Ice Cream Takedown | The Bell House

It was a father-son showdown for the coolest homemade summer treat. Family feud!

There's nothing like a hot summer day to fire up a craving for frozen, creamy, sweet treats, and people heeded the call in hordes at The Bell House Sunday for Matt Timms' sold-out Ice Cream Takedown. Ambitious home cooks brought an array of secret flavor weapons this year, including basil, some form of tea (chai, green, Earl Grey), and even candied bacon that refused to let the pork trend die.

Our hands-down favorite was Tony Santora's Caprese Freeze, a sophisticated take on the classic Neapolitan brick with a layer of tomato sorbet, another of mascarpone ice cream and topped with basil ice cream. The rest of the crowd agreed with us: Longtime competitor Santora took home the Audience Choice number-one spot, and his first Takedown win. His biggest competition? His son Anthony, who came in second with another Italian-inflected creation, this one a dense and rich chocolate Amaretto ice cream. The father-son, one-two punch left a lot of people in the house a little moist in the eye. In third place was Kathryn Moise's Gingermon.

The judges—who included folks from from Van Leeuwen, Il Labortorio Del Gelato and Ample Hills—went in a different direction. Their top pick went to Ben Mims' Pavlovian Response, flavored with lemon curd, vanilla and meringue with a kiwi-strawberry topping. Runner-up was one of two Brooklynauts teams, with their Ice Toddy: Earl Grey ice cream with rum topped with shortbread crumbs. Third place was Mike O'Neill's strawberry basil ice cream, made with basil grown on Mike's own Brooklyn roof. Talk about locally sourced!

(Hey, fun time people! Metromix NYC is trying to meet one million people this summer. If you see yourself in one of these photos, let us know…and you could join us at an end-of-the-summer party! Details coming soon)

Related items:

• Our favorite new ice cream shops in NYC
• Our 30 favorite frozen drinks in NYC