Orange County

Tocumbo, 956 S. Euclid St., Anaheim. Mexican ice cream and paletas made to recipes from Michoacan, from the siblings Jennifer Clausen-Quiroz and Ricky Quiroz.

Gelato Paradiso, 448 S. Coast Hwy, Ste. A, Laguna Beach, on Pacific Coast Highway with a rotating flavor list.

One practical note

Hours change in summer and pop-ups move. Everything above is as LAist listed it; call ahead if you are driving across the county for a specific flavor, and check the Sunday Smorgasburg schedule before going to find Sad Girl.