A Bunch of New Bananas

In pudding, pastry, and cookie form.

- TAMMIE TECLEMARIAM

When Nick Morgenstern opened his first stand-alone icecream shop in 2014, he was excited to introduce one new scoop in particular: durian-banana, a combination he'd dreamed up during his time as a pastry chef. It became the first item to sell out. "To this day, that's a very important flavor," he says. "We've never run out since."

Now, he's turned his original Lower East Side parlor into a new shop called Morgenstern's Bananas (2 Rivington St., nr. Bowery; morgensternsbananas.com), and yes, he's painted the outside very yellow for the occasion. Bananas, nuts, and coconuts are the base ingredients for the shop's line of dairy-free soft serves, which are dispensed from four top-of-the-line Carpigiani machines. For those who would like to go full banana, Morgenstern offers a signature flavor that took some time to develop as he went back and forth between two varietals. The first was closer in taste and color to the pale cream of a firm, barely ripe fruit, while the second was slightly tan and noticeably sweeter thanks to the addition of caramel.