Herrell’s Ice Cream
46L Gerard St. Huntington, NY 631-673-1100
Rick and Cathy Meuser opened the doors less than two weeks ago to this Huntington Village ice cream parlor, the first non-Massachussets outpost of Herrell’s. The mini-chain was started in 1980 by Steve Herrell — who already had founded (in 1973) and sold (in 1977) Steve’s Ice Cream, acknowledged popularizer of “the smoosh-in.”
Other franchise operations sell ice cream made at — and then shipped from — the mother ship, but each Herrell’s makes its own ice cream in the store.
THE RIGHT STUFF
Although the Meusers serve ice creams crammed with candy bars, cookies and cookie dough, their emphasis is on excellent ingredients and attention to detail. Often, classic flavors are served in multiple iterations — not only vanilla, but malted vanilla (with malt powder) and high-definition vanilla (with even more vanilla flavor). Not to mention sweet cream (even plainer than vanilla) and burned sugar and butter (deeper and stronger). There’s chocolate and chocolate pudding; coffee, cafe au lait, cappuccino and espresso.
THE FIXIN’S
Herrell’s chocolate sprinkles are made of real chocolate — almost unheard of in the world of scoop shops, where sprinkles are, legally speaking, “chocolate flavored.”
And almost as famous as the ice cream is Herrell’s hot fudge, which also can be bought in jars. That first weekend, said Rick Meuser, “a guy saw the awning, came in and bought out our entire stock of the original flavor.”
Hours: Noon-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; Noon-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Credit cards: Accepted
