Beginnings Bar & Restaurant in Atlantic Beach launches spiked ice-cream cart
Beginnings Bar & Restaurant in Atlantic Beach launches spiked ice-cream cart. Credit: Michelle Nicolo
Fans of Beginnings Bar & Restaurant in Atlantic Beach know Ben Freiser didn’t need a pandemic to hit in order to spark creativity, but it sure did help.
The literary-themed restaurant partnered with Brooklyn-based Tipsy Scoop’s ice cream at the start of COVID-19, first bringing in three freezer fulls in his then-closed dining room. Once indoor dining was reinstated during Phase 3, the freezers moved out back. Soon after, Freiser got a call.
"Tipsy Scoops called and said, ‘we have this cart and with everything going on, it’s being underutilized. If we sent it to you would you be able to use it?’ So I said sure," he said of his newly-launched street cart.
From the cart, customers can purchase boozy ice cream by the pint ($12) in flavors like spiced spiked pumpkin pie, hot buttered rum, whiskey salted caramel and vanilla bean bourbon. There’s also ice cream sandwiches ($9, or $42 for a six pack). Among those flavors — Hocus Pocus (spiked spice pumpkin ice cream sandwiched between two ginger white raisin cookies) and Holdy Boldy’s Birthday (cake batter vanilla martini ice cream sandwiched between two funfetii cookies). Inside, customers can order ice-cream infused cocktails.
With that, Freiser launched cocktail kits for $65, with four varieties available. Pucker Up includes two pints of Tipsy Scoop ice cream, mango margarita sorbet, two cans of Montauk watermelon beer, sour candies and two pairs of heart sunglasses. The other creations are just as fun — Birthday Babe, Be My Pumpkin and Up All Night.
The plan is to keep the cart around year-round and to switch up its themes are the holidays and seasons change. When the weather is cooperating, the products normally sold at the cart can be purchased inside.
There is currently indoor and outdoor seating (on the front patio and on the side of the restaurant in a tiki -like hut) available. It’s
Beginnings is open 2-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, noon-10 p.m. Saturdays and noon-9 p.m. Sundays at 1986 Park St. in Atlantic Beach. 516-239-7483, beginningsrestaurant.com.
