When Union Fare first opened, their birthday cake croissants flooded the internet. You still can’t expect to roll in halfway through the day and be able to find one—they sell out first thing in the morning. The perfect puffy clouds of savory-sweet delight are notoriously rich and so naturally took social media by storm.
Dessert for breakfast can’t get much better, right? Wrong!
Union Fare has raised its own stakes. That’s right, with a croissant ice cream sandwich. Much like the Cronut, and its new sister pastry hybrids, this sandwich is a glorious marriage of two of the best treats.
And if you think that’s where Union Fare draws the line, you clearly haven’t caught on to their genius yet. Their croissant ice cream flavors come in customizable flavors. I’m talking pick-your-own-croissant-flavors, and your ice cream too.
What passes for a normal croissant flavor at Union Fare varies, with choices like Birthday Cake, Matcha, Cookies and Crème, and Red Velvet. And the ice cream filling options include the four different flavors of banana, caramel machiatto, vanilla and strawberry.
Unfortunately for me, I arrived too late to try my “sandwich” with caramel machiatto ice cream, but I did get a taste of the Birthday Cake croissant with some vanilla. But after trying it, I'm convinced it may have been the better option anyway. Caramel and Birthday Cake croissant may just be too much of a good thing.
I was advised to wait until my ice cream melted a bit, which was incredibly difficult, so I distracted myself by taking pictures from as many angles as possible. After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting, but what was probably about two minutes, if that, I figured it was time to dig in.
It was a bit hard to scoop through the not-yet-melted ice cream, but it was well worth it. Since I didn’t wait too long, the croissant was still crunchy, which gave a great contrast to the smooth ice cream. The first taste I got is the vanilla flavor, which helped mellow the intense sweetness of the birthday cake frosting inside the croissant, and the croissant itself still maintained its savory notes to balance out the bite.
There was one thing missing though. The heat. I think a croissant that came fresh from the oven would have given a cool contrast—no pun intended—to the cold ice cream. Although with the heatwave New York experienced this summer, a cold treat sans heat may be exactly what the city craves.
With all the crazy ice cream concoctions that have come out in the past few years, it can be hard to decide which ones are worth seeking out. Let me put your mind at ease, this is one treat you don’t want to miss out on. Get it while it’s (not) hot.