Smorgasburg LA’s Ice Cream Alley Report

Fro-yo girl here. Smorgasburg LA brought back Ice Cream Alley recently, during National Ice Cream Month. The special ice cream pop-up launched on July 16 and continues every Sunday through September 3. Ice Cream Alley is a part of the outdoor market set aside for ice cream and sweets vendors.

The event is free and the first two hours of parking is free. Smorgasburg LA is open from 10 AM – 4 PM.

The first Ice Cream Alley took place in 2017. This year, the public will choose which vendor will be Smorgasburg’s full-time ice cream vendor.

List of Ice Cream Alley Vendors

• 626 Hospitality Group: ice cream floats
• Creamy Boys: New Zealand style mix-in style fruit ice cream
• Donut Friend: ice cream cups & ice cream sandwiches
• Evil Cooks: ice cream tacos, including an innovative trompo de ice cream (café con leche). It looks like a big cone of ice cream on a vertical spit.
• Happy Ice: Philly water ice, also known as Italian ice outside of Philly
• Kinrose Creamery: creamery with Middle Eastern roots
• Moom Maam (new): Thai gelato with interesting flavors like black sesame, Uji matcha, and Thai tea
• Nobuko Shave Ice (new): authentic shave ice
• Sad Girl Creamery: ice cream tacos
• Scoops on Tap: ice cream with fresh waffle cones made to order

I didn’t see any frozen yogurt and the most innovative thing there was the ice cream trompo at Evil Cooks. I didn’t see the trompo though, so maybe they sold out before I arrived.

Kinrose Creamery’s flavors were the most appealing (sour cherry & cream ice cream, citrus rose granita, honey walnut baklava ice cream) and they were generous with samples. I was impressed with their toppings and ice cream flavors.

* SMORGSABURG LA: ROW DTLA, 777 Alameda St., Los Angeles

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.

Smorgasburg LA Ice Cream Alley Report 2022

 

Fro-yo girl here. Ice Cream Alley was back at Smorgsaburg LA this August. It felt slightly smaller this year, with a mix of old and new vendors.

List of Ice Cream Valley vendors:

• Creamy Boys (NEW) – New Zealand style ice cream
• Happy Ice – Italian ice
• Kinrose Creamery (NEW) – ice cream inspired by the flavors of the Middle East
• Sad Girl Creamery (NEW) – Latina owned, ice cream tacos
• Salt & Straw (NEW) – ice cream scoops
• Sweet & Hollow – chimney cones with ice cream
• Wanderlust Creamery – ice cream scoops, Escape bars

Kinrose Creamery’s flavors were the most appealing (sour cherry & cream ice cream, citrus rose granita, honey walnut baklava ice cream) but I went to Creamy Boys since their New Zealand style soft serve real fruit ice cream reminded me the most of froyo.

New Zealand style ice cream is hand-crafted; the ice cream and fruit are blended together in a special “drill” machine. In New Zealand, this type of ice cream is often found at the beach, farmers market, or a fruit shop. Choose the base (dairy or non-dairy), add-ins, and cup or a waffle cone. Available flavors: strawberry, vanilla, hokey pokey, mixed berry, banana. There’s only one size.

Mixed berry ice cream ($8) made with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries: I was reminded of Yogen Fruz and more recently, Valley Swirl, Swrlies, and Loving Cup (Bay Area). Creamy Boys was certainly creamy. The hand-cranking results in an ice cream with more variation in texture and flavors. There were icy chunks of frozen berries, seeds, patches of vanilla ice cream, etc. The vanilla flavor was mild and not as strong as Valley Swirl’s. It seemed less sweet than Valley Swirl’s and less flavorful than Yogen Fruz. The portion was generous.

I noticed they had the same photo backdrop from previous years. I didn’t see any frozen yogurt but it was nice to see more internationally inspired flavors of ice cream.

Admission is free and there’s free parking too (2 hours free). Parking is plentiful.

SMORGSABURG LA: ROW DTLA, 777 Alameda St., Los Angeles

You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.

Looking for more frozen yogurt news, discussion boards, and resources? Check out the International Frozen Yogurt Association website at http://internationalfrozenyogurt.com/. The IFYA is the independent voice of the frozen yogurt industry.