Ample Hills Creamery: The Best Ice Cream In LA

This location is permanently closed 🙁 The good news is you can still enjoy their delicious ice cream at the 2ND & PCH outdoor mall in Long Beach!

One of the many summers I spent in New York, my mom’s acquaintance took me to Brooklyn to have, as she said in her own words, “the best ice cream of my life”. We made the trek from the Upper East Side to Brooklyn on the subway and walked a few blocks. The ice cream parlor was jam-packed with people in a never-ending line – it was a hot July summer day in New York. A month ago, I was driving on a gloomy Saturday afternoon in Los Feliz when I came across the very same Ample Hills Ice cream sign which immediately took me back to that day. It was the same place my mom’s acquaintance had taken me many years ago. I’ve known this woman since I was 2 years old. She’s a New Yorker and has lived in the city for almost 30 years. Just like me, she’s a foodie and loves trying out new places in the city, so if she took me all the way there out of Manhattan, it must have been for a really good reason, and trust me, it didn’t disappoint. 

In October 2018, Ample Hills Creamery opened their first ever West Coast location, making this the 12^th. Can you believe 10 of their locations are in New York City? The other two are in New Jersey and Orlando, Florida. Their ice creams sell in NY like hotcakes. 

History

Ample Hills creamery was founded in the Spring of 2011 by Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna in Brooklyn, NY. This mom-and-pop creamery has been praised by countless critics and celebrities like Oprah.

Their tasty and creative flavors, their family approach and old-fashioned way of making ice cream have garnered multiple accolades. According to CBSnews.com, Disney’s CEO Bob Iger loved it so much that he teamed up with the Ample Hills Creamery crew to open up a store in Disney’s Orlando resort. 

Since that summer, they have expanded to more locations in New York. In October 2018, they opened their 12^thstore in the trendy hipster neighborhood of Los Feliz, which could be considered the Brooklyn of LA. 

Brian and Jackie really nailed the location. They took advantage of the Craftsman bungalow style house that is so conspicuous in this part of Los Angeles. You walk up the ramp to the front porch and as soon as you open the door, you’re welcomed into ice cream heaven. The inside of the place is so spacious that it even has a very ample indoor seating area. 

Raise your hand if you’re the world’s most indecisive person ever when you’re facing a bunch of unusual ice cream flavors! It takes me forever to pick a flavor that will be the perfect choice. I frequent the same ice cream parlors and trust me, no matter how many times I venture out in search of a new favorite flavor, I always keep going back to same ones.

Ample Hills Creamery might have changed that for me. I’ve been back a few more times and I was smitten with every sample I tried. You can’t go wrong with any of the choices. 

All the ice cream flavors are super creamy and rich in flavor. I can’t quite put into words what makes each flavor so unique. They have the perfect combination of sweet and salty flavors AND, they have a bunch of vegan flavors as well! 

Another reason to love Ample Hills Creamery is how genius their creative marketing is. To celebrate the 90^thanniversary of Mickey Mouse, they partnered with Disney and launched three exclusive flavors. Here are the flavors. They’re constantly reinventing themselves by creating new non-traditional flavors. They released one specifically for the LA location called “Beneath las Estrellas”, which has an horchata base and is a nod to the nearby landmark, Griffith Observatory. They even released a Royal Wedding flavor in May 2018 to commemorate the wedding between Meghan Markle and Price Harry called “God Save The Cream“. This was a collaborative process in which the Ample Hills Creamery team invited fans to submit an ice cream flavor inspired by the wedding. Do you seriously need more reasons to try out Ample Hills Creamery?

Remember when Gilmore Girls made a comeback on Netflix in 2016? Yep, they didn’t miss that one either.

Every June, Ample Hills releases their Pride Month flavor called “Baby, I Was Churned This Way”.

On my first time, I wasn’t super hungry so I ordered a small cup with two flavors: Rice Krispy Cream and Ooey Gooey Buttercake. The sales assistant couldn’t have been nicer and he might as well have given me one whole scoop of each, because it was gigantic. The second time I tried out their Pistachio ice cream. It is hands-down the best pistachio ice cream you’ll ever eat. If you’ve never had it, you have to!

All the employees are super welcoming, truly embracing the spirit that Brian and Jackie wanted to transmit.  

I loved sitting in one of the chairs peacefully eating the ice cream without facing people standing in line. I don’t know about you, but I hate when I go to get ice cream with friends and either we have to squeeze ourselves in one of the small benches, which we rarely do, or get the hell out of there and walk on the street. You just want to get your ice cream and get away from the tumultuous crowd.  

At Ample Hills, eating your ice cream will be completely different. The cozy homey atmosphere and the inviting space provide you with a relaxed experienced where you can enjoy the passing cars of Hillhurst Avenue and the beautiful cottage surroundings like the green grass and the ice cream themed cornhole game. The porch swing was the cherry on top. 

LA is understandably one of the most competitive cities for any type of business but given the weather, especially for ice cream. With this being said and taking into account how spoiled we are in LA, I don’t think Angelenos will give up their favorite go-to places like Salt and Straw in Venice, where there’s an ever-present line on the weekends, to come here. In this area of Los Feliz, more ice cream joints can be found up the street like Jenni’s, which is another staple in LA. Ample Hills Creamery will not have the same groundbreaking effect in LA as it had in NY, especially if you don’t go to New York and are completely unaware of Ample Hills Creamery. 

NY-based businesses are tricky to expand in LA. For instance, look no further than By Chloe, which I wrote about here. This vegan fast-food restaurant is a hit in NYC with four fancy locations in Manhattan. They opened in LA not too long ago in the food court section of Whole Foods in Silverlake, where you eat facing the strip mall parking lot and the checkout conveyor belt area inside. The eating experience is very lackluster. 

I very rarely buy ice cream pints for myself and when I do, I have to refrain from eating the whole pint in one sitting lol. So the only time I get ice cream is when I’m out and about on the weekends, where I allow myself to indulge in ice cream in limited doses. I don’t live too far from Los Feliz, so you can bet I’ll be going there often! 

If you live far and don’t frequent Los Feliz at all, try to get as many samples as you can when you go. They offer unlimited samples so you can get a good taste of their spectrum of flavors. 

The address is 1824 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027. There’s also plenty of free parking in the back!

For more info, visit the website.

What’s your go-to ice cream place in Los Angeles?