This city has seen some truly bizarre ice cream flavors in recent years: lox from Max and Mina’s in Kew Gardens Hills; foie gras from OddFellows in Williamsburg; banana curry from Morgenstern’s on the Lower East Side; organic lettuce from L’Albero dei Gelato in Park Slope.
A new contender for New York’s wackiest frozen treat enters the field this spring: pickle-flavored soft-serve at Lucky Pickle Dumpling Co. on the Upper West Side.
In some ways, it’s the most obvious dessert chef Glenroy Brown could have concocted for the latest eatery from restaurateur Jacob Hadjigeorgis’s Pickle Hospitality group, a Hong Kong-inspired counter-service, take-out and delivery spot offering six types of dumplings, three kinds of noodles, house-made teas and juices and pickles.
The recipe is actually a collaboration between Brown and Hadjigeorgis, based on the latter’s idea, says Pickle Hospitality spokesman Henry Lyon.
“Jacob was drawn to comfortable casual experiences and the routines of his childhood — he became a father last year — and so having a cool refreshing treat was embedded in his memories of growing up in Queens,” Lyon says of the restaurateur’s inspiration.
Hadjigeorgis’ first two neighborhood joints, Southern fare-focused Jacob’s Pickles and cocktail and French dip bar Maison Pickle, serve plenty of crunchy pickled cukes and other veggies, but no pickle-infused desserts, frozen or otherwise.
While Lyons said he could not reveal the full soft-serve recipe, he did reveal the main ingredient: fresh-squeezed cucumber.
“There’s a certain cucumber freshness balanced by a salty brine all mixed into a creamy medium of soft serve,” he explains of the ice cream selling for $5 a cone.
Lucky Pickle Dumpling Co., located at 513 Amsterdam Ave., is open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.
