Famed Craft Ice Cream Parlor That Started in Portland OR Delights NYers with 2nd Store

Way back in the olden days, ice cream was made using salt water to churn cream into a solid enough concoction, and then packed in straw for insulation. The archaic technique was never implemented by the Portland, Oregon based ice creamery that just landed in NYC, but it served as the perfect name for their nationally renowned ice cream shop, Salt & Straw.

Salt & Straw is the brainchild of Kim and Tyler Malek, who are cousins. Kim, the founder, is originally from Billings, Montana, and moved to Portland in the mid-nineties after college in Tacoma, Washington and a brief stint in Seattle. She met Lori Wolfery of Oregon Chai, an instantly recognizable shelf-stable chai concentrate, while they were paying the parking meter. That serendipitous chat provided a connection that would inspire Kim to launch her own “Maker’s Economy” business. She had been contemplating opening something for years... since 1996, to be precise. That encounter with Wolfery was the incentive she needed to “build up the courage” to launch Salt & Straw in 2011.

The problem was she had never made ice cream before, but that’s where her cousin Tyler comes into the picture. A culinary late-comer, he had been living in China for business after college, but discovered a predilection for blending flavors while traveling through Vietnam and Cambodia. He was enrolled in culinary school when he found out his cousin Kim was tinkering with the ice cream business plan, and enthusiastically jumped the pond back to the Pacific Northwest to become the mastermind behind the fanciful and sensational flavor combinations that are the hallmark of the brand. Although saying he was a late-comer is a bit of an exaggeration; at only 27, he won Forbes “30 Under 30” accolades in 2015 for his hand in taking Salt & Straw from one lone little food truck to an expanding empire of nearly fifty stores.... two brand new locations in New York City have added to its acclaim by catering to local tastes and suppliers.

Each flavor is blended from fifth generation, Scotts Brothers Dairy milk and cream, from “cows who are blissed out, grass-fed, and never given hormones or antibiotics,” according to their website. After that, it’s up to Tyler to work his magic, but even he is reliant on local purveyors, bakeries and culinary collaborators to make his imaginative flavor combinations come to life. The goal was always all about community, creating a welcoming, inclusive and jubilant space that celebrated creativity and brought people together, and few places have been conceivably as successful.

To come up with the flavors, inspiration abounds. From seasonal additions like luscious summer strawberries and juicy Oregon-grown Bartlett pears, to Grandma Malek’s famous almond brittle, Tyler is constantly bombarded with new flavor possibilities. The trick, then, is to create versions of those additions that shine in their frosty environs (something in my opinion Ben & Jerry’s never figured out). You’ll never get tooth-shattering hunks of fudge: the ingredients are all scientifically concocted so that their texture and flavor is perfected swirled into their heavy cream and milk-based recipe.

Their most popular flavors (also available in pre-packed pints from their website) include Chocolate Gooey Brownie, Salted Caramel Ribbons and their rendition of America’s unfaltering favorite, Double Fold Vanilla, into which they incorporate twice as many vanilla beans as any sane person would. You can order from their web site or visit the first store they opened in Manhattan on the UWS

One flavor avid fans anticipate eagerly each year is their Candytopia: a decadent hodge-podge of homemade Halloween-esque candy bar treats all jumbled together for this once-a-year specialty. Kim’s favorite, however, is the Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper, while Tyler prefers the more purist Arbequina Olive Oil scoop, made from Oregon Extra-Virgin olive oil.

They will not constrain themselves to their roots, however. Collaborations have already been secured in our region, because local is only local to wherever you are. Something grand is in the works with molecular gastronomy maestro Wylie Dufresne, who is currently working his magic at Stretch Pizza. But already locked down on the menu is Breads Bakery’s fudgy chocolate babka nuzzled into salted sweet cream ice cream and rippled with a Nutella-esque chocolate and hazelnut (filbert, in Oregon) swirl. The wildly popular PopUp Bagel’s iconic cinnamon-raisin New York bagels, candied with a crunchy crème brulée shell and shmeared with cinnamon-spiked cream cheese ribbons. Perhaps the most provocative innovation comes alongside Carnegie Deli, which infuses their famous pastrami into butterscotch ice cream, cutting the sweetness with a savory mustard swirl and crunchy rye crumbles. They may be from Portland, but it doesn’t get much more New York than that.