Smorgasburg LA Ice Cream Alley 2025 Report

 

Fro-yo girl here. Ice Cream Alley is back at Smorgasburg Los Angeles on Sundays from now through August 31. The lineup of vendors changes every year. There’s always at least one new vendor that I haven’t tried. I’ve noticed that there aren’t as many vendors now. Pre-pandemic, there were about a dozen. Post-pandemic, they’ve had 7-8 vendors. While Ice Cream Alley is smaller, it still attracts vendors that produce a range of global flavors.

This year’s line-up:

• 626 Hospitality Group: The flavors of 626, hard scoop ice cream. They do have soft serve, but only at the shop in Arcadia.
• Mateo’s Ice Cream: Mexican ice cream and paletas, four shops in Los Angeles
• Lefty Gelateria: Michelin chef crafted gelato, I spied a crème brulee sundae
• Pampas Helados Argentinos: Argentinian helado, had some interesting flavors like yerba mate and malbec, also offers alfajores
• Sad Girl Creamery: Latin inspired ice cream tacos and small batch ice cream
• Moom Maam: artisanal Thai gelato, I tried it last year
• Bernie’s: shaved granita ice with real fruit

I’m surprised that Wanderlust Creamery and Kinrose Creamery no longer participate. There was no froyo either.

The event is free. Parking is also free. Smorgasburg LA is open from 10 AM – 4 PM.

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 2024 Ice Cream Alley Report

Fro-yo girl here. Happy National Ice Cream Day! Today was also the first day of Ice Cream Alley, the annual ice cream event at Smorgasburg LA. Ice Cream Alley is a pop-up that brings together ice cream and frozen dessert vendors.

Vendors:

• Sad Girl Creamery: ice cream with Latin flavors
• Happy Ice: Philly water ice
• Kinrose Creamery
• 626 Hospitality: Asian ice cream
• Nobuko Shave Ice: Japanese style shave ice
• El Churro
• Wanderlust Creamery: ice cream inspired by global flavors
• Moom Maam: Thai gelato
• New Mexican shaved ice vendor

I’ve tried most of the vendors, except for the shaved ice ones (I don’t care for shaved ice). Nothing seemed that different from previous years, which isn’t saying that there wasn’t good ice cream. I tried Moom Maam this year and it was very good. There wasn’t any froyo.

Ice Cream Alley takes place on Sundays through 9/1.

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’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.

Smorgasburg Ice Cream Alley 2021 Report

Fro-yo girl here. Ice Cream Alley 2020 at Smorgasburg LA was cancelled due to COVID-19 (Smorgasburg, the outdoor food event held at The Row in downtown LA, wasn’t held for over a year) but they brought it back for National Ice Cream Day last month (July 18 to be specific). Ice Cream Alley is open every Sunday from 10 AM – 4 PM through Labor Day weekend.

List of Ice Cream Alley vendors (during my visit):

• Afters Ice Cream “Test Kitchen" – ice cream made fresh with liquid nitrogen
• Churro Boss – ice cream and churros
• Happy Ice – Italian ice
• Lei’d Cookies – cookies and ice cream cookie sandwiches
• Madame Shugah – vegan ice cream and cookies
• Scoops on Tap/Smoreology: ice cream s’mores sandwiches
• Sweet & Hollow – chimney cones with ice cream
• Tasty Food 626 – Asian ice cream
• Van Leeuwen – ice cream scoops, vegan and regular
• Wanderlust Creamery – scoopable ice cream

I noticed they had the same photo backdrop and inflatable ice cream cone from previous years. Smorgasburg was busy but Ice Cream Alley wasn’t as busy as the rest of the market. I didn’t see any frozen yogurt, unfortunately and nothing new or innovative (but then once I didn’t see froyo, I lost interest). The only thing that tempted me was the matcha escape bar at Wanderlust.

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.

National Ice Cream Day Pictures, Ice Cream Alley Report

Fro-yo girl here. Happy National Ice Cream Day! It was a busy day. First I went to Smorgasburg LA to check out the third Annual Ice Cream Alley. I didn’t see any froyo but there were some new vendors like Evil Cooks, with dessert tacos, and Oatly. Other ice cream vendors included Wanderlust Creamery, Buddy Pops, Madame Shugah, Mc Connell’s, Afters Ice Cream, Sweet Rose Creamery, Sweet N Hollow, Blast Ice Cream, and Smoreology. Ice Cream Alley will be back every Sunday until September 1.

Oatly’s appearance was part of their Pre-Release Tour for their new vegan, nut-free, soy-free oat frozen dessert. I believe today was the debut of their truck. The product line includes 7 flavors, though today they only offered Oat, Chocolate, Strawberry, and Coffee. The menu included scoops (2 for $4), pints oat lattes, affogat-oat, and Oatly pins. I tried the Oat and Coffee flavors. The oatmilk frozen dessert was surprisingly dense, rich, and creamy. I’m not sure how they did it. The coffee flavor wasn’t super strong. I like my coffee ice cream to have bold coffee flavor. The oat flavor was surprisingly mild and didn’t taste as much like oatmeal as I expected. The flavor was clean and pleasant. The product line will launch this fall. The other flavors are Chocolate Chip, Mint Chip, and Vanilla.

Then it was time to get some froyo at Yogurtland’s National Ice Cream Day BOGO event. It was crazy busy! They still had the cute waffle cone spoons. I wanted to stock up on their Dairy-free Key Lime Pie soft serve.

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.