Ice cream dipped in melted butter? Stew Leonard's has it

Stew Leonard's already has a lot going on — there's the animatronic band of singing milk cartons, the branded merchandise, the life-size cow sculpture hanging from the ceiling. And now this kitschy supermarket chain is attempting to make a better ice cream cone by, gasp, dipping it in melted butter. 

Yes, the butter-dipped ice cream is a total gimmick. But here's why it's worth your time: First, this over-the-top dessert was reportedly invented not by the Connecticut-based supermarket, but by world-renowned pastry chef Dominique Ansel at his Manhattan bakery Papa d'Amour. The treat, which consists of vanilla soft serve ice cream that's quickly dipped in melted butter and topped with sea salt, made its Instagram debut in late 2025 and quickly went viral. When the butter hits the ice cream, it hardens and becomes a crunchy shell with a translucent quality. 

The family-owned Stew Leonard's got its start as a dairy farm in the 1920s and later opened as a dairy store. So butter has long been part of its brand, marketing director Chase Leonard said. One of the stores tested the butter-dipped cone and soon Chase's father, Stew Leonard Jr., made a video of him sampling the creation, declaring it to be "sheer enjoyment." A star was born. 

Now the butter cone is available at both Long Island stores, in Farmingdale and East Meadow. It costs $5 and comes with vanilla soft serve that's dipped in a vat of Stew's own brand of melted Wisconsin dairy butter and topped with sea salt.

I admit, when my editor asked me to cover this one, I scoffed. Food writers are regularly asked to put their digestive tracts through questionable challenges, but this seemed like a doctor's visit waiting to happen. This may still be true, but after eating it, I'm honestly surprised and relieved about how normal it was. The buttery shell is rather delicate, and didn't have much of a taste. It merely adds an extra richness to the already full-flavored ice cream. And the touch of sea salt is rather tantalizing, making me think, why don't they always do it this way? 

And of course, I burned some extra calories by looping around the store three times so I could take videos of the animatronic banana dressed like Carmen Miranda singing, "Chiquita Banana." So at the end of the day, we'll say I broke even.

Stew Leonard's, 261 Airport Plaza Blvd., Space 5, Farmingdale (516-962-8210) and 1897 Front St., East Meadow (516-394-9001), stewleonards.com. Open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

By Andi Berlin

andi.berlin@newsday.com

Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.