Maryellis Bunn, a 24-year-old Manhattanite, opened the world’s first Museum of Ice Cream on July 29 to provide a safe haven for ice-cream obsessed social media darlings from the heat dome. Bringing in a doctor, who quite literally ate away his Ph.D., and some of the best ice cream to dedicate an entire pop-up to the cool delight only to satisfy a childhood dream, she must be in a sense kidding, but she’s in NYC. All 30,000 tickets to the museum, in the shadows of the Whitney Museum in the Meatpacking District, sold out within five days.
Depending on one’s dedication to the summer treat, the experience spans about 25 minutes. Museum doors open up straight into the first of the six rooms, the "Scoop of the Week." Flanked with an installation of the “Sundae Stag” by P.J. Linden with its nose flaked in sprinkles with a cherry on top, the venue is reiterated by a neon pink sign behind the counter. Minimalistic set design with one pink balloon, several faux cones and warm neon pink tones open up to an array of Blue Marble with Kellog's, Black Tap, OddFellows Ice Cream Co., McConnell's Fine Ice Creams with Maman, and Chinatown Ice Cream Factory options to start off with. Blue Marble’s organic vanilla with fruit loops and marshmallows coated with guava lime zest requires particular attention as it makes vanilla taste better than just vanilla.
The next room offers "Edible Balloons" from Dr. Irwin Adam and Future Food Studio. The cocktail of sugar that tastes much like transparent cotton candy is inflated with helium to turn one’s voice into that of a chipmunk. The balloon itself is entirely edible, but incredibly sticky. The same room also offers several Insta-worthy backgrounds-- a wall of upside-down cone lights, a pink wall of cones, and a shabby-chic framed mirror for a selfie.
Back to the cold confection, whose existence dates to 1000 B.C. in China. It gained popularity with individuals such as Alexander the Great and even George Washington. Washington, in particular, was such a devoted fan of the delight that he would spend over $2000 on the treat each summer.
An enthusiastic representative in the third room, "Scoop Room," offers an inner scoop on history and asks individuals to add a scoop of ice cream that doesn’t melt (vegetable shortening laced with sugar) to a huge bowl to help make “The World’s Largest Ice Cream Sundae.” Across the to-be Guinness record of cake frosting leans, of course, a selfie mirror. The museum captures even more opportunities for shameless camera whoring and self-obsessing while masking under dramatization of patisserie.
As a rest for the sugar shock, the following room offers repose on a gigantic chocolate-colored beanbag surrounded by chocolate swirls and an unlimited amount of red Dove chocolates. As suspected: the "Chocolate Room." The Wonka-esque theme is induced with eerie melodies swirling senses and almost sucking into deep, chocolate slumber.
The main attraction hides three feet deep in the next room: the "Pool of Sprinkles." Lifeguarded by another one of the museum representatives in a beige ASOS romper, the pool is filled with 11,000 pounds of colorful LEGO sprinkles. Huge neon sprinkles hang on the main wall, Dylan’s Candy Bar bonbons on another. Pool rules indicate few directions: “Make a wish,” but warn that it “May cause spontaneous happiness.” The sprinkles have a polished, smooth surface that almost substitutes as a massive massage bed. The sensation of stepping into the pool is deeply relaxing, yet it is tempting to throw around the tiny pieces while taking pictures in the selfie mirror on the ceiling. While the museum promises an experience, it makes sure to ease one’s ability to record such.
The fifth and “technically” final room, if one ignores Tinderland, frames paraphernalia against teal and pink pastel-colored walls that even include "Pokemon Go." The "Taste Trip Ice Cream Experiment" begins with eating the so-called “miracle berry,” synsepalum ducificum, which, when chewed, transforms sour and acidic taste receptors into sweet ones. A perfect cone of pink ice cream of unknown taste, thanks to the berry, is then topped with lemon pieces that serenade one’s taste buds with sensations of mellow sweet citrus. While there are framed mirrors on the wall for pictures, the intense understanding of lemon being sweet is impossible to capture in a shot.
Put in the corner, and unjustly so, hides Sergio Mora-Diaz’s Flavor interactive installation "Flavors." From afar it seems like a gigantic globe projected onto the wall. To access the piece, one must visit the website indicated on the wall, choose an ice cream flavor and wave their phone to reflect the colors on the piece. The minimalistic piece seems out of the scene, especially surrounded by applications like Tinder, but its simple function is quite entertaining and a distraction from the immense sugar high.
A small, overpriced gift shop and installations such as the ice cream sandwich swing and ice cream scooper seesaw (sponsored by, of course, Tinder) close off the pop-up.
The Museum of Ice Cream is very much reflective of the millennial obsession with social media presence because of the need to boast about accomplishments. Fortunately, while also photogenic, ice cream focuses on taste, something social media has not quite learn to project. Thus, while over selfie’d, Boomerang’d, and Snap’d, the museum still provides an experience more involved than, for example, the Museum of Feelings.
We are essentially getting ahead of ourselves and visiting the future since the museum quite literally brings imagination to life.
