Brain Freeze For All

Is ice cream the new “slice” of our towns? With the recent opening of , Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow now boast five shops dedicated to ice cream in its various forms, equal to the number of pizza places per capita. You’ve got on the river, in Sleepy Hollow, on Main,  by the ounce, and now hard hailing from New Jersey.

Brain Freeze owner, Bob Kovanes, also commuting from NJ, shrugged off any concern over the competition or the saturation of the market. Is there ever such a thing as too much ice cream? “They're yogurt and we’re ice cream,” he simply said of his closest chilly neighbor, Yogo Berry.

When we talked to him in his vibrantly painted shop – rivaled only by the colors in the freezer cases – Kovanes was contemplating how to decorate one blank wall and handing out sample spoonfuls of such flavors as “sweet corn” and “green tea” to eager customers. You won’t find anyone complaining around here.

When we wondered how he will fare in the off-months – ice cream, after all, is more seasonal than pizza – Kovanes cited his birthday cakes and other addictive treats that would keep people coming year round. The menu includes Italian specialities like spumoni, tartufo, tortoni, as well as the signature Brain Freeze soft-serve mixed with toppings.

A 20-year franchisee veteran, Kovanes ventured out on his own three months ago when he opened his first Brain Freeze in New Milford, NJ. Now, in the former digs of Baskin-Robbins, comes his second shop. The 32 flavors of ice cream served in any shape and form here (from cones and sundaes to cakes and sandwiches), is crafted by a third-generation Newark family, the Nasto’s, who have been making “old world” hard ice cream since 1939.

The most important question had come. After several samples, what flavor would we finally choose? Peach yogurt, cantaloupe, cotton candy, cake batter, pina colada, black cherry, rum raisin, white chocolate macadamia? The mouth waters. Surely, we will have to return again.

“If you give the people a good product and a good experience at a good price, they’ll come back,” Kovanes says.