Crème & Cocoa Creamery
The call of Mister Softee is strong in the Brooklyn summer, but for more interesting frozen treats, head to Crème & Cocoa Creamery. Owned by husband-and-wife team Omar and Astrid Thorpe, the Flatbush parlor scoops nuanced, all-natural ice cream and sorbet in flavors inspired by the Caribbean and Central America. Think rum raisin, coconut ginger, papaya, mango-passionfruit, soursop and tres leches. “These are everyday flavors that we eat and drink on a daily basis, or stuff that we grew up with,” says Astrid, a first-generation American whose parents are from Haiti, while Omar was born in Panama. “Why not make them into ice cream?”
The Thorpes opened the shop last summer, after a previous business, a café, shuttered. For their second entrepreneurial go-round, they decided to take Omar’s homemade ice cream-making hobby to the pro level. Several workshops and classes (and much practice) later, Crème and Cocoa Creamery was born.
Crème and Cocoa Creamery is open daily, but on weekends Omar and Astrid work events at other community organizations, from the Weeksville Heritage Center to the Afro Latino Festival. However, they sometimes face the frustrating accusation that their business is for neighborhood newcomers and not folks from Flatbush. “I’m a product of this neighborhood; I went to public schools in the neighborhood,” says Omar, who has encountered skepticism for bringing something new to his community. “At the end of the day, you gotta keep pushing forward with what you want. Ice cream’s for everyone, and this place is welcome to everyone in the community.”
With constantly rotating flavors — about 16 daily, including at least four vegan options — you’ll want to revisit Crème and Cocoa throughout the summer to try them all. Popular with the grown-up crowd are their boozy selections, such as piña colada vegan ice cream, strawberry Moscato sorbet, Hennessy caramel and Guinness stout dark cocoa chip, with coquito ice cream available during the holiday season. Last week we tried their intensely aromatic sorrel sorbet, banana pudding ice cream made with Caribbean vanilla and fresh bananas, and deeply chocolate stout cocoa chip ice cream.
“At the end of the day, you gotta keep pushing forward with what you want. Ice cream’s for everyone, and this place is welcome to everyone in the community.”
Despite their wide variety, Astrid and Omar are nowhere near finished dreaming up new concoctions. “I would love to make a Mauby sorbet,” Astrid says, referring to a Caribbean tree bark-based beverage. “I also wouldn’t mind making a flan ice cream. If it’s something that people in the community are used to, then we’ll make those flavors.”
1067 Nostrand Avenue, 718-245-6286, cremeandcocoa.com
