Lula's Sweet Apothecary

Lula's is the stuff dreams are made of. Imagine an old-school ice cream parlor/candy shoppe where the owner is a fantastically adorable and smart woman who makes you feel right at home. Now imagine everything is vegan and tastes way better than the original. Welcome to Lula's. I can honestly say I've never had ice cream as good as this and, having sampled just about all of their awesome flavors, I know what I'm talking about.


Owners Blythe (left) and Derek used to run Viva Las Vegans, a vegan food truck in Philly, but have let their sweet sides come out to play in NYC, creating some of the greatest vegan ice cream on the planet. Their flavors - from traditional chocolate to gourmet carrot cake - are all decadent, rich expressions of the ingredients contained within. The toppings also range from the conventional (sprinkles, peanuts, etc.) to the obscure (vegan gummy bears, anyone?) but all are sweet pieces of joy. Plus they have (drum roll please.... ) SOFT SERVE! This is not something us vegans get every day, and with varieties like the amazing 'cake batter' they had swirling when I visited, it was all I could do to keep my wits about me, let alone decide what to order. In the end, I took Blythe's advice and kept it simple. One sundae, coming right up:

That would be a scoop of peanut butter fudge, a scoop of chocolate, hot fudge, peanuts, whipped cream, and (of course!) a cherry on top. Absolute heaven. I could have eaten it 3 times over and not had enough. If you haven't gotten the idea yet, you MUST go to Lula's Sweet Apothecary and have this ice cream pronto!

Even before I fell in love with the place, I mentioned to Lee, a photographer friend of mine who was also visiting NYC with her family, that she should take the gang to Lula's. They ended up going the night after I was there, and the two pictures not of my sundae used here are courtesy of her. Thanks Lee! May we all have ice cream so delicious at some point in our lives.

Up next: I managed to leave out a whole meal at one of my new favorite restaurants in NYC, so forgive me while I backtrack.