Ample Hills Creamery, the popular ice cream purveyor, is opening a Long Island City location later this month. (Photo by Michael Dorgan, Queens Post)
Sept. 1, 2022 By Michael Dorgan
Ample Hills Creamery, the popular ice cream purveyor, is opening a Long Island City location later this month.
The creamery, known for churning out innovative and story-themed ice creams, is opening its store in the heart of Hunters Point at 5-36 50th Ave. — in a building situated across the street from the 108th Police Precinct building. The space had previously housed a security systems firm.
The Long Island City location will be the second Ample Hills in Queens following on from its Astoria location at 34-02 30th Ave. The scoop shop currently has 12 locations across the country – with six in Brooklyn, three in Manhattan, one in New Jersey and one in California.
The creamery was founded by the husband-and-wife duo of Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna in Brooklyn in 2011 and quickly grew to operate out of more than a dozen locations. The couple, however, ran into financial difficulties following such rapid growth and filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2020.
Schmitt Industries, an Oregon-based company, acquired the bankrupt creamery in June 2020. The couple left following the sale.
An Ample Hills spokesperson said the company is eager to expand its footprint into Long Island City and that the location would be open later this month.
“It is a thriving neighborhood with great schools and businesses,” the spokesperson said.
“We really want to be a part of that community fabric and we are excited to be bringing our ice cream to Long Island City.”
Ample Hills ice-cream scoops (Photo provided by Ample Hills)
A worker with an Ample Hills ice cream (Photo provided by Ample Hills)
The company has built a reputation for its zany flavors and locally sourced ingredients.
Ample Hills was the first ice-cream parlor in the city to pasteurize on-site – making it a registered dairy plant in the process. All of the company’s ice cream is made at its Red Hook Factory location in Brooklyn while its mix-ins are also baked at the site from scratch.
Some of its popular offerings include the “Ooey Gooey Butter Cake,” which is a creamy vanilla ice cream mixed with chewy butter cake pieces, and the “PB’s Fluff & Fold,” which is a fluffy marshmallow ice cream mixed with dark chocolate chunks and peanut butter swirls.
Ample Hills locations often have their own neighborhood-exclusive flavors too.
Its Astoria location, for instance, has an offering called the “Nectar of the Queens” in recognition of the neighborhood’s Greek population. It is a smooth honey cinnamon ice cream mixed with the classic Greek pastries of baklava and galaktoboureko.
The 50th Avenue location will also have its own in-house flavor which will be inspired by the iconic Pepsi-Cola sign situated on the Hunters Point waterfront. Details about the ingredients have yet to be announced.
Some of Ample Hills’ other flavors have been created by employees such as the “Corn to Run,” which celebrates Bruce Springsteen’s hit song “Born to Run. It is made with sweet corn ice cream with crunchy cornmeal crumble and tangy blueberry swirls.
The upcoming scoop shop will also offer ice-cream cakes, milkshakes and coffees.
Ample Hills Creamery, known for churning out innovative and story-themed ice creams, will open at 5-36 50th Ave., pictured (Photo Michael Dorgan, Queens Post)
Ample Hills ice-cream tubs (Photo: Ample Hills website)
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