CHEERS AND BOOZE (Je & Jo)

My search for the best ice cream in New York continues ….

SADLY, JE & JO IS NOW CLOSED.

There’s a tiny shop called Je & Jo that serves really interesting homemade organic ice cream. I have no idea how I knew it was there since it is nestled deep into west Hell’s Kitchen almost at 11th Avenue. Perhaps I read about it in one of the many food blogs, but I’m not ruling out my impeccable ice cream sniffing nose.

What makes Je & Jo stand out from all the other ice cream companies in the city (aside from its impervious locale) is that they don’t just make ice cream. They make cookie dough ice cream. Every single one of their flavors features a cookie dough mix-in in the center.

And while chocolate chip cookie dough might have been my favorite as a kid, I was relieved to see they offered so much more than that. Here the flavors feature unexpected combinations like a fresh herbal mint with lavender shortbread cookie dough, roasted banana ice cream with peanut butter cookie dough, and spicy cardamom with snickerdoodle cookie dough.

I was having a tough time deciding which I wanted to sample and which I wanted to order, but my plans were soon foiled. Since space is limited, Je & Jo packages each of their orders into cute little sustainable cups. Which means no sampling, no mixing, no time for indecision.

The staff was plenty friendly and did let me sample the Nutella which was just coming out of the ice cream maker in the back (I saw employees diligently packaging it). The texture had not fully set, so it was more like soft serve, but it was quite tasty.

Even though it was a dollar extra, I couldn’t resist ordering the Dark & Stormy, their seasonal boozy flavor (they rotate alcohol-spiked ice creams). In the cup, the ice cream was a little more firm and had the cookie dough mix-in’s in the center. I thought the addition of a ginger lime cookie dough was a nice pairing choice.

Boozy Gosling’s rum hit me on my first taste, but it started mellowing out soon into the creamy spoonfuls. The lime and ginger definitely cut it and started seeping into the ice cream. By the end, I could have been convinced I was eating ginger lime ice cream and the buttery dough pieces had the rum. The flavors married so well together it was hard to tell where one stopped and the other began.

If all of Je & Jo’s ice cream flavors are as inventive and seamlessly thought-out as this one, I just might find myself in no-man’s land Hell’s Kitchen more often.

Is Je & Jo the best ice cream in New York? It’s hard to say without getting a few more samples, but I love the idea and the inventive combinations so they get an 8 out of 10 for now.