A TASTE OF NEW YORK CITY
At Salt & Straw, we scoop the most intriguing, unforgettable ice creams you’ve ever tasted. Our debut menu tells the story of what we love to eat and drink here in the city and was created in partnership with the people who are baking, boiling and brewing some of the most legit offerings across all five boroughs. These five ice creams feature flavors you may be familiar with—but you’ve never had them like this before.
Chocolate Babka with Hazelnut Fudge
There’s babka, and then there’s the award-winning, chocolate babka from Breads Bakery. When the renowned Union Square shop first opened its doors in 2013, it didn’t take long for its chocolate babka to gain city-wide acclaim—or for us to hear about it in Portland, OR. To create an ice cream that mimics the bread’s distinct marbling and irresistible texture, we dice up the famous loaves, cook them down with condensed milk, then layer in salted sweet cream ice cream. Homemade hazelnut fudge and bits of chocolate stracciatella ripple throughout, completing the flavor we couldn’t not make for Manhattan.
Pastrami on rye
Out of one of the first delis in New York City came a sandwich that has since become iconic: Pastrami on Rye. We took the city’s legendary dish and gave it the Salt & Straw treatment, starting with slices straight from a quintessential Manhattan deli. Homemade butterscotch gets deglazed with a pastrami-infused cream from the world-famous Carnegie Deli to create the caramelized ice cream. Spicy brown mustard, a critical component, comes by way of a salty, mustard custard swirl. Topped with a toasted rye crumble, every spoonful is an unmistakable bite of NYC’s signature. Dig in!
Cinnamon Raisin Bagels & Schmear
To transform the classic NYC bagel into an ice cream, we called on our friends at the buzziest and most innovative bagel shop around: PopUp Bagels. Their rippable, dippable, crispy-crusted bagels have been dubbed “Best Bagel” two years in a row by Brooklyn Bagelfest—and they boiled and baked cinnamon raisin bagels just for us. We chop them up and candy the pieces, creating a crunchy crème brulée shell around each chewy morsel to protect it from the salted sweet cream ice cream. A cinnamon-spiked cream cheese ribbons throughout, because every great bagel needs its schmear.
Pistachio & Ricotta Cannoli
A reimagined take on Little Italy’s dessert of choice: the cannoli. The ends of these ricotta-filled pastries are often dipped in chopped pistachios, but in our version, the distinctive green nut is the star. Our bright green pistachio ice cream is laced with indulgent whipped ricotta ribbons. Channeling our inner Italian nonna, we bake sheets of cannoli shells, dusting each with cinnamon and sugar, until bubbly and tender. Golden bits of shell and candied Sicilian pistachios stud the green-and-white swirled ice cream for a flavor that does Mulberry Street proud.
Merlot-Aged Sour with Chocolate Figs
We love to nerd out, and deconstructing Grimm Artisan Ales’ spontaneously-fermented sour gave us the perfect chance to do so. Named NY State Brewery of the Year (x3), Grimm produces the city’s most creative beers by blending historical brewing practices with their own innovations. Together, we broke down the sour’s complex flavors, and after the eighth(!) attempt, churned out our most compelling sherbet yet. Cherry-forward, pleasantly hoppy with a malty sweet finish, it’s dynamic—made even more so by the dark chocolate and Italian fig fudge running through it. Your mind will inevitably ask, “What?!”
“Salt & Straw Opens Its First NYC Scoop Shop This Week.”
“Get ready for long lines at the Upper West Side location."
“Portland, Oregon-Based Salt & Straw Expands to NYC”
“Though Salt & Straw offers 12 basic flavors, it is constantly introducing one-of-a-kind offerings that no one has ever tasted before.”
“Salt & Straw has finally opened up shop in NYC!”
“One scoop of the Pastrami on Rye, please.”
September is synonymous with the apple, and in this series, we’ve brought the whole orchard into our ice cream. We’re taking a deep dive into this all-American fruit, exploring apple’s greatest hits and uncovering its West Coast lore. From the bright, tart Granny Smith to the ever-popular Golden Delicious, each of our five flavors showcases a different variety for a journey that will see you through the final sweltering days of summer into
the first few crisp evenings of fall.
Stroll Through THE Orchard
Finnriver’s Black Currant Apple Cider
A celebration of a single, limited-release cider from Finnriver, the cidery leading the Pacific Northwest’s hard cider renaissance. On eighty acres of protected farmland, Finnriver honors the region’s legacy of apple fermentation while exploring its possibilities. Enter “Autumn Blush,” their marriage of organic Washington-grown Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples and black currants. We’re not ones to mess with perfection, so we simply turn their pink sparkling cider into pâte de fruits, then complement the bright, chewy bursts with a delicate apple-and-black-currant infused sherbet and let the cider shine. Cheers!
Green Apple Wasabi Sorbet
If your sinuses burn just thinking “wasabi,” you’ve likely never had the real thing. In the U.S., 99% of wasabi is actually horseradish, and Oregon Coast Wasabi is awakening taste buds to the difference. What started as a hobby has grown into America’s largest wasabi farm, where 20,000 plants thrive in a microclimate mimicking their natural Japanese alpine habitat. In our simplest recipe to date, we juice the entire plant into a vivid green elixir, then blend it with bright green apple juice. Red Delicious and Golden Delicious apples pop against the wasabi’s gentle heat and vegetal flavor for an unexpected, refreshing bite.
Apple Pie vs Pumpkin Pie
Every Autumn a debate rages: Apple Pie vs Pumpkin Pie. This year, we’ve got something for both sides to love. First, we give you our best apple pie à la mode by baking down Granny Smith apples in butter, cinnamon and sugar, and piling them high into a shortbread cookie crust before nestling it all into a creamy vanilla custard. Then, pumpkin pie enters the chat, and we double down on those warm fall flavors with pops of pie weaving through brown sugar pumpkin spiced ice cream. Swirled together, it’s a dessert that everyone can maybe, just maybe, agree on.
Apple Cider Donuts
Imagine an afternoon spent apple picking. You grab a bag of warm apple cider donuts fresh from the farm stand, and lick the sugar from your fingertips. This is what Sidecar Doughnuts captures in their apple cider cake doughnut. Our longtime friends lent us their recipe to bring you fall festival vibes in ice cream form. Stripes of cinnamon-spiced vanilla caramel run thick through royal icing-inspired ice cream, dotted with hunks of sugar-and-spice, streusel-topped doughnuts for a pint you’ll be tempted to take home by the dozen.
Caramel Apple Sherbet
A fall festival staple, distilled into scoopable delight. Our vanilla-infused caramel is lightly burnt for a deeper, more complex flavor. These dark brown ribbons make the perfect counterpart to a crisp, simple apple juice sherbet made from the luscious bounty of our partners at Treetop. We don’t mess with the classics. We just do them our way.
SALT & STRAW
VOICE OF THE BRAND
As the sole copywriter for iconic Portand-based ice cream brand, Salt & Straw, I have the pleasure of being the voice of the brand. This means I get to regularly nerd out with Tyler Malek, Co-Founder and Head Ice Cream Maker, over ice cream, and dig into the inspiration and stories that inform each handcrafted flavor. I get let in on recipe secrets and yes, get to taste flavors months in advance. Let me tell you, this job does not suck.
I turn my stream-of-conscious notes and observations into the colorful flavor descriptions you find online. I also deep-dive into partnerships and production with “Partner Stories” and “Notes from the Kitchen” on the website. I write the in-storage signage, merch displays, emails, SMS messages and the internal training materials that are distributed across 40+ scoop shops. Finally, I created the brand’s Tone of Voice guidelines and Verbal Identity as part of the overarching brand refresh Jenny Cassel, the VP of Marketing, is overseeing.
Here’s a selection of the work I’ve created as the voice of Salt & Straw:
THE NEW YORK CITY SERIES
After years of speculation, Salt & Straw opened not one, but two, locations in New York City—and I brought their debut menu to life.
In true Salt & Straw fashion, the brand wasn’t content to open its doors with its 12 signature flavors and current monthly menu. Instead, Tyler Malek and his team of talented ice cream makers developed five city-specific flavors to celebrate the east-coast expansion.
New York City welcomed Salt & Straw with lines wrapped around the street, plenty of press coverage and influencers who couldn’t wait to share their thoughts.
And yes, Pastrami on Rye is my absolute, all-time favorite Salt & Straw flavor. Wish you could’ve tried it. 💔
THE APPLE SERIES 🍏🍎
Pumpkin has come to dominate fall in recent years, but Salt & Straw swerved to develop a September menu around autumn’s classically quintessential fruit—the apple. This brand new series introduced four flavors and brought back one beloved, Caramel Apple Sherbet. As always, I sat down with Tyler to hear Oregon’s long, storied history with the apple, the inspiration and thought-process behind each flavor and learned about the incredible relationships that go into each collaboration. Plus, I got to dig into half of every pint (literally—he sliced each pint in half on his desk as we chatted) and quickly determined that everyone’s a winner with Apple Pie vs Pumpkin Pie.