A New York City ice cream pop-up turns into a new neighborhood ice cream shop on the Lower East Side. Julia Jean’s opened at 202 Clinton Street, near East Broadway, on Saturday, May 17.
Julia Jean’s ice cream flavors are classic — cherry-vanilla; chocolate; cookies and cream; salted caramel; strawberry; and sorbets in fruity options like lemon, mango, nectarine, and orange. There’s also what owner and ice cream maker Ayanna Quint calls “ice cream showers,” which is her fun description for chocolate flakes, similar to stracciatella, as she explains. It’s an ode to her childhood ice cream shop Ortman’s Ice Cream Parlor in Berkeley, California, that she and her family frequented often. There are pints and scoops available.
Quint is also making other desserts based in her ice creams. There are banana splits (a favorite of her mother’s), classically made with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice creams, a banana, hot fudge, whipped cream, almonds, and cherries. Other treats include ice creams layered with ingredients, such as the Boss, with layers of coffee and toasted almond ice creams between hot fridge and chopped almonds; or the Marshmallow Situation with chocolate and vanilla ice creams, marshmallow sauce, and graham cracker layers. And then there’s milkshakes, fountain drinks, ice cream sandwiches, cookies, brownies, and custom-order ice cream cakes.
Quint’s path wasn’t always paved with ice cream. She came from a media background, working as a photo editor for publications such as W, Teen People, and Out before trekking out on her own to work as a freelance photography creative director, all in New York. During the pandemic, she picked up baking — a common refrain for many at the time — where she marked the passing days with baked goods.
“I realized that making dessert for other people and bringing them joy through food was more rewarding to me than being a photo editor,” Quint writes over email. So she worked at Lower East Side bakery Partybus Bakeshop where she learned the ins and outs of making sweets.
Her new goal became opening a family-friendly ice cream shop. “One of the things we’ve always wanted was a nearby spot where we could go for ice cream for an after-school or after-dinner treat,” she writes. Hence, Julia Jean’s, which is named after her mother.
Quint left the bakery, took an ice cream course at Penn State, a recipe development class at ice cream equipment manufacturer Carpigiani, and later worked as a kitchen assistant at ice cream shop Malai. Last summer, Partybus owner Jacqueline Eng let her host pop-ups at the bakery.
The physical storefront is small, with only three to four seats available. It’s open from 3 to 10 p.m. Thursday; 3 to 11 p.m. Friday; 1 to 11 p.m. Saturday; and 1 to 10 p.m. Sunday.
—Emma Orlow contributed to this report
