Since my first encounter with corn ice cream at Centrico in Tribeca six years ago, I have been on a quest to find easy, no-strings-attached corn ice cream for sale among the various ice cream shops on the city. So when I was alerted by a friend that Cones carried corn ice cream, I made a mental note to pay them a visit. The opportunity presented itself when I met a friend for dinner at Keste and noticed during the wait that Cones was right across the street! I immediately hatched a plan to coerce my dining partner into getting ice cream after what would probably be a rather sizeable pizza dinner. The minute I spotted him bounding down the street towards me, stomach empty, I made my pitch. "See that ice cream store across the street? We're going after this."
The industrial, slightly sterile character of Cones belies the care and innovation that clearly goes into the making of their ice cream. Under the grayish fluorescent lights, stainless steel tubs of almond cream, yogurt gelato and ginger ice cream sit in a seemingly endless row of flavors, clamoring to be sampled and scooped up. After much deliberation, I decided on a scoop of corn ice cream and a scoop of yogurt gelato.
Corn ice cream and yogurt gelato: Cones serves their corn ice cream with a dash of cinnamon, in keeping with the dessert's Latin American roots. The cinnamon lent a faint kick to the ice cream, which had captured the natural sweetness of a bushel of summer corn. I was surprised to find that the ice cream contained actual kernels of corn. Though I loved this ice cream, I could have done without the fibrous kernel casings interspersed throughout. They lend little to the wonderful corn flavor that is already present, and spoil the slippery smooth texture of the ice cream. The yogurt gelato was similarly well-done, although I would have preferred more of the tang that is characteristic of a good, thick yogurt.
Kiwi sorbet: Cones does great sorbet. In addition to offering a plethora of flavors, each sorbet often tastes more like the fruit than the fruit itself. This was certainly the case with the kiwi, which startled me with its eerily accurate concentration of kiwi flavor. With its bright green hue and little black seeds scattered throughout, this was a kiwi doppelganger if there ever was one.
At $5 for a two-scoop cup, Cones is slightly more expensive than other premier ice cream shops in the city. However, they compensate for their prices with large portions and a high-quality, creative product that will, if you're anything like me, have you strong-arming a very full, very tall friend into an ice cream shop after making him eat two large pizzas with you.
Cones
272 Bleecker St.
(between Morton and Jones St.)
New York, NY 10014
