Brooklyn Nibbles: Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (Sort of) Open in Greenpoint

We wandered into the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory's new location on Commercial Street in Greenpoint over the weekend and ice cream maker Mark Thompson giving away mini-cones of all his flavors. The shop, which is at 97 Commercial Street (at the end of Manhattan Avenue) has been open since Memorial Day Weekend, in fact, with the maker of what we think is Brooklyn's best ice cream giving out free samples. There are until some license issues left over from the previous tenant of the space, Bleu Drawes, that are being hammered out. Mr. Thompson told us he decided that he'd rather give away his ice cream than pay a lawyer to expedite the solution.

Regardless, if you've ever wanted to get some free Brooklyn Ice Cream factory ice cream without waiting in a line and with a chance to get into a discussion with Mr. Thompson about how he practices his craft, this was your chance. We learned, for instance, about the machine that Mr. Thompson uses (it's the best on the market, he says, and he can fix it quickly if it breaks), the shockingly high cost of vanilla extract (it was $257 a gallon a couple of years ago and now it's $58 a gallon), the farms from which he purchases his fruit and the fact that his turbinado sugar comes from a distributor on Kent Avenue that handles most of the country's turbinado sugar. We sniffed vanilla and the sugar. And, we sample his vanilla chocolate chunk, chocolate chocolate chunk and peach ice creams.

And, all we had planned to do was go in to buy a dish of ice cream without standing in the twenty minute line you find at the original Brooklyn spot.

The Greenpoint branch of the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory will be open from 3-9PM, Thursday through Sunday at the outset. Mr. Thompson plans to use the new space to expand the number of flavors that he can offer and to make ice cream cakes. (His ice cream is also being sold in the food court at the Aviator Sports Complex at Floyd Bennett Field.) He'll also have a crepe cart outside in the future. A tremendous amount of work went into prepping the lovely space, which now has exposed brick walls, and will allow Mr. Thompson to expand far beyond what he's able to do at his Fulton Ferry Landing space, which he says he's outgrown.

Mr. Thompson told GL that he hopes to open three new locations over the next two years. (Alas, they are all outside of Brooklyn--in the Bronx, Staten Island and New Jersey.) The space next to the new ice cream store will be used to serve food. There are several possibilities, including one that would send a buzz through the Brooklyn foodie world. We won't jinx anything for Mr. Thompson, but will say that it's someone who is loved by a lot of people for his contributions for Brooklyn cuisine.

The new Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory outpost should open for real business on Thursday.