The Best Ice Cream Sandwich in New Orleans
Meet the Screamer
Most ice cream sandwiches are mass-produced, wrapped in plastic, and forgettable. They sit in a freezer for months before anyone eats them. The cookie part is spongy and sticks to your fingers, the ice cream tastes like sweetened air, and the whole thing falls apart in your hand before you get halfway through. Screamers are none of those things. They're made to order, built with all-natural ice cream and fresh-baked bread, and they're the reason half our customers end up coming back for a second visit before they leave the French Quarter.
What Is a Screamer?
A Screamer is our made-to-order ice cream sandwich. You pick your ice cream flavor from our rotating list of 20+ all-natural flavors, and we sandwich a generous scoop between your choice of fresh-baked bread. Cookie cake, brownie, or sponge cake. Every Screamer is assembled right when you order it, so the bread is still warm and the ice cream is perfectly cold. That temperature contrast is the whole point. The warmth softens the edges of the ice cream just enough that everything melds together into one thing that's better than either part on its own.
We didn't invent the concept of an ice cream sandwich, obviously. But we did decide that the version most people are used to is unacceptable. A proper ice cream sandwich should be an event, not something you settle for because the ice cream shop ran out of waffle cones. Every Screamer we make is built with that philosophy, and once you've had one, the grocery store version is going to feel like a real letdown.
The Three Varieties
Every Screamer starts with a choice, and the first choice you make is what goes on the outside. We offer three varieties, and each one creates a completely different experience with the same ice cream inside.
Cookie Cake Screamer
This is the classic, and it's the one that got people talking about Screamers in the first place. Two thick, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie halves with a generous scoop of ice cream pressed between them. The cookies come out warm, with soft centers and slightly crisp edges. When that warm cookie meets cold ice cream, something happens that you can only understand by experiencing it. The chocolate chips go half-melted, the ice cream starts to soften right at the surface, and the whole thing holds together just long enough to eat it walking down Decatur Street. If you're a first-timer and you don't know what to pick, start here. Pair it with Polly Praline or Cookie Monster for the full experience.
Brownie Screamer
If you're a chocolate person, this is your move. Our brownies are dense, fudgy, and rich in a way that makes the whole sandwich feel like a serious dessert. The brownie doesn't compete with the ice cream so much as it doubles down on the indulgence. It pairs especially well with Cafe Au Lait, where the coffee notes in the ice cream cut through the richness of the chocolate, or with Vanilla Bean, which lets the brownie be the star. This is the Screamer for people who want something that feels like it could be served at a restaurant, except you're eating it with your hands on a sidewalk in the French Quarter, and it's honestly better that way.
Sponge Cake Screamer
The sponge cake is the lightest of the three options, and it's the one we recommend when you really want the ice cream flavor to shine. The cake is soft, pillowy, and just sweet enough to complement whatever's inside without overpowering it. It works beautifully with our more nuanced flavors. Try it with Roasted Strawberry Creole Cream Cheese and you'll understand what we mean. The tanginess of the cream cheese ice cream against the gentle sweetness of the sponge cake is one of the best flavor combinations we serve. This is also a great choice if you want something a little less heavy than the cookie or brownie but still want the full Screamer experience.
Ingredients & Sourcing
Every Screamer starts with ice cream from Quintin's, a New Orleans ice cream maker that's been using all-natural ingredients since 1998. No artificial flavors, no artificial colors, no preservatives, no gums, no stabilizers. Just real dairy, real sugar, and real ingredients. When we say our Strawberry ice cream tastes like strawberries, it's because it's made with actual strawberries, not a flavor chemist's approximation of what strawberries might taste like.
The cookies, brownies, and sponge cake are all baked fresh. We don't use anything pre-packaged or frozen. When you bite into a Screamer, everything in it was made recently by people who care about what they're making. That's not a marketing line. It's just how we do things. If you want to learn more about why we chose to go all-natural and what that actually means, check out our guide to all-natural ice cream.
How to Order
The best way to get a Screamer is to walk into our shop at 1129 Decatur Street in the French Quarter. You'll pick your bread, pick your flavor, and watch us build it right in front of you. The whole process takes about a minute, and most people eat theirs before they make it two blocks down the street.
If you can't make it to the shop, you can also order through Uber Eats and Postmates for delivery. We'll pack your Screamer carefully so it arrives in good shape. And if you want to check what flavors we currently have before you head over, take a look at our current flavor list. We rotate flavors regularly, so there's always something new to try.