Grab your spoons, West Coasters: The Museum of Ice Cream is coming to Los Angeles in March. After opening its doors for a temporary stay in New York City last summer, this sweet attraction sold 30,000 tickets in five days. These East Coast visitors filled their containers with fun in what Los Angeles Magazine calls an “art installation/big kid playground/shrine to frozen dairy.”
The installation, created by creative strategist Maryellis Bunn and former investment banker Manish Vora, is set to land in either Venice Beach or Santa Monica, the Los Angeles Times predicts based on online job postings.
The New York location was a haven for dessert enthusiasts, with attractions like a chocolate-themed room and an ice-cream scoop see-saw. One of the most Instagram-worthy exhibits, an adult-sized sprinkle ball pit, gave visitors the opportunity to roll around in rainbow sprinkles.
Guests could also play with their pallets in a tasting experiment room designed by Irwin Adam Eydelnant, who has a PhD in biomedical engineering and owns the Future Food Studio in Toronto, according to The New York Times. Eydelnant pushed food boundaries in the museum with inventions such as the “miracle berry” candies, which turns the sour taste of a lemon slice placed on a dollop of soft-serve into a sweet taste.
“This is an art installation meets an ice cream shop meets a taste experiment,” he said in a statement to the New York Times.
The Museum of Ice Cream offers a non-traditional twist on ice cream containers and colored spoons, giving frozen treat enthusiasts a hands-on, interactive ice cream experience. Though Los Angeles Magazine wrote that they are not sure whether the new location will boast the same features as the New York museum, they do predict that the neon lights and waffle cone wall will attract L.A. social media mavens.
In fact, the shareable nature of the museum is something the staff seemed to have in mind. In one room of the New York installation, guests could scoop vegetable shortening mixed with sugar into a bowl to contribute to “The World’s Largest Ice Cream Sundae,” according to the New York Times.
When asked about the purpose of scooping shortening rather than actual ice cream, Eyan Edwards, who was in charge of this activity, said to The New York Times, “You know social media. It’s all about the looks.”