Los Angeles is going through an ice cream renaissance. And while it’s hard to cheer warming winter months, given global climate predictions, the new reality may be what led to more high-quality frozen foods that are ready to meet a growing public appetite. This expanded market also includes new local kosher ice cream options.
Although the team behind Sweet Rose Creamery ice cream had some sense of the community it was joining before expanding eastward to a location on Beverly Boulevard near Curson Avenue, the learning curve really happened after the doors opened and customers appeared: “We want to be neighborhood places, and there was more demand for kosher there than expected,” explained chef and co-owner Shiho Yoshikawa.
Josh Loeb — who with his wife, Zoe Nathan, owns a family of restaurants that includes, along with Sweet Rose Creamery, the flagship Rustic Canyon, plus Huckleberry and Milo & Olive, all in Santa Monica — agreed to take action. He researched and pursued the kosher certification process, hiring Rabbi Jonathan Benzaquen of Kosher L.A. to handle the duties of transitioning the main production kitchen on Pico Boulevard near Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica to get kosher certification for the ice cream shop last fall.
Previously, all of Sweet Rose Creamery’s products had been made in much smaller quarters at its original Brentwood Country Mart location. The team moved to the roomier facilities to handle expansions, as well as to add another retail storefront, in front of the commercial kitchen.
Yoshikawa admits it can be challenging to reconcile the business’ longtime dedication to using top-notch, non-GMO (genetically modified organism) and organic ingredients with its new kosher status. But given her skill and experience, which also includes having been a baker at San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery, she has made it work.
Yoshikawa no longer makes the popular goat cheese ice cream, and she also had to invest significant research and development time perfecting her almond- and rice-milk recipes. She has learned to adapt in all sorts of ways. Kosher olive oil, for example, has “a more buttery than spicy flavor,” she explained, so she had to make specific adjustments.
Yoshikawa has also created siblings of her tried-and-true flavors for Sweet Rose Creamery’s kosher-observant clientele, such as the Warren pear-vanilla sorbet, which is a modified version of her pear-riesling sorbet. But because so many of Sweet Rose Creamery’s ice creams come from already kosher ingredients that haven’t been commercially processed, such as fresh fruits and raw nuts, the products haven’t suffered in the slightest.
There were also some pleasant surprises along the way, such as that the Sho Chiku Bai sakes she uses for sorbets are already certified kosher.
Everything is sourced kosher, and many of the ancillary items, such as waffle cones, brownie bites and sauces are made in-house, except for the sprinkles and nibs. A select number of non-kosher flavors are still available at the Santa Monica stores and are marked “NK”; everything at the Mid-City location is kosher.
Whereas Sweet Rose Creamery touts its old fashioned and traditional methods of making farm-to-cone flavors that appeal to contemporary palates — dark chocolate with candied grapefruit or coconut-tangelo sorbet, anyone? —another shop, Ice Cream Lab, satisfies the sweet-seeking science geeks.
Since opening its first shop, in Beverly Hills, on South Santa Monica Boulevard near Beverly Drive — a stretch that has since become an ice cream row of sorts, with Sprinkles Ice Cream and a new outpost of the Parisian Amorino gelato chain — fans have been lining up to get their instant made-to-order scoops created with dramatic flair. (Chic kosher-certified pastry shop Bo Nuage also is opening another sweets boutique on this street soon.)
A dairy ice cream base is combined with raw ingredients to concoct Ice Cream Lab’s signature flavors, such as Banilla (fresh bananas and Nilla Wafers), Salt Lick Crunch (salted caramel and pretzels) and Blue Velvet (blue velvet cupcake and cream cheese frosting). The roster of classic options features vanilla bean, chocolate, strawberry and cookies-and-cream, in addition to changing seasonal flavors. The added instant-freezing agent creates fresh, thick ice cream; the temporary curtain of cold steam that emerges from the ice cream-making devices on the shop’s counter can’t help but draw attention.
Ice Cream Lab, which is also under the supervision of Rabbi Benzaquen, has opened additional locations in Pasadena and Little Tokyo, with Westlake Village coming soon.
“Being kosher is true to Ice Cream Lab’s roots of being super-fresh and keeping our ice cream 100 percent natural,” said co-owner Joseph Lifschutz. Kosher certification “also allows all of our local Jewish population to enjoy our fresh ice cream both at our locations and at all of our catering events.”
None of these options comes cheap. Sweet Rose Creamery’s farmers market and organic ingredients translate to $4-and-up scoops and $9.50 pints, while Ice Cream Lab’s scoops start at $5.50 and pints cost $13 each. When outdoor temperatures soar, however, there’s no such thing as buyer’s remorse after enjoying terrific ice cream.
