I don't know if the owners of the Icecream Factory know this, but the Greensboro location is the…read moretop-rated ice cream joint in the entire country! It was pretty simple for me to discover this. I just took 12 hours on a Saturday to read every online list and poll of best U.S. ice creameries, placed them all in an Excel spreadsheet, and averaged their Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor crowd-sources ratings. And the Icecream Factory came out on top! So naturally, I had to make the seven-hour pilgrimage from Nashville, Tennessee, to Greensboro just to see for myself.
And yes, I get it. When I visited, they had 66 flavors!! And 12 of those are dairy free. Going with my favorite, the classic mint chip, the ice cream quality was evident! Having eaten ice cream in all 50 states, I've had maybe two scoops of ice cream in my lifetime that were better. And that's saying something.
But here's what puts the Icecream Factory over the top! Creativity! The selection is massive. The plant-based and oat-based options are significant. They have very clever dishes like ice cream tacos, ice cream boats including banana splits, stackers (kind of like a sundae on steroids), loaded shakes, ice cream nachos using waffle cone chips, brownies, bars, and over 50 free toppings! I dipped my scoop of mint chip in chocolate sprinkles and that took it to a whole new level!!
Confession: It was so good, I went back to the counter for an encore performance. But my stomach can't handle too much dairy. So I went with an ice cream taco using their oat-based Biscoff bliss ice cream, a hard butterscotch shell, and their coconut-based whipped cream, all that sprinkled with crumbled Biscoff cookies and an entire Biscoff cookie intact. What a masterpiece!!
Yes, even if you're lactose intolerant, you CAN have your ice cream and eat it too! The two young ladies working that day were very friendly and helpful. And the atmosphere is clean and trendy with great music as well. I highly recommend America's best ice creamery!! Chalk up another five-star review for the champions!