{"id":188361,"date":"2026-05-10T00:48:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/188361\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T00:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:48:51","slug":"tipsy-scoop-a-boozy-ice-cream-shop-opens-in-rittenhouse-this-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/188361\/","title":{"rendered":"Tipsy Scoop, a boozy ice cream shop, opens in Rittenhouse this Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rittenhouse is already packed with good ice cream spots.<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got 1-900\u2013ICE CREAM<\/a> for inventive soft-serve, Gran Caffe L\u2019Aquila for premium gelato, Malai<\/a> for Indian-inspired fare and Weckerly\u2019s<\/a> for classic fun. In the past five years, national chains like Van Leeuwen and Jeni\u2019s have set up shop. So what possibly could a new kid on the block bring to the table?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The answer, it turns out, is booze.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tipsy Scoop<\/a>, the New York ice cream \u201cbarlour,\u201d known for its alcohol-infused artisanal flavors is making its debut in Rittenhouse this Saturday, May 9. The chain, which began in 2014, has nine locations across the country and is currently expanding into four new cities including Philly.<\/p>\n

You may think that alcohol would throw off the texture of ice cream. After all, hard liquor has a much, much lower freezing point than water. Still, Tipsy Scoop founder Melissa Tavss said the addition actually enhances her flavors and textures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIce cream making runs in my family from back in the 1800s,\u201d Tavss said. \u201cI was always obsessed with perfecting my homemade ice cream recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ice cream makers come up with inventive recipes all the time to make their ice cream creamier \u2014 using liquid nitrogen or forgoing eggs. Adding a bit of alcohol, Tavss found, was her secret weapon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fell in love with the consistency,\u201d she said, noting her ice cream became \u201csofter\u201d and \u201cless icy.\u201d Plus, the added booze didn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Tipsy Scoop\u2019s boozy ice cream flight (Courtesy of Melissa Tavss)<\/p>\n

Unlike baking with say a rum cake, where the alcohol is burnt off, when you\u2019re making boozy ice cream, the end product also contains alcohol. In other words, she found a way to make the already joyful dessert even more fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overcoming Pa. liquor laws<\/p>\n

Getting Tipsy Scoop to Philly was not easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of work getting to Philadelphia,\u201d Tavss said. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a lot of different liquor laws here than we\u2019re used to in New York. Also just being a non-beverage, food product is very different state by state.\u201d<\/p>\n

To satisfy the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board<\/a> and make sure everything is legal, Tipsy Scoop is partnering with BOTLD<\/a>, the boutique bottle store from Andrew Auwerda, co-founder of Philadelphia Distilling. Tipsy Scoop is moving into BOTLD\u2019s already established liquor shop \u2014 so when you check out with your ice cream, you can also buy an accompanying spirit.<\/p>\n

The initial connection was serendipitous. Tavss happened to walk into BOTLD after scouting out a location across the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe dropped in here and was checking things out,\u201d said Roland Coggin, BOTLD\u2019s general manager. \u201cI struck up a conversation with her and put her in touch with Andrew, knowing that she would have some unique challenges with the way that that spirits business in Pennsylvania works.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike other Tipsy Scoop locations, the Philly operation has an ice cream machine in the back. The team is making everything on site using BOTLD\u2019s Pa. approved spirits. What\u2019s more, in addition to the ice cream, BOTLD is selling their own frozen cocktails to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never done this with another store,\u201d said Rachel Chitwood, VP of marketing at Tipsy Scoop. \u201cPennsylvania liquor laws are pretty crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Philly location will have some brand new flavors. (Courtesy of Melissa Tavss)<\/p>\n

The BOTLD team is hoping that the partnership will bring in new customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe and Andrew found a very synergistic way to work that they are sourcing spirits with us,\u201d Coggin said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be very much a unified, seamless thing where we sell boutique spirits and mixers and bitters. We sell frozen cocktails to go. Their whole addition to that is just going to spread our net for a wider range of offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n

You must be over 21 to order an alcoholic flavor, but kids can enjoy one of the \u201cmocktail\u201d or regular ice cream options as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we very first opened in New York, we\u2019ve always had requests to come to Philly,\u201d Chitwood said. \u201cSo many people were commenting like, \u2018now I won\u2019t have to drive all the way to New York now, which is just great to hear. So we\u2019re really super excited to be in Philly, and we\u2019re just overwhelmed and grateful by the response we\u2019ve had so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spiked cherry water ice anyone?<\/p>\n

Tipsy Scoop flavors include spiked ice creams and sorbets like cake batter vodka martini, raspberry limoncello and mango margarita. A single scoop is around 5% alcohol, or as Chitwood noted \u201clike having half of a light beer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The different samples that we tried left us with the same two thoughts: \u201cthat\u2019s yummy\u201d and \u201cthis could be trouble.\u201d While you can certainly taste the alcohol, it would be easy to take down a whole pint. What\u2019s more, the alcohol pairings definitely add to the flavor. Vanilla just makes sense with bourbon, as chocolate does with whiskey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Chitwood, patrons can walk out \u201cwith any of our items,\u201d so you can go down the street with a Tipsy Scoop sundae, or take a frozen cocktail down to Rittenhouse Square to enjoy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The Philly Phreeze, Tipsy Scoop\u2019s cherry water ice flavor (Courtesy of Melissa Tavss)<\/p>\n

To honor the new Philly location, the shop is even coming out with an Eagles-themed scoop called the \u201cBirdz Blitz\u201d and a special spiked cherry water ice flavor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

George Maddox, the Philly store\u2019s general manager, has helped take on the challenge of creating Tipsy Scoop\u2019s first-ever water ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it gives that traditional taste a little bit,\u201d he said \u00a0 \u201cIt is a recipe that we\u2019re working on tweaking so we can have our own identity amongst the Philly water ice scene. As of right now, it is giving that Rita\u2019s vibe, but we\u2019re working on it. We\u2019re gonna make it the Tipsy vibe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The flavor is cherry forward and has a soft melt-in-your mouth quality. While gelatis aren\u2019t on menu, you can make a request.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maddox grew up around Temple and has prior experience at the Franklin Fountain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cComing from somewhere where I specialize in making ice cream, this was a totally different concept,\u201d Maddox said. \u201cSo this was refreshing. Philly doesn\u2019t have a liquor-infused ice cream scene, so why not be the one that helps open it\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tipsy Scoop team is hoping for a \u201cbig opening weekend.\u201d Maddox is excited for Philadelphians to get into the boozy ice cream experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s liquor ice cream\u2014you know, why not mix them both?\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rittenhouse is already packed with good ice cream spots. You\u2019ve got 1-900\u2013ICE CREAM for inventive soft-serve, Gran Caffe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14496,27227,84002,1515,40942,69,71,70,84003,16924,84004],"class_list":["post-188361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-alcohol","tag-booze","tag-boozy-ice-cream","tag-food","tag-ice-cream","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly-ice-cream","tag-rittenhouse","tag-tipsy-scoop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}