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One of the fall openings we’re most excited about. Photo: Scott Semler

I know summer doesn’t end for another few weeks, but we are already looking ahead to the final third of the year, specifically all of the new restaurants that are going to open, as you can see below. We aren’t putting away our flip-flops just yet, however. To start this week, Zach Schiffman has dutifully eaten, in his words, “most of the corn ice creams in the city right now.” When he told me this, I did the only logical thing and asked him which were the best. Here’s his list!

August is corn season, which means it is also corn-ice-cream season. I accidentally went on a monthlong bender and have tasted as many different versions as humanly possible. These are the best of the best.
—Zach Schiffman

1. Fan Fan Doughnuts’ Corn Soft Serve

It returns every year and it remains the undisputed king of corn soft serve: The staff suggests swirling it with blueberry soft serve, but I say go corn all the way.

2. Superiority Burger’s Corn Gelato
A tortilla-chip gelato earlier this year was more adventurous, but Superiority’s corn gelato is the most genuinely corny ice cream I tried all summer.

3. Ample Hills’ Corn to Run
This old favorite made an extremely limited return — less than a week — and sold out almost immediately in all locations. The flavor (the personal favorite of co-founder and former co-owner Jackie Cuscuna) has the nuttiest profile of the bunch, and some blueberry jam is just the perfect amount of sweet to cut through the savory.

4. Papa d’Amour’s Elote Corn Soft Serve
Dominique Ansel’s bakery is still churning out its viral butter-dipped soft serve, but the sweet-corn base dipped in elote butter and topped with Tajín and cotija is a layered journey with every bite. It’s the rare ice cream that might be too big: The size combined with the buttery decadence left me unable to finish the cone.

5. Ramblin’ Chick’s Corn Soft Serve
Cuscuna and her husband, Brian Smith, the couple that invented Corn to Run, tried their hand at a simpler sweet-corn flavor this summer that balanced notes of corn with their soft-serve base. It’s more muted than Fan Fan’s, but if you’re wanting something subtle, this is it.

Next week, we’ll roll out our annual guide to the upcoming restaurants we’re most excited to try before the end of the year. I can tell you now that it is an exceedingly interesting collection of big swings and ambition. But why wait? A few spots that are going to be Big This Fall have already opened their doors — Ugly Baby 2.0, a very intriguing new West Village Thai spot called Hommali, and did you know that Faux is now taking reservations on OpenTable? Plus we’ve got Georgia Fulton’s Sam’s redo coming next week (even if you don’t know her name, you recognize her from Long Island Bar) and Lucas Sin telling Michael Harlan Turkell a bit about his plans to take over M Star Cafe in Chinatown. 

We’re talking a lot about the changing seasons, but what is seasonally agnostic? Outdoor dining, as of this week, after City Hall reversed the previous regulations that required restaurants to break down al fresco structures in the fall. Not anymore! Get your sweaters ready. 

Questions? Feedback? Recommendations? Drop us a line at [email protected].

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