You Need To See Inside Miami's Museum Of Ice Cream
There are certain things you only learn about yourself when you're three feet from a sprinkle pool. Namely, will you shove past the small children to jump in first? Will you keep your cool and casually dip your legs in, as if rainbow-colored faux sprinkles is something you routinely bathe in? And, for the love of all that is holy, how long will you last before you take an obligatory selfie?!
That's the thing about the Museum of Ice Cream (MOIC): Every inch of the space is sensory overload, designed for people to Instagram, snap, and share with the world. Its pastel-colored walls serve as its own word of mouth, and it's safe to say it has achieved its desired effect: When the original MOIC opened in New York less than two years ago, tickets sold out in three days flat - and created a waitlist 200,000 people long. Since then, the series of ice cream-inspired exhibits has expanded as temporary pop-ups in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami, bringing in more than 1 million visitors to date.
PLAN YOUR TRIP Museum Of Ice Cream, Miami; tripadvisor.com
Every room feels like something out of a dream, and that's because, in large part, they are. The museum's sprinkle pool, which has become so famous it's an installation at every MOIC? Something the brand's 26-year-old founder daydreamed about as a kid.
"I grew up by the ocean and I thought it would be so amazing if the ocean were full of sprinkles and I could swim in them," its creator, Maryellis Bunn, told Forbes last year.
That isn't to say the four locations are carbon copies of one another. Each one is designed a little differently, with rooms - and custom ice cream, because yes, you can actually eat real ice cream there - tailored for each city. Miami has a retro South Beach vibe, complete with a '50s-style diner, key lime pie ice cream (swirled with bits of graham cracker crust, as an homage to the South Florida staple), and a room filled with kinetic pink sand that sticks together. You know, for building on-trend sandcastles two blocks from the actual beach.
As the museum's exploded in growth, it's also had its share of growing pains. They launched the original New York location with a free day to the public - only to find the demand overwhelming, as people camped out for a spot. (Bunn also told Forbes she emailed people who couldn't make it that day and offered them a different day to attend.) The brand was also fined by the city of Miami when people tracked plastic sprinkles onto the sidewalks, becoming a health hazard for birds and other animals. Today, MOIC employees are continuously sweeping up sprinkles so they don't travel outside of the museum's doors.
Those challenges haven't slowed the brand down; the team's already planning museums in other cities, though no locations have officially been announced just yet. For now, the only places to check out the MOIC are its San Francisco and Miami outposts, though the latter's only around until April 29. Both still have tickets available, though, if you're planning a last-minute road trip. After all, you have to go toe-to-diving-board with the sprinkle pool to see what you're truly made of.
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