Much of what these businesses offer is different from the malt-shop model of yesteryear. “I don’t think it’s a big surprise that we also have some amazing local artisanal ice cream brands.” really in the past five or 10 years has been at the forefront of the food scene and food culture in this country,” Brooks said. Smorgasburg General Manager Zach Brooks credits this explosion of ice cream businesses to an increasing sophistication in consumer food habits, along with improvements in access and quality of ingredients and the city’s thriving mix of different cultures. They are staking a claim in an increasingly competitive marketplace and are contributing to a nationwide industry that generates $13.1 billion in gross sales and other economic output and provides more than 26,000 direct jobs generating $1.6 billion in direct wages, according to the International Dairy Foods Association.ĭowntown Los Angeles’ open-air food market Smorgasburg LA held its fifth annual “Ice Cream Alley,” a curated lineup of local ice cream and sweet treat businesses, from July 18 through Sept. While a handful of local ice cream-makers have a longstanding presence, such as Mashti Malone’s, which opened its doors in 1980, several are less than a decade old. The Business Journal estimates there are more than 50 local ice cream businesses headquartered in Los Angeles, a figure that excludes chains that do big business here but are headquartered elsewhere, such as Santa Barbara-based McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Columbus, Ohio-based Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams Portland, Ore.-based Salt & Straw and, of course, Baskin-Robbins, which moved its headquarters to Canton, Mass., in 2004. The industry has since become a bustling community with a wide variety of offerings that are scooped and sold locally and nationally. In Los Angeles, there’s always room for ice cream.īy the time brothers-in-law Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins founded the multinational brand Baskin-Robbins by merging their Glendale ice cream parlors in 1948, the frozen treat was already a modest staple of L.A. Natasha Case cofounded Culver City-based Coolhaus in 2009.
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