The 6 best ice cream stops near Upper Arlington, ranked
Scoop of ice cream in a waffle cone outside a central Ohio ice cream shop
Six central Ohio ice cream institutions within 20 minutes of Upper Arlington, ranked by what is in the scoop rather than what is on the sign.
How I ranked them, and why Ohio takes this seriously
Ohio is an ice cream state in a way outsiders underestimate. Cincinnati gave the country French pot ice cream in the nineteenth century, Youngstown produced one of America's great frozen custard chains, and Columbus itself launched the brand that changed how Americans think about flavour. Within 20 minutes of Upper Arlington you can compare four distinct traditions: dense French pot, soft frozen custard, old-school local dairy scoop shops, and modern chef-driven ice cream. I ranked on the product first, then on the experience of standing there eating it, then on how far you have to drive.
Price bands to calibrate: a single scoop across these runs roughly $5 to $8 in 2026, a pint in-shop $10 to $15, and grocery pints of the Ohio brands considerably less at the Market District in Kingsdale or the Lane Avenue supermarkets. Queues are the real cost — a warm Friday evening at any of these means 15 to 25 minutes in line. Frozen custard stands typically close for the winter, while the year-round shops shorten hours from November. Confirm seasonal hours before making a special trip.
1. Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Grandview Avenue
Jeni's began at the North Market in Columbus in the early 2000s and grew into a national brand without losing its home ground, and the Grandview Heights shop on Grandview Avenue is about eight minutes from the southern edge of Upper Arlington. What earns the top spot is flavour construction: grass-grazed milk bases, real fruit, and combinations — brown butter almond brittle, salty caramel, wildberry lavender, brambleberry crisp — that read as inventive rather than gimmicky. Ask for a sample flight of two or three before committing; the staff expect it.
The catches are price and queue. A single scoop lands around $7 and a pint bought in the shop is in the low teens, which is genuinely expensive for ice cream, and the line on a July Saturday evening stretches out the door. Grandview Avenue parking is free on the street but tight during dinner hours. Grocery pints are the value play if you are self-catering. If you have one ice cream in you and you want to taste something you cannot get at home, this is where I would send you, cost accepted.
2. Graeter's, the French pot standard
Graeter's has been making ice cream in Ohio since 1870 using a French pot process — two-gallon batches spun in a chilled pot and hand-packed, which yields an unusually dense, low-overrun texture. The signature is the chocolate chip line, where warm chocolate is poured into the churning base and shattered into enormous irregular shards rather than uniform chips. Black raspberry chocolate chip is the flavour Ohioans defend against all comers, and it deserves the loyalty. There are shops across the Columbus metro, several within a short drive of Upper Arlington.
It ranks second rather than first only because the flavour range is conservative next to Jeni's — this is a house that perfects classics rather than inventing. That is also its strength: a scoop of the black raspberry is more consistently excellent than any single Jeni's flavour. A scoop runs roughly $5 to $6, pints are widely sold in local supermarkets for less than shop price, and the queues move faster. If you are buying for a group with mixed tastes and one fussy child, this is the safe and correct answer.
3. Handel's, for the portion size
Handel's started in Youngstown in 1945 and has spread across Ohio, with locations in the outer suburbs north and west of Upper Arlington — Dublin, Hilliard and Powell are all in the 15-to-25-minute range. It is made fresh on site daily, the flavour list is long and rotating, and the defining feature is portion size: a single scoop here is what other shops call a double, served in a way that requires immediate attention on a hot evening. Prices run around $5 to $6 for that single.
The catch is that these are walk-up windows in strip-mall car parks — there is no atmosphere to speak of, and no seating beyond a few benches. Do not drive here for a date. Do drive here if you are feeding teenagers, or if you want the most ice cream per dollar within half an hour of Upper Arlington, which by a wide margin you will get. Locations close or shorten hours in the deep winter months, so check before making the trip between December and February.
4. Johnson's Real Ice Cream, Bexley
Johnson's has been making ice cream in Bexley since 1950, and the original shop on Main Street is the most old-fashioned experience on this list: a neighbourhood counter, a modest flavour board, and a product that tastes like it predates the concept of a brand. It is about 20 minutes from Upper Arlington across the city, and there are additional locations in the north-east suburbs. Prices are moderate, in the $5 to $6 range for a scoop, and the seasonal fruit flavours in summer are the ones to order.
It ranks fourth purely on distance — cross-town driving is the tax you pay, and the Bexley trip only makes sense if you are combining it with something else on the east side, such as the Columbus Museum of Art or a walk around Bexley's Main Street. The shop itself is small and gets crowded on summer evenings with the local family trade, which is precisely its charm. Skip if your only interest is novelty flavours; come if you want to taste what Columbus ice cream was before Jeni's rewrote the rules.
5. Whit's Frozen Custard, and 6. Mardi Gras Homemade Ice Cream
Fifth: Whit's, which began in Granville in the early 2000s and now has locations across central Ohio. Frozen custard is a different product from ice cream — more egg yolk, less air, served soft at a warmer temperature — and Whit's does it properly, with a rotating flavour of the day and mix-ins folded to order. It is the best hot-August-evening option because the texture holds up. The catch: custard stands are seasonal, typically closing for winter, so check whether the nearest location is open before driving.
Sixth: Mardi Gras Homemade Ice Cream on Bethel Road, about 12 minutes north of Upper Arlington. It is an unglamorous shop with an absurdly long homemade flavour list including a proper range of Indian and Middle Eastern flavours — cardamom, saffron pistachio, mango — that you will not find at any of the others. That is the whole case for going, and it is a strong one if you have already eaten the black raspberry chocolate chip twice. Small premises, limited parking, no atmosphere; excellent product.
What to skip, where to buy pints, and the order I would place
Skip the national soft-serve chains dotted along Henderson and Bethel Road; they exist everywhere and you did not come to central Ohio for them. Skip the assumption that grocery pints are inferior — Jeni's and Graeter's both sell through the Market District at Kingsdale and the Lane Avenue supermarkets, at meaningfully lower prices than shop counters, and if you are staying somewhere with a freezer that is the sensible way to eat well every night for the cost of two shop visits.
If you have one evening, drive eight minutes to the Grandview Avenue Jeni's, take a flight of samples and order the brambleberry crisp. If you have a family and $25, go to Graeter's and get four scoops of chocolate chip. If it is 33 degrees Celsius and everyone is melting, find the nearest Whit's for custard. And if you are here in January, when the custard stands are dark and nobody wants to stand in a car park, buy a pint of the black raspberry at Kingsdale and eat it indoors like a local.
Before you book
What people ask before booking Upper Arlington.
Roughly $5 to $8 for a single scoop in 2026, with Jeni's at the top of that band and Graeter's, Handel's and Johnson's lower. Shop pints run $10 to $15, while the same Ohio brands in the Kingsdale and Lane Avenue supermarkets cost noticeably less. Prices change; check at the counter.
The year-round scoop shops — Jeni's, Graeter's, Johnson's and Mardi Gras — stay open through winter with shortened hours. Frozen custard stands typically close for the coldest months and reopen in spring. Verify opening with the individual location before driving between December and February.
A slow, small-batch process in which the base is churned in a chilled two-gallon pot with a blade scraping the sides, then hand-packed. It incorporates very little air, producing a dense, heavy scoop. Graeter's has used it since the nineteenth century, and it is why their chocolate chips form huge irregular shards.
Not really — these are drives of eight to 20 minutes. The Grandview Avenue shop is the closest and is cyclable from the southern edge of Upper Arlington in about 15 minutes via quiet residential streets. Everything else needs a car or a rideshare, particularly the Bexley and Bethel Road stops.
