Nicholas Creamery plans more Jersey Shore ice cream shops with 'farm-to-spoon' flavors

When Nicholas Creamery opened in Atlantic Highlands on Memorial Day 2018, the owners thought 300 gallons of their delicious ice cream would last the entire summer.

"It was just so much ice cream," said restauranteur Nicholas Harary, co-founder of Nicholas Creamery.

It only lasted a day. Police were needed to direct traffic as the line to get in at the opening stretched down First Avenue and crossed side streets. "We sold out of all that ice cream," Harary said.

Since then, Nicholas Creamery has piled on the ice cream scoops, opening a shop in Fair Haven later in 2018. It was followed by stores in Long Branch, Tinton Falls and Middletown. Now Nicholas Creamery will open in Wall in 2025, after signing a lease at Wall Town Centre on Route 34, with a roadmap to open up to six locations at the Jersey Shore over the next three to five years in areas such as Brick, Freehold and Marlboro.

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The plan is to remain local, Harary said. "Our goal was to make really good ice cream and make people happy."

Nicholas Creamery is co-owned by Nicholas and Melissa Harary of Nicholas Barrel & Roost in Middletown and Jodie Edwards, who worked with the Hararys at their previous high-end restaurant Restaurant Nicholas, running the restaurant's marketing and public relations efforts.

Edwards traces her love for ice cream back to growing up in central Pennsylvania and spending time at the Jigger Shop in Mount Gretna. "I just loved it there," she said. With the "incredible ice cream" at Restaurant Nicholas, Edwards said, "I just loved the feel around it."

Made from the ice cream recipe served at the restaurant, Nicholas Creamery is known for its small-batch ice creams, seasonal flavors and collaborations with local businesses. The ice cream is made completely from scratch with heavy cream, sugar and eggs, creating flavors such as Tahitian Vanilla, PeanutButterpalooza and Hudson Cafe Coffee Crunch.

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"The restaurant was farm-to-table kind of concept," Harary said. "This is farm-to-spoon, that we take dairy and make it the real way that ice cream was made in the 1950s, (with) no preservatives, no corn syrup, none of that stuff."

The result: an ice cream with more butterfat and less air.

The ice cream is the work of Kelly Kennedy West, Nicholas' longtime ice cream chef, who worked at Gramercy Tavern in New York City before joining Restaurant Nicholas in 2011.

The flavor ideas are a collaboration between Harary, West and Edwards. "I'm in charge of the old man flavors. Jodie's in charge of the fun flavors," Harary quipped.

Besides Nicholas Creamery's take on butter pecan and pistachio, other flavors include black raspberry chocolate chunk and bourbon coffee chocolate chunk.

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"There's a lot of brainstorming (with West) and a lot of texting and a lot of 'I think this would be fun,''' Edwards said.

How about goat cheese cherry ice cream? "Super popular," Edwards said.

"People sit there and think that goat cheese and ice cream isn't going to be good, and it comes out absolutely amazing," West said at their ice cream factory in Tinton Falls. One version combines goat cheese ice cream, strawberry jam, balsamic vinegar and black pepper. "That one comes out good." she said.

There's Italian rainbow cookie ice cream, an almond-based ice cream with chopped Italian rainbow cookies and a swirl of homemade raspberry jam. "That's the juggernaut," Edwards said.

There are the far-out flavors like mango habanero, a Halloween-inspired flavor. "Jodie called it the devil's kiss," West said.

With ice cream primarily known as a summertime treat, the variety of flavors helps keep Nicholas Creamery scooping all year long, even during the winter when other ice cream shops may decide to close.

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In January, they scooped ice cream flavored with black licorice, a rather "polarizing" ingredient. "People came in that loved black licorice ice cream because you can't find it anyplace else," Edwards said. "People who didn't like it also came in because we give out free samples to everyone. They just wanted to try it because they knew they would hate it."

The flavor, said Harary, a black licorice fan, "actually worked."

"It is hard in today's world of social media keeping people's attention and introducing new flavors and working with local businesses and doing collaborations, it keeps everyone's attention," Edwards said. "Even if they come in and they decide against getting the flavor they have seen somewhere, it's still bringing the traffic in the door."

David P. Willis, an award-winning business writer, has covered business, retail, real estate and consumer news at the Asbury Park Press for more than 25 years. He writes APP.com's What's Going There column and can be reached at dwillis@gannettnj.com. Please sign up for his weekly newsletter and join his What's Going There page on Facebook for updates.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Nicholas Creamery adding more ice cream shops in Monmouth, Ocean