How to Make a Ice Cream Shop Menu Design With Examples (Free Template)

How to Create an Ice Cream Shop Menu

You’re finally opening the ice cream shop of your dreams! You can see the tubs of ice cream ready and waiting in the freezer, the flavors in the display case just begging for customers to scoop them up. You can smell the sweetness of all your different toppings and candies colliding with one another as they waft through the air, and hear the whir of your blender whipping up milkshakes on a hot summer day. Before this vision can become a reality, however, there is one critical process you’ll have to complete: creating your ice cream shop menu.

Whether printed, online, or on the wall of your shop, your menu is an important tool for communicating your shop’s identity, driving customer engagement, and maximizing profits – and this post will cover everything you need to know as you design the best menu for your business.

Ice Cream Shop Menu Design Best Practices

Both these menu design best practices and the following 10 steps provide helpful guidelines as you embark on your menu design creation journey. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that your menu should be uniquely reflective of your ice cream shop, tailored specifically for your brand and your customers – so, take what resonates, know there is no one right way to create your ice cream shop menu, and have fun with the process! 

Let’s get into it.

How to Make an Ice Cream Shop Menu

1. Write Out All Menu Items 

It’s important to start by listing out every item that will go on your menu. As you go through your menu design process, this will be critical to informing how you’ll organize your menu items, how big each menu section will be, how you’ll lay out your sections on your menu, and more.

You can build your list digitally, using Excel or Google Sheets, with a paper and pen, or whatever approach works best for you — what matters most is that you include every item you plan to have available for your customers to buy, from your ice cream flavors to any toppings you’ll sell, to drinks like frappes and root beer floats. This should also include how you plan to sell your ice cream products: i.e., how many scoop options will your customers be able to choose from? One, two, three, four? More? 

What about sundaes and banana splits? How many scoops will those come with? Will there be flexibility for customers to modify as needed, and is there potential there for you to uncharge any of your items to maximize profits? Will you sell pints or quarts of your ice cream as well? Are there any deals or combos you’d want your customers to be aware of? 

In short, anything you want your customers to know they can buy, anything that might appear on your menu, should go on this list.

2. Categorize Menu Items 

Now that you have your list of items, it’s time to decide how you want them to appear on your menu.

How will you categorize your menu sections, and what items will go into what category? Will you offer straightforward lists of your ice cream flavors and toppings, or go with fancier descriptions of your specialty sundaes, milkshakes, and floats? Maybe a mix of both?

Think about what will be intuitive to your reader and what organization will help your menu flow, enabling your guests to easily find what they want and place their orders. You can also think about exploring resources like this menu engineering worksheet and these ice cream shop menu templates at this step of your menu design process.

3. Set Menu Prices 

Setting the prices for your menu items shouldn’t be an arbitrary process, and while it’s ultimately up to you to determine how much you want to charge, there are some components that might be helpful to consider as you calculate these costs.

Your Expenses → From overhead to staff compensation and benefits, to shop maintenance and rent, to inventory and emergency costs, to safety measures, make sure you’re calculating the costs you’ll have to cover, and how much revenue you’ll need to scoop in to not only cover these costs but also make a sustainable profit.

Target Market → Identify who your ideal customer would be. What audience are you trying to reach and what price point would be accessible for them? How does that price point align with your revenue goals? 

Landscape Analysis → Identify who your competitors are. How much are they charging? Can you charge less to attract more customers? Can you charge more because you’re offering a higher-quality product? Think about how you fit into the existing landscape of ice cream shops in your area, and how your prices will compare to your competition.

Local Climate → Ice cream needs to stay cold, so if your shop is located in an especially hot climate, you might have to spend more on electricity to keep your freezers running and your shop cool. On the flip side, if you’re in a colder climate, customers might be less inclined to seek out a cool treat. Think it through, and decide how your environment will impact both your expenses and demand for your product — both of which can factor into your prices.

Your Inventory → Think about where your products are coming from, and how much value that brings to your menu items. Are you partnering with a local farm or other local business? Are you using all organic products? What other factors beyond your products themselves could add value to your menu items and how are you factoring that value into your prices?

You can also explore resources like our menu engineering course and menu pricing strategy guide to help you set your costs.

4. Create Menu Descriptions 

Time for the fun part! Writing out the descriptions for each of your menu items. 

How will you name your ice cream flavors or frappe options? Will they be witty, punny, serious, minimalist, straightforward, maybe some combination of the above?

How will your customers know what’s in each flavor or what’s included in your sundaes? Will you list out all of the ingredients or leave some room for your guests' imaginations? If you don’t list out every ingredient, will you provide another way to signify potential allergies or dietary restrictions?

If you get to this step and your brain is melting, don’t worry — this is also an opportunity to bring in a copywriter, if budget allows, to help you craft the perfect language about your sweet treats.

5. Decide on a Menu Color Scheme 

The colors you choose to represent your shop are critical to communicating your brand identity, helping your shop stand out to your target market, and generating a sense of cohesiveness, consistency, and reliability with your customers. Take your time on this step to make sure you’re choosing the colors that best represent you and your establishment.

If you already have an ice cream shop brand kit, this is a great opportunity to incorporate your brand colors into a new format as you move forward in your menu design process. If not, resources like Chron’s The Psychology of Colors for Restaurant Designs, Adobe Color CC (color wheel tool), ColorDot (color palette tool), and ColRD (color inspiration) are great places to gather color scheme inspo.

Pro-tip: this might also be a good step to start looking into printing costs. Color printing tends to cost more than black and white, so if you’re planning to print a lot of menu copies make sure to look into different options (see step 10 for some suggestions) to determine what colors will work best with your budget.

6. Design Your Ice Cream Shop Menu 

Now that you have the core components of your menu nailed down, it’s time to create the design they’ll be formatted into. If you’d like to take a more professional approach, this step is a great place to bring in a graphic designer for some support on your menu design concept. If you’d rather keep your menu design in-house, sites like Canva and Adobe Suite, templates like these, and social media sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok are all cool resources to spark some sweet inspiration.

Whether you’re working with a professional or doing it on your own, it’ll be helpful to think about how you want your menu to flow – how can you organize your sections in a way that is intuitive for your guests? How much space will each section take up? How will you make sure your content is easily accessible, detailed, and informative without being overwhelming? How will you integrate your color scheme into your text, menu background, and any visual components you add?

7. Ice Cream Shop Menu Photos 

Speaking of visual components, including photos of your items on your menu can be a great idea to preview your delicious treats and influence customer behavior. Think about which items you want to drive your customers’ attention to – will you prioritize your most aesthetically-pleasing items? Highest-priced? Most popular? 

Photos also don’t have to be the only option for integrating visual components into your menu design. Maybe your ice cream shop brand lends itself better to hand-drawn illustrations of your items, or even some funky ice cream-related sketches sprinkled throughout your menu’s background. Think about what best fits your ice cream shop identity and what will most resonate with your specific target audience.

Pro-tip #1: Going with no photos is better than going with bad photos. While high-quality, well-shot images can be a major value add, poorly shot ones can have the opposite effect. A lack of care for your menu presentation can undermine customer trust and hinder business.

Pro-tip #2: If you plan on maintaining a social media presence for your ice cream shop, including a QR code on your menu that links to your Instagram, and a note encouraging your guests to post their ice cream and tag your shop, can also be a great way to engage customers, generate online buzz about your business, and foster a wealth of customer-submitted content that you can repost!

8. Choose Menu Fonts, Spacing, and Composition

You have your menu items, descriptions, and prices, your colors and design template, your visual assets and item categories – now, it’s time to fill in the final pieces you’ll need to pull together your draft menu layouts. 

For your written pieces, what fonts will you use, and how many? If you use multiple, will they be complementary or contrasting? What text styles will be the best fit for your brand colors? 

The overall composition of your menu, including how you space out each section, the text within each section, and your visual components – whether they’re included in your categories or outside them – will all determine how your customers experience your menu, and impact how they decide what to purchase at your shop. 

Take your time and feel free to pull together multiple drafts that try out a variety of compositions, with different flows, fonts, and spacing.

9. Select the Final Menu Layout 

Now, it’s time to narrow those multiple drafts down to one final option. As you decide which direction to go in for your final menu layout, this is a great opportunity to open your work up for some constructive feedback. Bringing in new perspectives for some fresh eyes on your work, especially when it’s work you’ve been so close to for so long, is invaluable. Feel free to poll your friends, family, staff, or other stakeholders whose opinions you trust on which option would make the best menu for your ice cream shop. 

10. Proofread and Print your Menu 

You did it! You’ve selected your final menu design and you’re ready to head to the printers – congratulations!

But first – proofread, proofread, proofread! You’ve put in so much work to make your ice cream shop menu the best it can possibly be – don’t let any preventable spelling or grammar errors undermine your efforts. Take your time to give your menu a very close read, and, again, feel free to bring in others for some extra sets of eyes, to make sure you’re catching and correcting any typos before your menus are printed.

When it comes to printing, there are many different companies that offer a variety of printing services across price points. It'll be important to do your own research to understand the options available in your area and within your budget, but places like Staples, Vistaprint, PsPrint, and PrintPlace are great starting points!

Examples of Ice Cream Shop Menus

Emack & Bolio’s

With high-quality photos of their delicious ice cream scoops, clearly labeled items, and products well-organized into ice cream, vegan, sorbet, and yogurt sections, Emack & Bolio’s already presents a great ice cream shop menu example. For the cherry on top however, one click on any scoop image fills in any information their customers might have been missing, leading to a page with detailed menu item descriptions, a full list of ingredients, nutrition facts, and dietary warnings.

Ginger’s Ice Cream

Evocative flavor names, detailed menu item descriptions, mouthwatering photos of ice cream scoops, clearly labeled prices, an easy to navigate menu and online ordering system – I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ginger’s Ice Cream menu!

Salt & Straw

It’s no question Salt & Straw takes the cake (batter) for most creative ice creams, with flavors like "Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper” and “Day-Old Bread Pudding & Chocolate Ganache” – and their menu is up to the same high standard, with delectable images of every flavor, well-written, detailed, and engaging narrative menu item descriptions, and clearly labeled ingredients, allergens, and nutrition facts.

Jeni’s 

Jeni’s menu is also a perfect lesson in menu item descriptions, boasting a range of flavors from the enticing (“Salted Peanut Butter with Chocolate Flecks,” “Brambleberry Crisp”) to the sweet (“Buttercream Birthday Cake,” “Strawberry Buttermilk”) to variations on the classics (“Salty Caramel,” “Cookies In Cream”) to the questionable (“Everything Bagel,” “Goat Cheese with Red Cherries”) and everything in between – all sure to grab their customers’ attention and encourage at least a sample spoon taste (if not more!).

Sweet Rose Creamery

With sections well-organized into June Flavors, Sundaes, and DIY Sundae Packages, with clear and informative descriptions for the items in each category, and beautiful photos of their ice cream in action (i.e. being enjoyed by the masses) sprinkled throughout, Sweet Rose Creamery ensures their customers have everything they need to easily engage with and navigate their menu. Additionally, offering their flavors by the month makes their ice cream stock stands out as more fresh and current than their competitors.

Rori’s

Categorized by flavors (clearly labeled with well-shot photos and descriptive narrative paragraphs under each, goodies (non-ice cream scoop treats like brownie sundae squares, ice cream sandwiches, and shakes), and toppings (like creamy caramel and honey hot fudge, also with informative descriptions), the menu at Rori’s hits the spot like an ice cream cone on a hot day!

Bruster’s

Every part of the menu at Bruster’s checks all of my ice cream shop menu boxes – well-organized sections, fantastic ice cream photos, creative and informative descriptions – but even within each section, the shop manages to go above and beyond. Under Flavors, customers can sort by type of ice cream, flavor profile, and allergens and dietary preferences; under Sundaes & Splits, they offer detailed paragraphs explaining each item; and under Ice Cream Cakes & Pies, they provide an actual flow chart to illustrate how to order their cakes and pies. Pretty cool and chill if you ask me.

J.P. Licks

J.P. Licks’s menu offers a master class in brand cohesiveness and consistency. Playing off their iconic logo of a black and white cow framed by a pink oval, their menu is designed to look like a cow spot, with cow print in the background. They use the same color black, white, and pink color scheme throughout, and the font on their website mirrors the font on the menu at their physical stores. If a customer saw this menu, without any explicit reference to J.P. Licks, they’d still know who’s ice cream shop it belonged to. Very good moooooves. 

Kansha Creamery

Kansha Creamery offers a more minimalist approach, with a menu that offers only sleek images, item names, and prices. One click on any image, however, and the customer is directed to a page with more detailed descriptions and an easy online purchase. Simple, beautiful, and effective. 

FoMu

Organized into seasonal and summer flavors, novelties, frappes, and sundaes, clearly labeled menu items and informative descriptions, a couple photos to bring their treats to life, and aesthetically pleasing fonts and colors – FoMu does it all. *Chef’s kiss*

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