New Yorkers bracing for the year’s first major heat wave can now turn to sesame bagels and chocolate babka for cooling relief.
Russ & Daughters and Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, two hip New York eateries, are teaming up to create three unique ice cream treats inspired by Russ & Daughters’ most beloved Jewish classics: halvah, bagels and babka.
Announced on Tuesday, the collaboration, which was “years in the making” according to the Morgenstern’s website, will last all summer and includes a sesame bagel ice cream sandwich, a halvah ice cream bar and a chocolate babka ice cream pop.
The sesame bagel ice cream sandwich is made up of cream cheese ice cream sandwiched between two sesame cookies.
The halvah ice cream bar is inspired by Russ & Daughters’ seven-layer halvah dessert and is made with a layer of chocolate ice cream, a layer of chocolate fudge and a layer of halvah ice cream and is dipped in dark chocolate.
The babka ice cream pop is made with a babka ice cream flavor, dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with toasted babka crumbs.
Each dessert will be available for $8 starting on Tuesday at Morgenstern’s location on Houston Street in Greenwich Village as well as three Russ & Daughter locations — on Houston, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard location and at Hudson Yards.
The treats are also available for nationwide shipping through Morgenstern’s website, where anyone in the country can order a box that includes two of each treat for $110.
Russ & Daughters was founded in 1914 by Joel Russ, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who began peddling a pushcart on the Lower East Side in 1904. The appetizing stores, known for its lox, whitefish, herring, spreads, schmears and now its bagels and baked goods, moved to its Houston Street location in 1920. Russ passed the store down to his daughters Hattie, Ida and Anne and now the store is run by fourth-generation owners Josh Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman, who have expanded the store’s locations to a sit-down cafe on Orchard Street and appetizing counters in Hudson Yards and Brooklyn’s Navy Yard.
Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream was opened in 2014 by Nicholas Morgenstern, a pastry chef who opened the small-batch ice cream store with a focus on unique flavors — like babka and halvah, it seems. The ice cream shop, which is located in Greenwich Village, also sells flavors like Vietnamese Coffee and Dulce De Leche Graham Cracker. The ice-cream shop also operates Morgenstern’s Bananas, a spin-off dairy-free soft serve shop, in the Lower East Side.
