5 Best Dessert Spots for a Date in Santa Monica in Los Angeles

Finish a night out with a cone from McConnell's Fine Ice Creams, a dessert stop at the south end of Third Street Promenade. The shop itself is very small. It is a family-run dairy, three generations in, and the ice cream is made from scratch without stabilizers, preservatives or artificial flavors or dyes. We'd start with salted caramel, then pass the spoon over cardamom or Swedish gingersnaps.

Urth Caffé on Main Street has a charming back patio that feels like a hideaway for two. The patio suits a coffee or a dessert, which makes it a pleasant place to share something sweet together. Place your order at the register, and servers bring it out to your table, so you can stay settled outside once you have ordered.

Dessert after dinner is easy to stretch at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream on Montana Avenue, which stays open until midnight on Friday and Saturday and until 11pm the other nights. The interior is whimsical. Scoops come dairy or vegan, with Strawberry Shortcake among the vegan flavors. We'd share the Mango Sticky Rice, made with alphonso mangoes.

Tartine has a string-lit patio that makes it an easy pick for a first date. Inside, arched ceilings give the room a cathedral feel, and there is a wide lawn too, all in a building that used to be a mortuary. Come by day for morning buns, cookies and pastries with coffee. In the evening it becomes a dinner and wine spot built around pizza, and we'd split the Fig & Pig.

Rori's Artisanal Creamery is a Santa Barbara-based scoop shop on Montana Avenue, done up in orange. Each scoop is packed with so much chunky mix-in that it eats almost like a mini sundae. Big chunks of cookie run through the milk and cookies flavor, while the peanut butter scoop is loaded with crushed Reese's. Pistachio black pepper and dark chocolate are simpler, though just as bold. A golf-ball-sized cup is there for a tiny taste, so the two of you can sample several flavors side by side.