Pop's Old Fashion Ice Cream Co

Housemade scoops, waffle cones and milkshakes

The ice cream at Pop's Old Fashion Ice Cream Co is made on the premises in small batches, and the shop is arranged around the case rather than around a dessert menu. Cups, cones and milkshakes are the three formats, with the waffle cone as the house version worth taking.

Named flavors give a fair sense of the range: butter pecan, pistachio, black raspberry and strawberry, with cookies and cream turning up most often as a milkshake. New flavors appear alongside the standards, so the case is not fixed.

An old-fashioned parlor in Old Town

The room is a vintage-style parlor, retro and classic in the way the name promises, rather than a modern dessert bar. It is counter-based and quick, so the visit is a stop rather than a sit-down.

It works inside the rhythm of Old Town Alexandria, where an afternoon on foot tends to end with something in a cone. The shop is built for that traffic: order, take it outside, keep walking.

How to order

Start at the scoop case and take two: one from the nut side, butter pecan or pistachio, and one from the fruit side, black raspberry or strawberry. That pairing reads the shop's range better than any single flavor will.

If the weather argues for a drink instead, the milkshake is the move, and cookies and cream is the flavor that comes up again and again. The waffle cone is worth the small upgrade, since the shop treats the format as part of its identity rather than an afterthought.