(THE WASHINGTON POST) - The Museum of Ice Cream - an Instagrammable pop-up funhouse devoted to the childlike pleasure of candy and frozen sweets - has frozen out a lot of guests since it first opened in 2016.
It's notoriously hard to get into: only open in certain cities (currently, San Francisco) for a limited time, and the US$38 (S$50.98) tickets sell out almost immediately. It leaves people scrolling through social media, longing for the day when they'll get their chance to dive into a pink swimming pool full of rainbow sprinkles and post Boomerangs of the experience that will make everyone jealous.
Those people are now in luck. The museum announced Wednesday (May 23) that it's planning to open a new concept, the Pint Shop, in New York - no tickets required - and is launching its own brand of ice cream, which will be available in most Target locations nationwide.
The Pint Shop, which will open in New York's Meatpacking District on June 6, will be free and first-come, first-serve - so expect to wait in incredibly long lines. It "celebrates the accessibility and democracy that ice cream brings," founder Maryellis Bunn said in a news release.
The experience will be an imaginative riff on a grocery store, featuring "life-size pint installations," likely in the museum's signature rainbow colours, and opportunities to take a million selfies and buy the new brand of ice cream.
Guests can make paid reservations for a special tasting of all of the flavours, and they'll have the opportunity to "learn about the making of ice cream through all five senses".
As for those flavours: They have cheeky names, and some are direct references to experiences at the Museum of Ice Cream. The two signature flavours are Piñata, "vanilla ice cream with iced animal cookies, frosted cupcake bites, fizzy cotton candies and rainbow sprinkles," and Sprinkle Pool, which contains the titular ingredient.
There's also Vanillionaire, Chocolate Crush, Cherrylicious, the cinnamon and churro-filled Churro Churro, and Nana Bread, a banana ice cream with salted caramel almond butter swirls.
The museum says that the brand will exclusively be available at Target beginning July 8. They've also collaborated with Target on a line of ice cream-themed children's clothing, which points to one of Bunn's aspirations: to become a multi-platformed cultural force, a "millennial Walt Disney".
