Nitro Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt opened two of their flagship stores in New York this week, where customers will get a sweet treat and a show with their order. The company’s pitch? Their ice cream is like “The Terminator in an ice cream cup.”
Billed as the first ice creamery to operate without freezers, the store’s “Nitroticians” make ice cream to order in front of the customers under a heavy fog of smoke and kitchen alchemy.
The first step is to choose an ice cream base: regular, organic, low-fat, soymilk, non-fat yogurt, or sorbet.
Second, patrons choose from among an assortment of flavors that include the classics — chocolate, vanilla and pistachio — and a few novelty flavors like bacon, wasabi, pomegranate and “kitchen sink.”
Next, add a color like hot pink or neon blue, and choose from hundreds of toppings and mix-ins, and the Nitroticians will pour the custom-made concoction into their Nitro machine, which operates at -320F or -196C.
Unlike traditional ice cream that can build up with ice particles, ice cream made from liquid nitrogen blasts is smoother, richer and creamier, the company says.
Nitro Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt’s two flagship stores opened in Long Island.
More locations are expected to open in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Manhattan.