Ken Lo and Paul Kim, the boys behind Vendy Award finalist Ice & Vice aren’t kidding when they say their ice cream is experimental. Flavor creations include Movie Night: buttered popcorn, toasted raisin, and dark chocolate flakes; Burning Love: cocoa, milk chocolate, hickory smoke, and Sichuan peppercorn; and Three Little Pigs: salted caramel, bacon butter, and bacon praline. It was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to the ice cream sandwich.
In Ice & Vice’s hands the ice cream sandwich becomes what’s essentially a frozen Mexican hot chocolate. Two disks of dense Mexican chocolate brownies laced with guajillo pepper, black pepper, and cinnamon encase a scoop of “basic b” ice cream. The latter is vanilla with black lava sea salt. You can score an Ice & Vice sammie at LIC Flea on Saturdays and Astoria Flea on Sundays. It’s a decidedly grownup way to commemorate these last waning days of summer.