Popular searches:
Mad Martha's, Ben and Bill's lobster ice cream, Back Door Donuts and 20+ more dessert spots. Flavors, prices, hours, and the only real late-night guide.
Table of contents [Show]
The short version first. Twenty-plus dessert spots, sorted by what matters: where they are, what they do best, and roughly what you will pay.
| Shop | Town | Type | Signature Item | Price Range | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back Door Donuts | Oak Bluffs | Bakery (no ice cream) | Apple fritter | $2.80–$10 | Late night, after 10 PM |
| Mad Martha's | OB / EG / VH | Homemade daily | MV Sea Salt Caramel | $7–$10/scoop | Classic island scoops |
| Ben and Bill's | Oak Bluffs / Edgartown | Homemade + gelato | Lobster ice cream | $7–$11/scoop | Adventurous eaters |
| Big Dipper | Oak Bluffs | Homemade | "Jaws" flavor | $6–$10 | Early risers (6AM) |
| Rosie's | Oak Bluffs | Self-serve froyo | 30+ toppings bar | $6–$9 | Customizers / kids |
| Dairy Queen | Edgartown | Soft serve chain | Blizzard | $3–$8 | Budget travelers |
| Menemsha Galley | Chilmark | Soft serve | Sunset + soft serve | $6.60–$7.60 | Most romantic spot |
| Cliffhangers | Aquinnah | Organic soft serve | Near clay cliffs | $5–$8 | Aquinnah visitors |
Mad Martha's Vineyard Haven shop on a bright August morning, before the scoop line forms.
Ben and Bill’s hangs its shingle over Circuit Avenue; Mad Martha’s has scooped a few doors down for decades, and in July the line out the door is half the fun.
Important note up front: Back Door Donuts serves no ice cream. It is on this list because it is the island's only dessert after 10 PM.
The bakery itself has been operating since 1948, but the "back door" tradition (walking through the alley behind the building to find fresh donuts and pastries hot from the fryer) turned it into a summer ritual. USA Today's 10Best readers ranked it the fourth-best doughnut shop in America in June 2026. Phantom Gourmet and Condé Nast Traveler have both featured it.
The apple fritter is the signature: roughly the size of a small plate, fried golden, glazed, sold for about $10. Lines on peak-summer weekends run 15 to 45 minutes. Arriving at 7 PM when the back door opens gives you the shortest wait and the freshest product. Individual donuts run $2.50 to $4.
Founded in 1971, Mad Martha's is the island's ice cream institution. All flavors are made fresh daily, in-house. Three locations spread across the island: Edgartown, Oak Bluffs (the flagship), and Vineyard Haven.
The famous photo is real: Bill Clinton was photographed eating a cone here in 1993, an image that became one of the defining snapshots of his first summer as president. The shop knows about the photo and does not make a brand of it.
Top flavors to try:
The Pig's Delight sundae: 12 scoops of your choice, built for groups or people with no regrets. You have to say "oink" to order it. That is the rule.
Martha's Vineyard Magazine named Ben and Bill's the Best of the Vineyard for ice cream in 2026, with Mad Martha's the runner-up. The long counter is the reason: a long board of homemade flavors plus gelato, and a fudge and candy case that functions as a shop in its own right.
The Ben and Bill’s sign after dark, with the Captain’s Club and Ryan’s arcade lights beyond it. The line moves faster at 9 pm than at 3 pm, and the chocolate case is the same.
The famous item, and the one that divides people most reliably, is the lobster ice cream: real lobster meat folded into a butter-base vanilla ice cream, a recipe in continuous production since 1988. Most people order it once for the story; some order it again on purpose.
Before you book
What Martha’s Vineyard really costs, free
Ferry fares by the day of the week, the room tax every town charges and four whole trips added up. Free with the island letter, together with our Beach, Fall and Where to Stay guides.
One-click unsubscribe, and we never share your email.
Each down-island town keeps its own favorite. Edgartown and Vineyard Haven both have shops worth the walk, so you are never far from a cone.
Circuit Avenue and the surrounding blocks in Oak Bluffs have more dessert options per block than anywhere else on the island. If you only have one hour and one location, this is it.
Big Dipper: homemade ice cream with an unusually early opening (6 AM, useful if you came off the first ferry) and staying open until 10:30 PM on peak-season weekends. Their "Jaws" flavor is a Circuit Ave conversation starter. Mid-range pricing.
Big Dipper wears all its jobs on the wall at once: coffee, donuts, bagels, hot dogs, ice cream and the 24-hour ATM.
Carousel Ice Cream Factory: on Circuit Ave, dependable mid-tier option with a long menu. Kid-friendly atmosphere, not the best homemade on the island but consistently fine and well-located for families already visiting the Flying Horses Carousel next door.
Rosie's: self-serve frozen yogurt with a bar of thirty-plus toppings. Lower calorie counts posted next to each flavor, if you want to know. Good for kids who like to build their own.
Vineyard's Ice Cream and Coffee Co. (listed around the web as Vineyard's Best): the little porch near the ferry with Richardson's ice cream, fresh bagels and coffee. After a quiet stretch, it was open with a full porch when we walked by in late August 2026.
The counter inside: cones on the left board, bagels and breakfast sandwiches on the right, smoothies over the coffee machine.
Vineyard's Ice Cream and Coffee Co. with a full porch in August 2026: Richardson's ice cream, fresh bagels and the ferry line a minute away.
Fresh bagels under the awning at Vineyard’s Ice Cream and Coffee Co. on Kennebec Avenue, steps from the ferry.
The Sweet Spot, 12 Circuit Avenue Extension, inside the Dockside Marketplace on the harbor: scoops and a candy counter under one roof since 2010, the stop between the ferry and Circuit Avenue.
The Sweet Spot’s counter in the Dockside Marketplace on the harbor: the scoop board on the wall, candy buttons on the counter.
Edgartown's ice cream scene is smaller than Oak Bluffs but has some of the best value and most interesting operators on the island.
Vineyard Scoops: kid-friendly environment, reasonable prices by island standards, reliable rotational menu. A good choice if you're already walking Edgartown's main shopping block and want a straightforward scoop without a long wait.
Ben and Bill's, 22 Dock St (in the former Scoop Shack space): the chocolate emporium's second island location, opened in summer 2025, scooping the same homemade flavors as the Oak Bluffs shop a short walk from the harbor. The lines run shorter than on Circuit Avenue in August, which is part of why locals tend to steer you there.
Ice Cream and Candy Bazaar: operating since 1975, this is one of the original Vineyard dessert shops. The retro look is the real thing, not a theme; the candy selection is extensive. Good for nostalgia and for travelers who like their ice cream with a side of mixed-era candy.
Dairy Queen: yes, there is one, the only chain restaurant on the island. It also has the most affordable prices on the island ($3–$8), which matters if you're traveling with multiple kids or on a strict budget. A Blizzard is a Blizzard.
Murdick's Fudge Closed In October 2026 the company announced that its three island shops are closed; the fudge is still sold online.: not ice cream, but for decades the island's other dessert institution, on the Vineyard since 1979. In October 2026 the company announced that its three island shops are closed; the fudge is still sold online.
Mad Martha’s in Vineyard Haven, summer 2026
Vineyard Haven was dry for most of its history (full liquor with meals only arrived in 2017), which is probably why dessert has always had a bigger place in town life here.
Bernie's closed in late 2025; its 22 Main Street shop is now Delicious MV, a French bakery café that still makes ice cream in-house. For a scoop in town, Mad Martha's (24 Union St) and Tisberry cover the bases.
Tisberry Frozen Yogurt: Pinkberry-style frozen yogurt in a clean, modern setup. More than 25 toppings available. Similar positioning to Rosie's in Oak Bluffs, with a slightly more polished atmosphere. Good option if someone in your group prefers frozen yogurt over ice cream.
Yommi (State Road, Vineyard Haven): not a scoop shop, but it belongs in the same breath. Frozen superfood bars, vegan and made with island ingredients, sold from a storefront shared with Morning Dew Juice since July 2026. Tuesday to Sunday, 11 to 5, by the door sign.
Up-island means fewer shops, more scenery, and in one case, the best setting on the island for a cone.
Menemsha Galley: soft serve ($6.60–$7.60 for cones and cups) eaten on the dock or beach at Menemsha while the sun drops into the water. The sunset here draws islanders and visitors alike to stand on the beach and applaud when the last sliver disappears. A soft serve on the beach for that is the cheapest good evening on the island.
Chilmark General Store: known for its front porch and its pizza. It stocks SoCo Creamery pints for take-home. It does not scoop ice cream in-house. Worth knowing before you drive up-island expecting a scoop.
Cliffhangers: the only ice cream option near the Aquinnah cliffs, serving organic soft serve. Prices in the $5–$8 range. If you're making the drive out to see the clay cliffs (and you should), this is your dessert option by default and good in its own right.
Ophelia's food truck: appears at the West Tisbury Farmers Market with scratch soft serve made with Ronnybrook Farm dairy and local fruit and honey. Hours depend on market schedule; worth checking if you're in the area on a Saturday market day (the Wednesday market ended in late August).
| Item | Low End | High End | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single scoop | $6 | $10 | Menemsha Galley cones from $6.60 |
| Double scoop | $9 | $13 | typically $12–15 in town |
| Sundae | $8 | $15 | Mad Martha's Pig's Delight (12 scoops) much higher |
| Back Door Donuts fritter | $10 | $10 | Fixed price; donuts about $2.80–$4.70 |
| Soft serve (cone or cup) | $5 | $8 | Menemsha Galley $6.60–$7.60; Cliffhangers $5–$8 |
| Dairy Queen | $3 | $8 | Most affordable on island |
From 7 PM, the back door of the Oak Bluffs bakery opens for warm apple fritters and doughnuts. The late-night line is a summer institution.
After 9 PM the choices shrink fast:
Half the shop is merchandise now: tees, hats and beach bags under a painted dune, with a sign asking for no ice cream fingers on the T-shirts.
Back Door Donuts (Oak Bluffs) is the only reliably open dessert option after 10 PM on Martha's Vineyard. In summer it runs 7 PM to midnight (11 PM on fall nights), and for most of the season it is the only late-night option there is.
Big Dipper stays open until 10:30 PM on weekends in peak season, which gives you a brief window if you want actual ice cream rather than donuts. That window closes at 10 PM on weeknights.
Most other shops close between 9 PM and 9:30 PM. If you are coming back from a sunset dinner in Menemsha or a late show in Oak Bluffs, your only guaranteed dessert stop is the alley behind Back Door Donuts.
Planning tip: If you want ice cream after 9 PM and Back Door Donuts feels like a detour, the practical solution is to build an ice cream stop into your earlier evening before shops close. Most itineraries with a 7 PM dinner and a 9 PM dessert stop work without any issue. The gap only becomes a problem after 10 PM.
A bakery-café case: coffee, pastry and custom desserts. The candy shops on Circuit Avenue are the fudge and saltwater taffy end of the spectrum.
For more on the food scene beyond dessert, see our Martha's Vineyard food tour and lobster roll guide. For planning your evenings, including where to go after the ice cream shops close, read the Martha's Vineyard nightlife guide.
Inside Vineyard's Ice Cream and Coffee Co.: a pink parlor room with lace curtains and wire chairs, bagels in the morning and scoops all afternoon.
Book Martha's Vineyard Experiences
Explore guided island tours, sunset cruises, and day trips. Browse all tours →
If you book through this link we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. It helps keep our guides free.
Mad Martha’s, the island institution since 1971, with flavors made fresh daily in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven; Ben and Bill’s for homemade scoops, gelato and the lobster ice cream; and Big Dipper in Oak Bluffs, which opens at 6 AM.
Back Door Donuts in Oak Bluffs, the island’s only late dessert, although it serves no ice cream: walk through the alley behind the bakery on Kennebec Avenue for donuts hot from the fryer, 7 PM to midnight in season. The apple fritter, about the size of a small plate, is about $10; USA Today readers ranked the shop fourth in the country in 2026.
Fifteen to 45 minutes on peak-summer weekends. Arrive at 7 PM when the door opens for the shortest wait and the freshest product. And it is Back Door Donuts, not “Back Alley’s”.
About $6 to $11 at the homemade shops. Dairy Queen in Edgartown is the budget option, and the Menemsha Galley’s soft serve at sunset runs about $6.60 to $7.60.
Yes. Bill Clinton was photographed eating a Mad Martha’s cone in 1993, one of the defining images of his first presidential summer; the shop knows and does not make a brand of it.
Keep Reading
Island tip of the day Food No. 19 of 86 New tip at midnight, island time
Espresso Love (17 Church St, Edgartown) opens at 7 AM daily. Excellent coffee, $5–12 for breakfast. One of the few places open early on the island.
Where Martha's Vineyard's oysters, bay scallops and quahogs come from: the public solar hatchery on Lagoon Pond that turned fifty in 2026, the dozen oyster farms in Katama Bay, Menemsha Pond and Vineyard Sound, the wild beds in the great ponds, the autumn scallop season and its limits, visitor shellfish permits by town, why rain closes a pond, and where to eat them.
Lobster on Martha's Vineyard from trap to paper plate: how the small Menemsha fleet fishes, the Massachusetts rules on size, egg-bearing females and whale-safe gear, where to buy lobster off the boat (Larsen's, Menemsha Fish Market, The Net Result), how to eat it on the dock with your own bottle, and how a visitor can get a permit and catch a few.
Every supermarket and market on Martha's Vineyard with posted hours: Stop and Shop, Cronig's, Reliable Market, Alley's, the meat and fish markets, the Falmouth Stop and Shop before the ferry, Instacart and pre-stocking delivery, and an honest word on island prices.
Is Martha's Vineyard a dry island? Town by town: Chilmark is fully dry and BYOB, West Tisbury and Aquinnah pour beer and wine with meals, Vineyard Haven serves full liquor but has no liquor store, and only Oak Bluffs and Edgartown have package stores. Corkage, beach rules, the ferry and the state laws, checked September 2026.
Every farm stand and visitable farm on Martha's Vineyard, checked with the farms in September 2026: Morning Glory, Beetlebung, North Tabor, Mermaid Farm's 24-hour dairy shed, Native Earth, Allen Farm, Island Alpaca, the FARM Institute and the West Tisbury Farmers Market, with hours, honor-system rules and the fall pumpkin dates.
A reader planning a trip for May 2027 asked us what would actually be open. The honest year-round map: restaurants, cafes, trails, museums and services that never close, town by town, plus the calendar of when everything else reopens.
The free island library · 2026
Beach reports, events worth a day, ferry heads-ups. Sent when there is something worth telling. The Beach Guide, The Vineyard in the Fall, Where to Stay and What It Really Costs arrive with your welcome email.
Get the free guides
Island prices, hours and details change often. Please verify with businesses before you go. Full disclaimer
The island right now
6:25 PM island time
Four free downloads · 2026
The island guides, in your inbox
The Beach Guide, The Vineyard in the Fall, Where to Stay and What It Really Costs. No spam, one-click unsubscribe.
