Ice Screamin' for Dessert Now
Owner Sandy Nassau (right) with his son Jarrett,15, at Ice Screamin' for Dessert Now in Bellmore on July 15, 2009. ( Newsday / Erica Marcus ) ltc Credit: Newsday/Newsday / Erica Marcus
Once a systems guy, always a systems guy. Sandy Nassau had a career in information technology (Fortunoff, Toys R Us) before opening Bellmore's Ice Screamin' a year ago. Now, he uses his organizational training to bring order to his inventory of homemade ice cream, ice cream cakes, gelato and sorbetto - as well as Carlo's Italian ices.
Nassau breaks his flavors down into four categories: basics (e.g., chocolate, vanilla), his creations (he is particularly proud of a strawberry-merlotsorbetto), his 15-year-old son Jarret's creations (chocolate-peanut-butter-cup, Rolo-caramel-swirl) and customer creations (mocha-chocolate-chip).
Nassau also has made an informal study of ice-cream customers versus gelato customers. "Kids 14 and under get ice cream, with two exceptions," he said. "If they've been to Italy or they like to copy their parents, they get gelato."
Seniors want ice cream. Moreover, they favor three specific flavors: maple walnut, butter pecan and rum raisin.
Nassau's "target gelato audience" is adults 18 to 49, and he tempts these customers with an extremely well-crafted product. His three favorite gelati are chocolate-hazelnut, cappuccino, and an extraordinary pistachio.
Ice cream has brought out the artist in Nassau, who was never much of a cook or baker. He can be found tinkering with the percentages of different vanilla flavorings or making his own chocolate shards (instead of using commercial chips), or using a plastic "comb" to make the distinctive wave pattern on a tub of gelato.
With his Stoelting by Telme vertical batch freezer and his Toshiba laptop,Nassau is a systems operator whose systems are all go.
--Erica Marcus
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