Mason's Creamery

Small-batch ice cream in warm weather, ramen when it turns cold: Mason's Creamery runs two businesses out of one room in Cleveland's Ohio City. Jesse Mason and Helen Qin built it up from a mobile ice cream cart into a neighborhood fixture, and the seasonal switch is the thing regulars plan around.

Handmade ice cream, sorbet and winter ramen

The ice cream is made in small batches with ingredients from local purveyors wherever possible, and the flavor list is where the shop shows its hand: coconut pandan cake, vegan lemon cream, graham cracker soft serve, ube, sweet corn, marzipan, egg waffle, paw paw, lavender salted caramel, apple cider sorbet and cannoli. Classic and experimental sit on the same board, so a visit can mean a familiar scoop or something closer to a kitchen idea than a freezer-case standard.

In colder months the shop turns into a ramen destination, with bowls including raclette, veggie or pork tonkotsu, chicken shio and birria. Korean corn dogs and pork dumplings have appeared alongside them.

A counter-service shop with a mural

The room is small, friendly and relaxed, closer to an old-school creamery than a restaurant. Everything is counter-driven: warm-season scoops handed across the same counter that serves winter noodles a few months later. A hand-painted mural behind it, full of dogs and ice cream and then more dogs and ice cream, gives the interior its signature.

That fits the wider character of the business, which is creative, local, casual and shaped by its owners rather than by a template. Lines form at the counter in summer, and demand concentrates on whatever is rotating through the flavor board.

What to order at Mason's Creamery

For a first visit, work the flavor board rather than looking for standards. Ube, sweet corn, coconut pandan cake, graham cracker soft serve, paw paw, lavender salted caramel and cannoli show the range, while apple cider sorbet and vegan lemon cream cover the fruit-forward and dairy-free directions.

If the season has turned, treat Mason's Creamery as a noodle shop instead. Raclette ramen, pork or veggie tonkotsu, chicken shio and birria are the bowls to know, with Korean corn dogs and pork dumplings extending the cold-weather list. The shop has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, but the reason to go stays the same: small-batch ice cream in warm weather, and ramen once the room turns seasonal.