Craveology opens in Centereach

A trio of brothers who got their start working on Mister Softee ice cream trucks has opened Craveology, a sugar-soaked fever dream for ice cream and carb lovers alike in Centereach.

Besides soft serve, Craveology has a well of hard scoop ice cream flavors plus a drool-worthy menu of treats like crepe and waffle sundaes. Even more notable are the ice cream-stuffed croissant sandwiches. Try the Reese’s version, filled with your choice of ice cream, then loaded with chopped Reese’s candy bars, Nutella, chocolate and caramel drizzles, and Reese’s chunks ($14). There are doughnuts swirled high with soft serve alongside flavor shots and cookie crumbles. The most popular menu item is a Biscoff cookie crumb pile served atop a hot glazed doughnut ($12) with vanilla swirl, an actual injection of caramel sweetness, and a rectangular Lotus Biscoff cookie popping out from underneath.

"We spent four or five months on these recipes," said Bilal Inayat, who opened the shop with his brothers, Hassan Inayat and Daniel Liaqat. "We don't see a lot of desserts like ours. Sure, Carvel has soft serve, but you don't have desserts at Carvel, you just have the ice cream."

Classic shakes are served in creative flavors like birthday cake — made of fresh, spongy cake squares and a healthy dose of rainbow sprinkles — Dubai chocolate, s’mores and strawberry shortcake. A brownie a la mode seems ordinary in comparison to the shop's melts ($10), which include lava cake and cinnamon roll options served beside soft serve or scoops. Plain cups and cones start at $5. For those who are just thirsty: coffee, hot or iced, and, somewhat randomly, Sprite or Red Bull mocktail mojitos ($7 and $9).

The brothers were lamenting the state of the ice cream truck in these Door Dash-driven times when they decided to pair their soft serve background with the over-the-top Instagram-worthy desserts that ultimately make up the menu at the store, a large exposed-brick space peopled with groups of friends on a recent Thursday evening.

"We’d seen soft serve on waffles, but never with crepes, a croissant, or a doughnut as the base," Inayat said. It’s been just over six months since taking over the lease to the space and opening, officially, last month. "I think of this shop as our first Cold Stone [Creamery]," Inayat said. "Cold Stone, Carvel — all of them started off with one store."

Craveology, 1759 Middle Country Rd., Centereach, 631-285-2039, craveologyny.com; Open daily from 2 p.m. to midnight.