Eats
Chelsea Market doubling lower level
BY GABE HERMAN
Chelsea Market is going low —
as in, expanding its lower level
with nearly twice as much space
and four new vendors.
Chelsea Local, Chelsea Market’s lower
level, opened in 2017, focusing on
specialty groceries and locally sourced
foods. The space — part of the overall
market at Ninth Ave. and W. 15th St. —
will nearly double in size this fall from
13,000 to 25,000 square feet. New
shops will start opening next month.
The new vendors include Black Seed
Bagels, which will open an expanded
shop, Black Seed Appetizing, featuring
more menu items. There will also be the
upscale bakery Las Delicias Patisserie,
opening its fi rst brick and mortar; all of
the shop’s items will be kosher and vegetarian,
made with local ingredients,
without preservatives.
The owners of Pearl River Mart on
Soho ice cream museum gets cool reception
BY GABE HERMAN
Here’s the scoop! Soho will be
getting more chill this fall when
the Museum of Ice Cream
opens on Broadway.
The museum’s home will be a
25,000-square-foot building at 558
Broadway, between Prince and Spring
Sts. Founded more than three years
ago, the museum, which focuses on
experience-based installations, has had
pop-ups in several locations around the
country. The fi rst of these was in the
Meatpacking District in the summer
of 2016. The Soho building will be its
second permanent location, after one in
San Francisco.
The Soho museum will have 13 installations
for visitors to peruse and
presumably take plenty of Instagramworthy
photos of. One installation will
be called “Celestial Subway,” and there
will be a three-story slide and a “hall of
giant scoops,” according to a recent announcement.
The museum will also feature its signature
pool of rainbow sprinkles for visitors
to take a dip in. The sprinkles pool
was actually a catalyst for the museum’s
concept: Maryellis Bunn, the place’s cofounder
and creative director, dreamed
as a child of being able to jump into a
pool of sprinkles.
“MOIC NYC is a dream that our team
has been developing for 3 years,” Bunn
said. “Over 1.5 million guests have come
through our various doors and given us
so much input and inspiration. I want to
Chelsea Local is on the lower level of Chelsea Market.
COURTESY MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM
The Museum of Ice Cream will
be opening a new location at 558
Broadway in Soho.
continue to connect people and create
moments of joy through ice cream.”
Bunn added of the new local location,
that it “will build upon Soho’s artistic
history and contribute to the neighborhood’s
resurgence as a place for imagination
and creativity.”
Immersive ice cream experiences
don’t come cheap, though. Tickets will
be $38 per person. Admission includes
ice cream tastings and other treats exclusive
to the museum.
“We are excited to delight our fans
back where MOIC began and continue
to unite people through the power of
COURTESY CHELSEA MARKET
ice cream,” said co-founder Manish
Vora. “MOIC NYC is the fi rst of several
fl agship locations that will launch
in the U.S. and abroad over the next 18
months.”
An opening date for this fall hasn’t
been announced, but tickets will go on
sale Oct. 9. People can also sign up for a
waitlist for early access to the museum.
More information can be found at museumofi
cecream.com.
However, some in Soho are giving
the cold shoulder to the new ice cream
institution, and are concerned, especially,
about it possibly having a liquor
license.
This April, the Museum of Ice Cream
was denied a liquor license for its San
Francisco location. The space was reportedly
looking to serve wine and beer,
including with the option of sweet toppings.
But the city’s Board of Supervisors
denied the request, writing that the
liquor license “will not serve the public
convenience or necessity of the City and
County of San Francisco.”
When the museum was asked about
whether there are plans for selling alcohol
at the Soho location, a spokesperson
didn’t say one way or the other, writing
back, “We’re always working on exciting
new projects and have big plans,
however, don’t have any details to share
at this time.”
But Sean Sweeney, director of the
Soho Alliance, said he believes a liquor
license application for the place will be
coming up before Community Board 2.
He said he had expected the issue to be
Chelsea Market’s ground fl oor will
open an Asian grocery store in Chelsea
Local. Called Pearl River Mart Foods,
it will sell frozen and dry goods, plus
prepared foods like rice bowls and bao
buns. Butcher Dickson’s Farmstand
Meats, on Chelsea Market’s ground
fl oor since 2010, will move into a larger
space in Chelsea Local. Dickson’s sells
artisanal meats from small farms in
Upstate New York.
“Chelsea Local continues Chelsea
Market’s legacy as a neighborhood market
with a global perspective,” said Michael
Phillips, president of Jamestown,
the market’s operator. “We’re proud to
be adding to our lineup of local vendors
and to offer an increased benefi t to our
neighbors and community.”
Other Chelsea Local vendors include
Manhattan Fruit Market, Buon Italia,
Saxelby Cheesemongers and Zach &
Zoe Sweet Bee Farm. There will also
be a new W. 15th St. direct entrance.
on the September calendar, but it isn’t
there, so it may have been held over until
October.
“I do know the neighbors had serious
concerns,” Sweeney said, regarding the
possibility of a liquor license.
Sweeney noted that the museum
would have to meet the requirement
for the license by showing that it would
serve the public interest.
“I’d love to hear the applicants wangle
their way around that,” he said.
“The applicant is being disingenuous. If
this marketing idea is to return to childhood,
why do they need booze?
“I am really piqued that this venture
would sully the creative legacy of
Soho with inane marketing comments,”
Sweeney added, citing the co-founder
referencing the area’s artistic history
and saying the museum would add to
the enclave’s resurgence. “How? By
‘kidults’ sliding into a pool of plastic
sprinkles?” he scoffed. “If this operation
is so concerned about Soho’s history,
why are they painting their facade
that awful pink color, not at all appropriate
for a historic district.”
The museum also got in trouble last
year for its “sprinkles” clinging to people’s
clothing and ultimately piling up
in storm drains. Fines ensued in Miami
and San Francisco. MOIC has said it
has since fi xed the problem.
“If a liberal, anything-goes city like
San Francisco has serious problems
with this enterprise,” Sweeney of the
museum, “I’d be very reluctant to give
this concept any support here.”
Schneps Media TVG September 5, 2019 21
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