Big Gay Ice Cream, NYC

Ice cream.  Soft serve ice cream.  It is kinda my obsession in the summer.  I love it, and, San Francisco just doesn't have much of it, which, kinda makes sense, given that we don't really have what I consider appropriate "ice cream weather".

But for a few months of the year, New York certainly does.  And when I'm there, I take full advantage of this.

I finally made it to Big Gay Ice Cream, a New York staple in the soft serve scene.  It started as an ice cream truck, expanded into a brick and mortar, and now has several locations around town.  It gets a fair amount of hype, partially for the name, partially for the Instagram-worthy creations, partially for the crazy flavors offered from time to time (e.g. Cheetos).

But, it turns out, the soft serve is great.

Setting

Big Gay Ice Cream has several locations in New York, but I visited the West Village location.

Signature Storefront.

It is hard to miss the shop, with its giant unicorn decals, and rainbows everywhere.  Perfect backdrop for your Instagram shots.

Seating.

There isn't much seating inside, but I've never seen people seem to mind, as the sidewalk outside is always filled with people eating amazing looking cones.  I think the crowds help to draw in more customers, as, even if you are unfamiliar with Big Gay Ice Cream, one look at these cones makes you do a double take.

Food

Big Gay Ice Cream serves ice cream, and a few other related items, only.  No savory food.

Menu Board.

The menu is all based around ice cream, mostly soft serve, although they have pre-packaged pints available too (which you can also buy in grocery stores in the area).

Soft serve is available as a standard cup, cone (or upgrade to waffle cone), sundae, or in a shake or float.  Or, as a Speciality Cone, more on this soon.

Flavors are simple: vanilla and chocolate (or twist) are always available, and each week-ish 1-2 additional flavors are offered, which always sound fascinating.

And then, the Speciality Cones.  These are the things of Instagram dreams.  There is the "Salty Pimp", with dulce de leche injected in vanilla soft serve, sea salt, and chocolate dip.  The Rocky Roadhouse, chocolate soft serve base, with all the standard rocky road inspired toppings (marshmallow, almonds, chocolate chips), and of course, chocolate dip holding it all together.  And many more.

Toppings.

Toppings are definitely the stars of the show, ranging from $1 each for things like Nilla Wafers, Peanuts, Pie Crumble, Dark Chocolate Pretzels, or Whipped Cream.  Sprinkles are always free.

More Toppings.

Premium toppings like their slew of sauces and dips, are $2.  The sauce lineup includes several fruity options (strawberry, key lime), several sweet options (dulce de leche, bourbon butterscotch), multiple forms of chocolate (chocolate dip, hot fudge, "awesome sauce"), and more.

You can also opt to put fillings into your cone itself, like peanut butter, biscoff, or nutella.

Cheetos with Cheetos Crumble.

My first visit, Cheetos was the special flavor of the week.

I asked to sample the Cheetos, expecting just to get a little dollop of the soft serve, but was presented with this instead!  "You need to try the whole thing!", the server cheerfully proclaimed.  Yes, Cheetos soft serve with Cheetos crumble toppping.

This was my first taste of Big Gay ice cream, and I was impressed with the texture of the ice cream.  So creamy.

The Cheetos flavor was fascinating, yes, truly tasted like Cheetos, but I couldn't imagine eating an entire cup of this.  I was glad to try, but also glad to move on.

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Cherry Kool-Aid:  My second visit, the special flavor was Cherry Kool-Aid. This flavor was very mild in comparison to the Cheetos.  Vaguely cherry flavored, but, barely.  Not much going on here at all, although texture was good.

Chocolate: Again, perfectly creamy soft serve, texture just perfect.  The chocolate was a mild milk chocolate, a nice flavor and intensity.  Really perfect for a soft serve cone, and, if I was in the mood for chocolate base, I'd gladly get this.

Vanilla Soft Serve / Pie Crumbles / Chocolate Dip.

For my creation, I was met with total indecision.

Big Gay ice cream is known for the chocolate dip, and I was fairly sure I wanted to at least have chocolate dip.

I kinda wanted to try the Salty Pimp, injected with dulce de leche under the chocolate shell.  I loved the sound of the American Globs, with vanilla soft serve, coated in dark pretzels and sea salt, and then coated in chocolate dip.  Sweet, salty, full of texture ... that really called out.  But I couldn't get past one of the topping choices: pie crumble.  Pie!  Crumble!

So I asked if I could modify the American Globs, just with pie crumbles instead of the pretzels.  I was told that sadly, the chocolate dip wouldn't really stick properly on top of pie crumbles, but they could try to sorta drizzle the chocolate over the top, and it would harden ok.  But they couldn't dunk it.  The server was more than willing to do this, but I went back to the drawing board.  

I had a moment of realization that it was 90* out, and I always say that dip is not ok in temperatures like that.  Ice cream melts too fast, and you can't eat it quickly enough with a chocolate shell in the way.  It springs leaks, it makes a mess, it turns frantic ... it is a golden rule of ice cream for me: no dip when the temp is too high!

So I innovated.  I "invented" a half dip.  This solved every problem I had.  I could have the pie crumble on bottom, and the chocolate dip on top!  And this way, I could control the melting.  Perfect.

I was very pleased with this creation.  The vanilla base was just the perfect creamy texture.  Slightly sweet, slightly vanilla flavored, a nice canvas for the toppings.  The chocolate shell was a little above average, not waxy, a nice snap to it, and didn't seem to break apart or spring leaks as easily as many.  And the pie crumble?  Good for texture, but the pie crust nature I was hoping for, more buttery, flaky flavor and texture, wasn't really there.  It was more akin to crushed shortbread cookies, since it was so finely crumbled.

The cone was a very standard cake cone, although the triangle shaped kind (not the flat bottom).  I appreciated the toppings catcher around it.  And I definitely appreciated that the base of the cone was filled with the dark chocolate pretzels (since I did the American Globs on top). 

Overall, I was pleased, and I'd consider this again, or branch out to try something new.

Pie Crumbles & 4th of July Sprinkles.

Oh, and the better part?  My server gave me a box on the side, with more pie crumble, and 4th of July themed sprinkles (it was July 4th when I was there).  "You know you'll want to dip it more while you walk down the street", he said.  

He was right.  This was a bonus that I really appreciated.