c/o Blue Marble Ice Cream
The Blue Marble Ice Cream at 2578 Broadway (97th Street) will be closing for good on October 22.
This is the second outpost of the Brooklyn-based ice cream shop to close its doors in recent months; the location at 2058 Broadway (between 70th and 71st streets) shut down back in July, having opened just over a year earlier.
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The 97th Street location opened in March 2021, replacing Earth Cafe.
This leaves just the original shop, located at 186 Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights, as the last bastion of Blue Marble for super fans who want to make the trek.
Many might expect this to be another story of a local shop forced out by rising rents – or of a business owner tired of fending off thieves (as we wrote about a string of robberies at this location in late 2021). However, Blue Marble founder Jennie Dundas told us the closure was actually due the success of their wholesale business, which they originally launched back in 2011.
Here’s a statement she provided us with:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]As NYC’s only mission-driven, organic, woman-owned and B-Corp certified ice cream company, we are indebted to our devoted customers who recognize the added value we bring to all we do. Since 2007, we have been a bona fide pioneer in our field, and we remain as committed as ever to the values and passions that drive us. With this in mind, in 2024 we will be turning our focus toward our flourishing wholesale business. This shift will enable us to comfortably manage the ever-changing industry dynamics and bring our delicious ice cream into even more homes and freezers across NYC and beyond. If you don’t see Blue Marble on a menu or freezer shelf, request us! We thank our friends and neighbors for the many beautiful years they’ve shared with us at our scoops shops in Prospect Heights and the Upper West Side. Follow us on Instagram @bluemarblebk for news and specials as we make this exciting transition in the coming weeks and months.
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In the meantime, the UWS store will remain open until October 22 and Dundas tells us she’ll be running a variety of specials. “We love the neighborhood and all our UWS customers!” she added.
The Brooklyn location remains open for now but will likely close sometime next year.
Not a great surprise given how bad the ice cream is.
Surprised they have repeat wholesale business.
It was delicious. But I miss Earth Cafe
Agree about Earth Cafe. Blue Marble not-so-much.
Earth Cafe had very drinkable and well-priced wines. Also, lovely salads (with figs, etc).
Not sad. They are ripping off patrons who want (or need) to pay in cash: they will accept a cash payment, but won’t provide change. So if you give them $20 for a scoop, you are out of luck. No notice of this policy is posted anywhere in or outside the store.
I’m also surprised they lasted as long as they did. It was twice as expensive as Baskin Robbins (which opened a block away this year…), and it wasn;t that much better. I wanted to support it, but there just wasn;t much to buy. I tried a “breakfast wrap” or something one time that was basically exactly what you;d get from a coffee truck except three or four times the price and not even freshly made.
I agree the immediate area has gotten dodgy but really, the business model of nothing but expensive ice cream—-how much trekking does one do when good ice cream is not that hard to come by in New York?
Perhaps they would have done better if they worried more about the right product at the right price and less about the “mission-driven, organic, woman-owned and B-Corp certified” stuff.
Just making expensive ice cream that tastes good, not fake, would have been a start. But they couldn’t.
The rest of the stuff is largely dross, which wouldn’t matter much to sales if the stuff didn’t taste next to awful.
I am not surprised. The ice cream was meh and the choices of flavors not appealing. Baskin Robbins is a block away, better flavors and less expensive.
ny Miki,
“meh” is an understatement. It tastes like it has several ingredients synthesized (despite claims on the label/sign) in a chemical plant.
“Love the neighborhood and our UWS customers” yet vacating a storefront to benefit more from online shoppers. That’s certainly not commitment to the neighborhood…
Agree.
I followed the link in this story and found her previous position: “‘We all need to dream.’ When you sit in that ice cream shop you indulge and you give yourself just a tiny little space to dream.”
I guess that Wholesale is more profitable.
I’m surprised this place lasted as long as it did. I went there when it first opened & paid nine dollars for 2 small scoops of average ice cream & never went back. Too bad Ample Hills does not have a location further uptown.
Agree with everyone’s comments. They have some oddball flavors, but when I asked to taste one, on a completely quiet day when I was the only customer, they said “No samples.” My dad tried it on his own and said that they scooped from the bottom of the barrel and gave him ice cream with bits of ice and freezer burn. Low quality, high prices, and an attitude. Good riddance.
To everyone here, if you don’t like blue marble, you free to go wherever you want, you can go somewhere else and buy your cheap ice cream, save your money.
There’s a lot of people who love’s blue marble and I think they don’t care about what people say.
I love blue marble and I’m gonna miss them ?
Joshua:
People aren’t comparing Blue Marble ice cream to cheap $rap.
The stuff from Blue Marble tastes fake. And I’ve had a lot of excellent ice ream in my life.
If you like, that’s fine for you. But pretending it tastes as good as other “premium” ice creams is preposterous. It’s not even as good as Breyers.
They’re not gonna do well whole sale unless the fix the fake taste.
Once again, go buy your ice cream wherever you want, anyway they are closing. I don’t think they care about what you say or I said!