Tag Archives: ice cream

Other, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Seed + Mill

September 9, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

When I was a kid, I used to eat halva like it was my job. It’s probably my absolute favorite sweet thing to eat aside from soft serve vanilla ice cream. Seed + Mill sells halva cakes, but they also have goat’s milk vanilla soft serve ice cream. That’s double whammy for me in the dessert world. So when my buddy Jay from The Dishelin Guide set up a little influencer gig there, I was all over it.

I started with some of that soft serve goat’s milk ice cream in a blue corn tortilla cone, topped with shredded halva and freshly made tahini (they make it right there on site, in front of you). Amazing! This stuff is going to get big. It’s rich and creamy, but not as overbearingly sweet as regular ice cream. The tahini and halva bring in just the right amount of sweetness as a topping.

Next up, the halva cakes. They’re all purely halva – nothing baked or anything like that – but the quality and available flavors are like nothing I’ve ever experienced.

White chocolate and raspberries:

Mixed chocolate:

70% dark chocolate swirl:

And, while I didn’t shoot them, also worth mentioning here are the lemon and white chocolate, peanut butter, pistachio and rose water varieties. I love this place, and can’t wait to go back for more.

SEED + MILL
Chelsea Market
409 W 15th St
New York, NY 10011

Midtown West, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Grace Street

August 1, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My and some fools stopped in this place after a night of KBBQ nearby. We tried some mochi, waffles with caramel and ice cream, and “shaved snow.”

Everything was great here, though admittedly a bit pricey. Luckily my buddy paid. Maybe that’s why he’s giving me the finger above.

GRACE STREET
17 W 32nd St
New York, NY 10001

Other, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Lick

July 10, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Lick is an ice cream joint I tried up in Hudson, NY. They had some interesting flavors on the board.

My wife and I went with a cup of fig and sweet cream. It tasted like an ice cream version of fig newtons. Delicious.

LICK
623 Warren St
Hudson, NY 12534

Other, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, West Village

Piece of Velvet

December 27, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife was invited to this little joint as an influencer to help promote their business.

We were able to sample four different slices of “Piece of Velvet” cake, and in the future, there will be ice cream and waffles offered on the menu as well.

Some cakes even have booze infused in them, like rum, bourbon, vodka and whiskey.

Red Velvet: this is their signature cake. It was rich and flavorful.

Pina Colada: This was my favorite of the four we tried. The pineapple and coconut flavors were very natural and tasty.

Ciroc Coconut: They’ve soaked real coconut shavings in “Ciroc” vodka for three days.

Blueberry Vanilla Bourbon: Self explanatory, and really delicious.

Here’s a shot of my two favorites side by side:

PIECE OF VELVET
101 MacDougal St
New York, NY 10012

Brooklyn, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Van Leeuwen

December 3, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I’m not really big into the whole artisan ice cream fad that’s sweeping NYC. Don’t get me wrong: I, too, will “scream for ice cream” now and then. As you probably have figured out, I’m more of a savory guy than a sweets guy. But who doesn’t like ice cream, right? It’s just that my soft spot when it comes to ice cream is soft serve. Typically vanilla, and Carvel if possible; no sprinkles either, and in a cheap-ass wafer cone, too. I know, I know. That’s boring crap. But it’s my boring crap. It’s what I like.

Anyhow, with a set-up like that I you might get a sense that I am super critical when it comes to scooped ice cream, because I generally don’t dig it the same way everyone else does. And then once you trust me in my ice cream criticalness, I could tell you something like “HOWEVER, AFTER TRYING VAN LEEUWEN, I AM A CHANGED MAN,” and you’d lick it up, thinking “Well, it must be good if the guy who hates ice cream even likes it.”

Well, that’s sorta what I’m doing. But I’ll be honest: I’m not really a changed man, per se. I will still choose soft serve vanilla Carvel over the best ice cream in town, but I now understand the draw to these new artisan ice cream joints.

We tried an array of scoops. Six, I believe. The lemon meringue, butternut squash, and sour cream apple flavors really stood out as amazing. (Those are my wife’s cake balls that we put on top)

And a few of these were even VEGAN! They pull it off. You’d never know you were eating hippie food.

I actively disliked Morgenstern’s, but I truly enjoyed Van Leeuwen. But get this: I was there with ice cream aficionado JustAFoodieNYC. This guy is legit. He eats more ice cream than anyone I know, and he’s been at it since he was a kid. A true ice cream enthusiast. I trust his judgment; he is to ice cream what I am to steak. Anyway, Van Leeuwen is one of his top picks, but he tells me that Ice & Vice is even better. So I will have to give that shit a try soon.

VAN LEEEWEN
204 Wythe Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11249

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Other, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews

Morgenstern’s

October 28, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This place serves up some interesting ice cream flavors, and I came in with a buddy who was tasked with gathering up some food influencers to come in and try some of their special new offerings. On special when I went was the avocado cardamom soft serve ice cream, and the sour plum raspberry-filled traditional ice cream.

There really wasn’t much of an avocado flavor to the soft serve, but there was definitely some cardamom coming through in the back end. The texture was a bit grainy and icy though, so I probably wouldn’t get it again.

As for the sour plum, it had a slightly better texture, but still a bit icy. I could eat this again, but it wouldn’t be something I’d go out of my way to get. Not bad.

In short, I support the idea of experimenting with new and unique flavors, but if the texture isn’t right, or if the flavors don’t match the descriptions, then you are failing as an ice cream maker. This was my first time trying this place, and from what I understand they are highly rated. Perhaps I should stick with some more traditional flavor selections next time.

MORGENSTERN’S
2 Rivington St
New York, NY 10002

Brooklyn, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Ample Hills Creamery

September 25, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This is expensive, but high quality ice cream. Below is a shot of the Mexican hot chocolate flavor (with cinnamon and spice), and of course some sprinkles on top. It rests comfortably in a cookie cone, which was delicious. If you find yourself in the area, give it a try.

AMPLE HILLS CREAMERY
305 Nevins St
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Commentary, Press Reviews, Product Reviews

BallerBoil

September 6, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This post will serve as a triple hit review of the Fresh Direct food delivery service, Tipsy’s boozy ice cream and Saveur Select wines.

My wife and some of our food friends were planning to do a Labor Day seafood boil on the rooftop of our building. It turns out, a few of the ladies managed to get the entire thing sponsored by the three companies above, provided that we post a few pics on Instagram.

Fresh Direct gave us a $500 credit to use towards their incredibly high quality seafood. We broke this out into two main items: a huge seafood boil, and a colossal chilled seafood tower.

There was so much fucking food! Lobster, king crab legs, blue claw crabs, steamer clams, little neck clams, three varieties of oysters, jumbo shrimp, scallops, multi-colored potatoes, kielbasa and corn. My wife and I were always big fans of Fresh Direct but this seafood really hammers home the word FRESH in their name. The lobsters were delivered LIVE! And everything tasted incredible, which is obviously the most important factor.

Saveur provided us with four bottles of crisp Gewürztraminer wine. This white German variety of wine was just the kind of refreshment we needed with this meal. We even poured some over fruit to make a white sangria.

Tipsy hooked us up with six different pints of ice cream for dessert.

The flavors were incredible: spiked hazelnut coffee, raspberry limoncello sorbet, cake batter vodka martini, dark chocolate whisky salted caramel, mango margarita sorbet and vanilla bean bourbon.

We even scooped some into a few glasses of champagne for good measure. Why not?

For more awesome pics, check THIS out.

Midtown East, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Cafe Zaiya

August 15, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Me, my wife, and my buddy Ben (@stuffbeneats) came in here to beat the insane summer heat with some sesame and green tea flavored soft serve swirl ice cream.

Pretty good, I must say. I think I liked the sesame flavor better, since green tea, to me, is generally a flavorless endeavor (with the exception of cakes that rely on frosting to deliver the sweetness).

Okay. That’s all. Go get some if you want to try something a little bit outside the box in the flavor department.

CAFE ZAIYA
18 E 41st St
New York, NY 10017

Midtown West, Other, Restaurant Reviews

Holey Cream

July 29, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Doughnut ice cream sandwiches? Why, yes… I’ll take one!

Well, they’re not quite what I expected. Yes, it is ice cream between a doughnut that has been sliced in half like a bagel, but it is just three scoops plopped on top of a plain doughnut, then frosted and topped with sprinkles (you can choose the ice cream flavors, frosting flavor – chocolate, vanilla or strawberry – and the topping).

I was hoping for something like a Chipwich, where it actually looks and eats like a sandwich. This was essentially just a doughnut with ice cream. Oh well. Good idea, not so good execution.