Aug. 6, 2019 By Shane O’Brien
International ice cream company Four Winters, known for making ice cream out of liquid nitrogen, has opened its first East Coast location at 47-38 Vernon Blvd.
The ice cream shop opened on Vernon Boulevard on Friday and had to close temporarily on its opening day due to such a high demand.
Founded in late 2013, Four Winters has made its name by taking a new approach to the classic dessert. The company makes custom order ice cream by flash freezing a chocolate, strawberry or vanilla liquid base through the use of -196 degree liquid nitrogen, creating a vapor cloud in the process.
Four Winters makes ice cream to order and fries each individual waffle cone, meaning that the establishment resembles a restaurant somewhat, rather than a conventional ice cream parlor.
The Four Winters team gets inspiration for new recipes from seasonal products and from working with local farmers. Founders Omar Alkhawaja, Zeid Zabian and Zaynab Abdullah also regularly draw on their Middle Eastern roots for new flavors.
In total, guests can choose from six different fusions, including Cereal Crunch, made with a vanilla base and sweetened cereal clusters and salted caramel, and Fudge Browne, made from a chocolate base infused with brownie pieces and caramel sauce. In addition, there are three seasonal fusions that will change roughly every three months.
Presently, those seasonal fusions are key lime pie, mango chili sorbet and s’mores.
Fusions cost $5.50 for a small portion, with regular portions costing $7.
The location in Long Island City is Four Winters’ fifth location, having previously set up in London, Los Angeles, Cairo and Amman, Jordan. A new location is also set to open in Saudi Arabia this year, the website says.
The new location is open seven days a week from noon until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and noon until 10 p.m. every other day.
Four Winters is not the only establishment to have opened on Vernon Boulevard recently, with others opening or in the process of opening on the street. These include Chinese restaurant Chairman Sun at 47-30 Vernon Blvd.
Nearby, We Bagel has opened where the Bread Box at 47-11 11th St. was located.
We Bagel is owned by Moshe Mizrahi, who also owned Bread Box which closed in 2016 after six years of business.
The bagel shop opened last week and features a spacious interior, similar to Bread Box and an outdoor patio. The restaurant also features onsite parking.
Its current hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and customers can choose from a wide selection of bagels, from a plain bagel with cream cheese ($3.10), to a chicken salad bagel ($7.25).
A Chinese Szechuan restaurant is scheduled to open at 10-07 50th Ave. by the end of summer.
The restaurant will be called “Hupo,” and will replace Greek restaurant Kavala Estatorio, which closed last winter.
4 Comments
Ice cream is at an all time high. Taking us back to the Dinkins ice cream era.
I stopped by Four Winters yesterday and while it’s a great concept, it took about 15 minutes to get my ice cream. There seemed to be a lot of staff standing around and a bit of chaos when it came to whose order was next to make etc… Though it was tasty. If they can get past the growing pains, I’m sure they can succeed. Hoping for the best.
arrive only to fail within a year
Thank you Debbie Downer