Food & Drink

Wild, pricey popsicles are the cool new trend in NYC fine dining

By
Hailey Eber
Published July 16, 2024, 3:57 p.m. ET

Fine-dining and popsicles might seem like an awkward union, but at trendy restaurants across the city, chefs are serving frozen desserts on a stick.

“Everybody’s doing popsicles,” said Jing Wen Ng, the chef de cuisine at Nōksu (49 W. 32nd St., Koreatown, NoksuNYC.com), a 15-seat chef’s counter.

She serves a haute pop as a palate-cleansing “pre-dessert” on the 11-course, $195 tasting menu at the restaurant, which was opened by a Per Se alum last fall in the 32nd Street entrance of the Herald Square subway station.

Nōksu is serving fine-dining popsicles.
Nōksu is serving fine-dining popsicles. Stefano Giovannini

“It’s an unexpected dish,” said Ng. “I don’t think [people] expect to be served a popsicle in a fine dining-tasting menu setting.

But, it’s not just any old pop from the ice box. It has a traditional shape, but the flavors — verjus, shiso and kaffir lime — take it up several notches. the popsicle is plated in a small pool of Yakult, an Asian yogurt drink, and garnished with bronze fennel, lemon balm and cilantro flowers.

“It’s very summery,” said Ng.

Here are five other elevated options for keeping you cool this summer.

Corn Oksusu Popsicle

$11 at NARO Terrace, 610 5th Ave., Rockefeller Center, Midtown, NaroNYC.com

Corn Okusu popsicle on white plate, marble counter at NARO.
At NARO terrace, ice cream is molded into the shape of a corn cob for a unique frozen treat. Dan Ahn

At NARO, the upscale Korean restaurant in Rockefeller Center from the team behind Atomix — the highest ranked restaurant in NYC on the “World’s 50 Best List” — the tasting menu in the main dining room runs $165. But at the more casual outdoor terrace, you can get a Korean fried chicken sandwich ($16) topped with Amber Kaluga caviar ($28) and finish the meal with a dessert on a stick.

Pastry chef Luke Deardurff has had various flavors on the menu and the current variety is delicious Instagram bait: Sweet corn ice cream with a savory corn-jam swirl that’s molded into the shape of an ear of corn. The same mold is used to make a corn cookie that is charred. There’s also a hit of chocolate ganache.

“It is pure summertime,” enthuses Deardurff, a self-described “white boy from Ohio.” He’s been thrilled to see the dessert connect with everyone from Midwestern tourists to visitors and colleagues from Korea, where corn is quite popular in various forms, including a pre-packaged ice cream sandwich flecked with kernels.

Kulfi Pops

$16 at Junoon, 19 W. 24th St., JunoonNYC.com

Junoon kulfi pops in a wooden board atop a wooden table.
Junoon’s kulfi pops are served on a beautiful, specially designed wooden board. Eric Medsker/ Junoon

At the acclaimed upscale modern Indian restaurant, diners can close out their meal with a refreshing sampler of the frozen Indian dessert known as kulfi.

Pastry chef Gustavo Tzoc makes them in four flavors: Alphonso mango, rose petal, ube (purple yam) and saffron-cardamon.

They’re served on beautiful wooden boards — “they’re like a tapestry” — custom-made for the purpose. “I cannot take them off the menu,” Tzoc said of the popular pops. “There would be a revolt.”

Gola

$14 at Jazba, 207 2nd Ave., East Village, JazbaNYC.com

A hand applies green flavoring to the gola pop at Jazba.
Diners get to apply the flavoring themselves to the gola at Jazba. Alex Lau/ Jazba

Jazba, a more casual spot from the Junoon team that opened last fall in the old Momofuku Ssam space, recently added a frozen dessert to its menu.

Instead of kulfi, it’s a gola — a treat made by compressing finely shaved ice into a popsicle form.

“It feels like snow. We use a [hand-cranked] machine that we brought from India,” said Tzoc, who draws parallels between the dessert and treats served in Guatemala, where he’s from. The gola is presented unadorned with four small squeeze bottles of syrups — in flavors ranging from black plum to rose — that diners get to apply themselves.

Ice Cream Truck-Inspired

Strawberry shortcake popsicle at Press Club Grill.
The Press Club Grill serves a riff on a strawberry shortcake Good Humor bar. Dillon Burke

$16 at The Press Club Grill, 1262 Broadway, Koreatown, PressClubGrill.com

At Franklin Becker’s new Italian-influenced steakhouse, one of the desserts takes it inspiration from the strawberry shortcake Good Humor bars that Becker grew up eating in Brooklyn.

Strawberry sorbet and sweet cream ice cream are coated in a nostalgic cookie crumble. “[We] took the Strawberry Shortcake to new heights,” said Becker. “Whenever you can evoke memories of childhood on the dessert menu, it’s a great thing.”

Paleta cocktails

$19 at El Lugar Cantina, 30 W. 30th St., Chelsea, ElLugarCantina.com

A hand holds a mango cocktail with popsicle in front of the bar at El Lugar Cantina.
Boozy popsicles are on the menu at El Lugar Cantina. El Lugar Cantina

At the festive El Lugar, which opened early this year, the popsicles are especially adult. Mexican-style paletas, made in collaboration with popular dessert company La Newyorkina, come in flavors such as rum-coconut and spicy tequila-mango, and they’re served in boozy, coordinating cocktails, such as a boozy mango nectar-and-tequila concoction (above).