Harlem Gets A New Ice Cream Shop, Just In Time For Winter

HARLEM, NY — When Petrushka Bazin Larsen and Nick Larsen opened their first ice cream shop on a hot July day in 2017, they ran out of ice cream by the day's end, unable to satisfy the throngs of customers flocking to their new Central Harlem store.

"Even the machine we had could not take on that yield of supplying that much ice cream in the middle of the summer," Bazin Larsen recalled this week.

Three years later, the couple, co-owners of Sugar Hill Creamery, are celebrating the arrival of a second location, truer to their namesake: the new shop opened Saturday on Broadway near 150th Street, squarely in the middle of the Sugar Hill area of northern Harlem.

While some proprietors might feel nervous opening an ice cream shop at the onset of winter, Bazin Larsen said she and her husband are grateful to be free from the stresses of summertime crowds.

"We’re actually really jazzed that we opened in the fall because it’s allowing us to ease into this location without the pressure of long lines," she said. "We’re able to just catch our breath."

As the name suggests, Sugar Hill had been the desired location for the couple's first shop, but they couldn't resist when a retail spot opened up at a good price further South on Malcolm X Boulevard and 119th Street — right around the corner from their home, where they live with their three children.

Over time, though, the shop's 500-square-foot space grew cramped. Sugar Hill makes all of its ice cream in-house, and their choice to prioritize customer seating instead of kitchen space left them little room to work. Bazin Larsen spotted the roomier Broadway location two years ago, but permitting delays along with the pandemic pushed its opening until this fall.

Nick and Petrushka have adapted their business model to accommodate both winter and the pandemic. Instead of just in-store scoop sales, Sugar Hill offers ice cream cakes, catering, nationwide shipping through the website Goldbelly, and, most recently, a CSA-style service in which the couple has delivered ice cream by car to customers around Upper Manhattan, with their kids in tow.

"We deliver ice cream as a family — legitimately, as a family," Bazin Larsen laughed. "We just think of it as a road trip in the city."

Now, they're ready to welcome customers into the new shop, which has been outfitted with COVID safety barriers and is serving up cold-weather offerings like hot coffee and a "s'mores-y" ice cream hot chocolate drink, topped with torched marshmallow.

"We have gotten the hang of being an ice cream shop in the wintertime," Bazin Larsen said.

Sugar Hill Creamery's new location is open at 3629 Broadway between West 149th and 150th Streets. For hours and more information, visit sugarhillcreamery.com