Salt & Straw opens Friday at 360 Amsterdam Avenue.
This could just be the most anticipated ice cream shop to arrive in New York City, and it’s about to open on the Upper West Side.
On September 20, awarded brand Salt & Straw is opening its first-ever NYC shop at 360 Amsterdam Avenue (at 77th Street), and ice cream fans have been chomping at the bit since the expansion was announced earlier this year.
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This week, co-owners and cousins, Tyler and Kim Malek, gave us an exclusive preview ahead the shop’s opening.
Tyler Malek hands us some ice cream.
Salt & Straw started out as a pushcart in Portland, Oregon in April 2011. The Upper West Side location will be its 42nd store.
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It was Kim’s dream to open a “neighborhood community gathering place,” and she decided upon an ice cream shop. Once her culinary school-trained cousin, Tyler, learned of her plans, he begged her to appoint him as chef. Malek recalls, “I begged and I begged and I kept sending her ice cream to try, and finally she said ‘yes’.”
It’s a good thing she did, because Tyler is an ice cream genius.
As head ice cream maker at Salt & Straw, he is inspired by ingredients from local artisans, farmers, and chefs to create innovative flavors.
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As Salt & Straw grew, the Maleks dreamt of opening an NYC storefront, as “It is the perfect city for partnering with local artisans and procuring the best ingredients.” They hunted for a space in six neighborhoods and when they found the location at 360 Amsterdam Avenue, they knew it was a perfect fit. Tyler claims, “It is perfect. You look right into a playground, it’s right near the Natural History Museum. It is a beautiful and perfect street.”
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In celebration of the UWS opening, Malek has created an NYC-exclusive menu featuring five flavors with New York-specific ingredients from iconic culinary institutions.
Take the Pastrami on Rye for example: Malek taste-tested twelve different pastramis from around New York City and landed upon a cut from the famed Carnegie Deli. Breads Bakery, a favorite on the Upper West Side, provides Salt & Straw with its famous chocolate babka used in its Chocolate Babka w/ Hazelnut Fudge. Tyler takes the babka to create a babka butter of sorts, toasts the pieces, and mixes in the chunks along with a “hazelnut fudge schmear.”
Pastrami On Rye c/o Salt & Straw
Chocolate Babka with Hazelnut Fudge c/o Salt & Straw
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There is also a special batch called Cinnamon Raisin Bagels and Schmear made in collaboration with the nearby PopUp Bagels (where lines around the corner are a standard), a Merlot-Aged Sour w/ Chocolate Figs from the lauded Brooklyn based Grimm Artisanal Ales, and another quintessential New York flavor, Pistachio & Ricotta Cannoli.
Cinnamon Raisin Bagels & Schmear c/o Salt & Straw
Merlot-Aged Sour with Chocolate Figs c/o Salt & Straw
Pistachio & Ricotta Cannoli c/o Salt & Straw
While these New York-y flavors are limited edition and will only be around for two weeks, there is a “Classics” menu of thirteen mainstays, the most popular of which is their Salted, Malted, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. The homemade cookie dough is cooked specifically to be mixed into ice cream. Add to that some brewers malt and Oregon harvested sea salt, and you have a fan in Tyler too, who reveals, “I hate how much I love that ice cream!”
Limited edition and classic flavors are posted at the soon-to-open storefront.
It’s clear that Salt & Straw stands out because of its unique flavor profiles and to-die-for ice cream, but their customer service and overall store experience is something you won’t find at any other dessert shop. Tyler’s goal was to create a personable experience, where a conversation is created over the process of selecting your flavor.
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When you walk into the store, you might notice that you can’t actually see the ice cream, which is intentional. Malek explains that, “The intention is to create a rapport between the scooper and the customer, where they look each other in the eye and talk about the flavors, and the origin of the ingredients, much like you would do in a fine dining restaurant while choosing your meal. Each flavor is meant to tell a story.”
There is also a moment of hospitality at Salt & Straw that isn’t expected from an ice cream shop. The Maleks train all of their staff based upon Danny Meyer’s hospitality bible, Setting the Table. “No matter how busy the store is customers will always be greeted with a ‘hello’ first.” Meyer is also an investor in the company.
The Maleks’ goal for their customers is “to experience the store and take with them a feeling of how it was.”
At 11:00 a.m. on Friday, you too can catch that feeling. Store hours will be 11 a.m. to midnight daily.
TL;DR
Why no prices given? What happened to reporting?
There’s also no way the pastrami could be from “the famed Carnegie Deli”, as it closed in 2016. They’ve been licensing the name.
It’s one of those things, if you have to ask for the cost then it’s definitely overpriced and too expensive
In Miami Beach, it’s $12.50/pint.
About $15 a pint from what I see online in various places. I’m glad my neighbors can afford all this expensive ice cream but I’ll be at Key Food buying Haagen Daaz on sale for $4.99.
I’m far more excited about Carvel coming to the UWS.
i’m telling you, the best ice cream is Avalon Organic. cream and sugar. that’s it.
flavor it with whatever you want and it can’t be beat.
get it at Whole Foods (cheaper than Fairway) for around $11 for 750 ml.
No thanks. It may be organic but their chocolate flavor has garbage fillers and stabilizers in it like locust bean gum and guar gum. That’s why I don’t buy Trader Joes ice cream, same thing. Haagen Daaz chocolate doesn’t have that stuff, just milk, cream, sugar, cocoa and eggs:
https://www.avalondairy.com/organic-ice-cream/?single_prod_id=66
Deceptive business to go into a neighborhood and offer “free cones” then charge people $7.58 for the scoop. The offer says “free cones”. It doesn’t say “with purchase of the scoop.” Also, the ice cream sucked. I really hope they go out of business. Just because it is New York shouldn’t mean you can open a business and scam everyone in sight, does it?