What kid doesn’t love a good ice cream shop or candy store? And how many dream of opening that kind of business?
That’s exactly what Sasha Zabar, founder of Glace and Glace Candy in New York, did.
Zabar grew up on 92nd Street on the East Side; the neighborhood near Glace.
“There was always a neighborhood ice cream shop … and a couple of candy-focused delis,” Zabar told the Journal. “It was a real treat to come by after school and go pick out candy and ice cream, or after dinner, go get ice cream.”
All of those types of shops either went out of business before or during COVID, so Zabar felt like it was an opportunity to revitalize the neighborhood.
Food is, after all, the family business.
Zabar’s grandparents, Louis and Lillian, founded Zabar’s in 1934. Louis came to the United States through Canada from Ukraine, Soviet Union, in the early 1920s; he re-met Lillian, whom he knew from their village, in New York. They married in 1927, and had three boys, Saul, Stanley, and Sasha’s father, Eli.
“I don’t remember a time where I didn’t want to be in some way in the food business,” Sasha Zabar said. “So it is kind of destiny.”
Zabar spent his childhood working in his father’s various businesses, which included Eli’s Market and Eli’s Bread.
During the pandemic, while everyone else was baking bread, Zabar started making ice cream at home.
“We had some old ice cream equipment from a project my dad had done in the 1990s,” he said.
A priority for Zabar was keeping the business in the neighborhood, which is not without its challenges.
“You don’t get the same kind of foot traffic and high-end shopping that you find farther south,” Zabar said. “It really is a neighborhood, and we rely on neighbors and students and now we get a lot of tourists who come and visit us, uh, after seeing us on social media or hearing about us from friends.”
Zabar started using social media to make Glace a destination, and it has enabled the business to flourish.
“When we opened, we had a very good first summer,” he said. “I knew ice cream was seasonal [but] I eat ice cream year round, so it didn’t affect me so much.”
Until it did.
At the end of September, when the weather started to change, his business “fell off the cliff,” so he started thinking outside the box … er, cone.
“We created what has become kind of a viral sensation, which is our s’mores hot chocolate,” he said. “We make a house-made marshmallow [which] we pipe around the rim and toast … it’s very theatrical, but it’s also delicious.”
Their hot chocolate videos – some of which are in the millions of views – have led to lines around the block every day during hot chocolate season (November to middle of January),
While social media is an amazing tool to see what people and businesses are doing in the food scene around the world, you need to be creative to stand out.
“We take a common conceit – hot chocolate, ice cream, sundaes, candy – and play around with it until we find something that is both familiar but different ,” he said. “We randomly found our way into a corner of the universe: people love hot chocolate and they love … trying something different than what they expect.”
One thing that goes great with hot chocolate and ice cream – and is delicious year round – is fruit crumble. Zabar’s recipe for apple crumble is below.
Quality ingredients, careful preparation and good customer service are also part of the recipe. And he is now bringing candy into the mix.
“I had always wanted to open a candy store because that’s what we had in the neighborhood growing up,” he said. “And candy’s kind of having a moment right now.”
Zabar said what makes Glace Candy special is that the two stores are connected in the middle, so customers can mix and match. While Cold Stone Creamery may have popularized the concept, mixing ice cream with other ingredients on cold and marble stones is not unique to them.
“When I opened the candy store, I had this idea of … if you could pick your own candy and then pick your ice cream and then have it all kind of mixed together [there are] infinite variations and options,” he said. “There’s a lot of interplay between the two stores.”
They are also making some of their own candy, like gummy and sour candies.
“It’s been really fun playing with different shapes and flavors and sours and textures,” he said. “It’s hard work – it’s science – but it’s really rewarding when it comes out. … It’s another avenue or another channel to play with … and come up with new inventions.”
Zabar is living his dream and letting others in on the fun.
“Coming up with new specials for Glace and new hot chocolates and new ice creams and now new candy and ‘What can we cover in chocolate?” Zabar said. “It has become kind of a playground.”
Learn more about Sasha Zabar at GlaceNY.com and follow @GlaceNewYork on Instagram.
For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:
Gluten-Free Apple Crumble
Ingredients
8 cups peeled, cored, and chopped apples (about 1000 g)
1 cup sugar (200 g)
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of ground ginger
Pinch of nutmeg
For the gluten-free crumble topping
1⅓ cups sugar (about 200 g)
1⅓ cups almond flour (about 130 g)
1⅓ cups (about 10.5 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature (about 150 g)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325°F (165°C).
- Place the chopped apples in a baking dish. Sprinkle with the 1 cup sugar and pinches of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Toss gently to coat.
- Prepare the crumble topping: In a mixer on low speed, combine the sugar, almond flour and room temperature butter until coarse crumbles form.
- Spread the crumble topping evenly over the apples.
- Cover the baking dish with tin foil and bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove the foil and continue baking until the topping is golden and crisp, about 15–20 more minutes.
- Let cool slightly before serving. Enjoy warm, ideally with ice cream or whipped cream!
Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.
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