One of Westchester County’s newer—and premium—ice cream shops is Bluebird Homemade Ice Cream (19 N Salem Rd, Cross River; Facebook: Bluebird NY), a made-on-premises scoop shop owned by John Jay High School Spanish teacher Barbara Kessler.
Kessler’s son, Josh Kessler-Reynolds, owns Bluebird Microcreamery—which MSN rated as a top 10 boutique ice cream maker in the country—in Seattle’s Capitol Hill section. “My son taught me everything I know.” The two most important things she learned about making a superlative ice cream? “Use all-natural ingredients and a batch freezer,” she says. “Most ice-cream machines pump air into the product; this particular batch freezer does not; thus the ice cream is dense and creamy.”
Bedford residents and actors Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have been in to try some of Kessler’s handiwork, which includes 20 to 25 rotating flavors: Stumptown coffee (bestseller!); salted caramel; chocolate pudding; chocolate chocolate chunk; snickerdoodle; chocolate hazelnut swirl; triple berry (blueberry, raspberry, marionberry); peanut butter; pistachio; and oatmeal cookies and cream. A scoop is $3.75; additional scoops are $2 each; a pint is $7.50.
The cash-only ice cream shop serves Portland, Oregon-based Stumptown coffee; Kessler gets her beans from the company’s roaster in Brooklyn, and waffle cones and hot fudge are made in-house. Lactose- and gluten-free flavors are also offered, and Kessler uses a different scoop for each flavor with a thought toward all the nut-allergic children.
Summer Hours: Sun-Thurs, 11:30 am-10 pm; Fri and Sat, 11:30 am-11 pm
Fall to Spring Hours: Mon to Fri, 2:30 9:30 pm; Sat, 11:30 am-9:30 pm; Sun, noon-8 pm
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