Deep Freeze To Heat Up Sweet Sales?

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When you order ice cream at Beverly Hills’ Ice Cream Lab, it isn’t scooped it out of a frozen tub – it’s flash frozen in front of your eyes, complete with dry-ice-like fog befitting a true laboratory.

The new ice-cream parlor makes each treat to order, starting with a milk-based liquid that’s blasted by medical-grade liquid nitrogen, which gets colder than minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit.

“It’s a true made-to-order experience,” said co-founder Joseph Lifschutz, 25. “There are no preservatives or anything bad for you, relatively speaking. What you see is what you get.”

He and childhood friend Tommy Ngan, 26, decided to open the new concept dessert store, the first of its kind in Los Angeles, after Ngan discovered such shops in Hong Kong last year.

Ice Cream Lab, scheduled to have opened last Friday, will have four staple flavors: apple pie, pretzel and caramel, brownie and blue velvet cupcake, each built on a vanilla base. Two rotating seasonal flavors, beginning with berry tart and popcorn, will also be on the menu. It’s not cheap: Scoops start at $5.

The ice cream begins as an organic milk base that is poured into a stand-up mixer. Once the mixer is turned on, a small tube pumps the liquid nitrogen over the top of the bowl, creating a dry-ice-like fog that pours up and out. A minute later, the fog dissipates and reveals ice cream. The preparer mixes in any additional ingredients and serves the treat, which has the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.

Lest one worry that liquid nitrogen touching your food is dangerous, Lifschutz and Ngan claim it’s perfectly safe.

“Nitrogen is in the air we breathe,” Ngan said. “And the nitrogen (the shop uses) evaporates before we serve it.”

The pair is self-funding the shop at 9461 S. Santa Monica Blvd. from savings from previous jobs and sales of stock. They would not disclose startup costs, but said if they franchised the brand, the buy-in would be between $300,000 and $450,000.

The pair also plans to operate an ice-cream truck, dubbed Lab Mobile, this summer and expand the store to other parts of the Westside, beginning with a new location at the end of the year if the flagship takes off.

– Jacquelyn Ryan