Salt & Straw’s Ice Cream Palace Arrives in Little Italy

The eagerly-awaited first San Diego scoop shop for Portland’s Salt & Straw Ice Cream has just opened in Little Italy; the 1,350 square-foot ice cream parlor replaces Yogurtland and sits below Prepkitchen on India Street.

The store is currently serving up a set of special holiday flavors, including Gingerbread Cookie Dough and Peppermint Cocoa, that will run until Friday, January 5; replacing them as January’s monthly seasonal offerings will be Salt & Straw’s first all-vegan menu including:

• Happy Birthday Elvis: Made in honor of “the King” to celebrate his birthday on January 8, this flavor features banana coconut ice cream with swirls of marionberry jam, peanut butter fudge and bits of candied coconut that taste just like bacon.
• Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge: This non-dairy ice cream is a combination of hazelnut milk and hazelnut butter with pieces of homemade gluten-free brownies.
• Mint Chip Whoopie Pie: Coconut ice cream gets flavored with freckled chocolate and pure peppermint oil from Seely Farm, with pieces of homemade Whoopie Pie stirred in.
• Candied Mango Faux-yo: This frozen yogurt uses coconut cream, sugar, mango puree, salt, vanilla and green cardamom with candied mango added in for texture and more tropical flavor.
• Modern Times’ Hopped Orange Creamsicle: The local brewery’s barrel-aged Thermometer Island sour saison with cara cara and blood orange is frozen into a bracing and fruity sherbet with the addition of fresh blood orange juice, rosewater, and extra hops.

The vegan flavors will be available until Thursday, February 1 on top of Salt & Straw’s year-round and San Diego-exclusive flavors.