Brooklyn, N.Y.-based OddFellows Ice Cream keeps its customers coming back with a constantly changing menu.
“We are always changing flavors and we do the opposite of pretty much every other shop in that we try not to keep any one flavor in the cabinet at all times,” said owner Mohan Kumar.
The company has two shops — one in the East Village (The Sandwich Shop) that specializes in various types of artisanal ice cream sandwiches; and its original shop in Brooklyn, offering 14 rotating flavors of ice cream and sorbet, banana splits, sundaes and floats.
The company pasteurizes its own ice cream base (using locally sourced, artificial hormone-free and additive-free dairy) in its Brooklyn kitchen.
Flavor innovation
Many of the company’s flavors of the day are inspired by the seasons. Popular summer flavors include cornbread, buttermilk honey blueberry, Thai iced tea, and peanut butter and jelly. Autumn flavors include S’mores and apple cider, and popular winter flavors are brown butter sage, black pepper fig and Santa’s milk and cookies (ice milk with brown butter chocolate chip cookie). Some of the company’s other innovations include a cotton candy cone, foie gras drumstick, boozy popsicles and alcoholic ice creams.
Kumar said that from day one OddFellows has been featuring savory ice cream flavors. Some of its examples are caramelized onion, foie gras and prosciutto melon.
“We’re seeing more and more of that come up. It’s great to see because it is honestly our favorite,” said Kumar.
He added, “Savory is and has been popular going back about 15 years. Obviously more so in cities than in Middle America, [but] I don’t think it will ever be the norm. It’s popular in New York City because it is different.”
What inspires their diverse flavor palate? Kumar said that Sam Mason (part owner and the one who creates OddFellows ice cream) gets a lot of his inspiration from his travels.
“He just got back from Southeast Asia, so expect some of those flavors to show up soon,” said Kumar.
Read our original report on artisan ice cream here — "Putting the art back in ice cream."
