Cold war: Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory to open across from rival creamery

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is returning to the Fulton Ferry area by summer’s end.

July 16, 2019 Lore Croghan

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory will install a stand where its truck is now parked — just steps away from its former location. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

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The city has made it official: Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is coming back to its home turf at the entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park.

There, the artisanal ice cream maker will face off with Ample Hills Creamery — which took over the Marine Fire Boat Station where Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory’s shop was located for 17 years.

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory had to move out in December because Brooklyn Bridge Park selected Ample Hills Creamery to be the new tenant of the 1920s building, which is located next to the Brooklyn Bridge and gets heavy foot traffic from park visitors.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved the design for Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory’s walk-up stand. It will be made out of a cargo container that will be installed in the parking lot of the restaurant at 14A Old Fulton St.

Here’s what Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory’s stand will look like. Rendering by Edward M. Weinstein Architecture + Planning via the Landmarks Preservation Commission

The ice cream stand will share the site with a restaurant that belongs to River Cafe owner Buzz O’Keeffe. He and Mark Thompson co-own Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

Thompson told the Brooklyn Eagle after the LPC’s vote that he hopes to open the ice cream stand before the end of the summer.

He’s pleased to bring his ice cream shop back to the area.

“I feel like it was a fixture in that neighborhood,” he said. “We’re very comfortable giving people something they’ve had almost 20 years’ exposure to.”

‘I’m really happy to be back’

So what about the potential ice cream war churning on the street? The fire boat station is a 51-second walk from 14A Old Fulton St.

“I’m really happy to be back,” is all Thompson would say.

Here’s Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory co-owner Mark Thompson at right with architect Edward M. Weinstein. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

He said Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory has “a very loyal following” in DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights. He thinks they’ll come buy ice cream at the Old Fulton Street location.

Ample Hills Creamery did not respond to request for comment.

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory was supposed to open its original shop in the Marine Fire Boat Station on Sept. 13, 2001.

The ice cream makers cancelled their launch because of the 9/11 terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center.

They opened in mid-October 2001, when the city was still mourning the lives lost in the attack.

Thompson thinks the ice cream shop gave people a “glimmer” of good news when “all the news was bad,” he said.

The commission was required to pass judgment on Edward M. Weinstein Architecture + Planning’s ice cream stand design because 14A Old Fulton St. is located in the Fulton Ferry Historic District.

So is the Marine Fire Boat Station.

Weinstein said during a presentation before the LPC’s vote that using a repurposed cargo container to build the ice cream stand is a way to “pay homage to the Brooklyn waterfront — which pretty much no longer exists.”

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory has one other shop. It’s in Greenpoint.

Follow reporter Lore Croghan on Twitter.