Ice Cream & Dessert
A Second Avenue scoop shop in Steveston Village with a broad range of ice cream and sorbet including local makers, plus bubble waffles, bubble tea and shakes. Picnic tables outside, prices below the tourist strip, and open until 9pm in summer.
Two minutes' walk inland from the boardwalk is a meaningful distance in Steveston. The waterfront end of the village fills first and stays full through the evening in July, and the streets a block or two back stay noticeably calmer. B&P Ice Cream sits on Second Avenue in that quieter band, which is the main reason to know it is there.
Dessert in the village is an evening activity for half the summer. The light hangs around until nearly ten in June, the boardwalk stays busy long after dinner, and a stop on the way back to the car is part of the routine for a lot of families. Lineups build once the dinner sitting empties out, hold until the light goes, and thin to nothing by the middle of September.
Ice cream shops here work a wider range than scoops alone, because a group of children with different opinions is the normal customer, and sorbet, shakes and the bubble-tea end of the counter all get asked for. For the summer experience without the summer crowd, a weekday evening or the shoulder season is the answer. Street parking and the small lots are both full on a warm weekend, so leaving the car a few blocks north in the residential grid and walking down saves the aggravation. Off-season Steveston is a different village, quiet enough that the walk becomes the point.
In the Steveston neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other ice cream and dessert shops and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
A gelato and dessert shop on Moncton Street in the middle of Steveston Village, and a fairly recent addition to the strip. Cases of gelato by the scoop plus other sweets, positioned squarely for the summer walk-up crowd off the boardwalk.
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A Steveston Village counter serving homemade ice cream by the scoop a couple of blocks from the water. It shares a building with another independent ice cream shop, which makes tasting your way between the two an easy afternoon detour.
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A walk-up treat shop at the corner of Third Avenue and Bayview serving soft serve, flavoured slushes and the two swirled together. Cheap and fast, and positioned exactly where you want it after walking the Steveston boardwalk past the cannery.
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A Steveston Landing gelato parlour making small-batch Italian gelato in house from fresh local ingredients, alongside frozen yogurt. Classic flavours sit beside originals, and the waterfront location is why the line stretches on summer evenings.
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A Steveston gelato shop churning artisanal batches in house with Asian-leaning flavours such as Uji matcha, Hong Kong milk tea and espresso, plus mango yuzu and strawberry rose sorbetto. The owner trained in Italy; there are dairy-free options too.
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A small scoop shop off Blundell Road making its own ice cream in rotating batches, leaning Asian with black sesame, Thai milk tea, Vietnamese coffee and ube. No seating and no free samples, but the ice cream is dense and pints travel home well.
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