For the last nine weeks Karloff restaurant, located at 254 Court Street, has been closed to our little world, undergoing a renovation and menu revision that owners .
But while the windows remain covered in craft paper, shielding whatever changes have been made on the inside, the streets outside have experienced their own transformation: summer.
Full tilt, 90 degree, how-many-more-blocks-before-we-hit-AC style summer.
And this bears noting because whenever reopens, it will be without the beloved ice cream case many flocked to during warm weather.
"NOOOOOO!!! Don't get rid of the ice cream case. You have the best ice cream in the neighborhood," called out Eat It Brooklyn from the Carroll Gardens Patch comments section upon the announcement.
Another reader, Caroline Bailey, chimed in further down the scroll.
"Not the ice cream case," she said. "It's the only spot in the 'hood to get good ice cream without a ridiculous price tag."
What those neighbors couldn't have known was that Jane's Ice Cream makers were saying the exact same thing to themselves in the Hudson Valley.
"We were upset to learn that [Karloff] wasn't planning on keeping the dipping station," said co-owner Amy Keller, Jane's sister. "But we were more concerned that no one in the neighborhood even knew who we were."
As the case inside Karloff was never labeled with a Jane's Ice Cream logo, patrons might be surprised to learn that the same "Killer Chocolate" that had been scooped from a bin on Court Street is also served in some of Manhattan's chicest hotels and dining halls, such as Saks Fifth Avenue and the Carlyle Hotel.
One lick and it's clear why. With a deep, almost roasted chocolate taste and a creamy, lingering mouthfeel that teeters ever so gently toward gelato, the "Killer Chocolate" annihilated this reporter during a recent reconnaissance tasting.
Another friend christened the "Mint Chip" flavor "divine."
A 25-year-old family business, Jane's Ice Cream was founded by sisters Amy and Jane Keller and Bob Guidubaldi in 1985 in Phoenicia, NY. But their culinary roots have always been planted in Brooklyn, as Jane and Amy's grandfather ran the Rose Brand dessert toppings factory for decades, selling butterscotch, raspberry and chocolate sauces straight out of a storefront on Bergen Street.
"Currently we aren't sold anywhere else in Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens or really many parts of Brooklyn," lamented Keller. In fact, the closest available outpost serving Jane's Ice Cream is at Huey's Chueys in Fort Greene.
"But, we would love to find a new scoop shop or gourmet market nearby looking for a case," she said. "In many ways, being in Brooklyn for us is our story coming full circle—like coming home again."
What do you think, readers? Would you like to see a Jane's Ice Cream case restored to the neighborhood? Tell us where in the comments below.
