Look Out Betty Crocker,
There's a New Gal in Town

By Christina Tosi

Betty Boop meets Jessica Rabbit in Mary, sassy spokescharacter for Mary's Dairy. The poetic queen of cream arrives in the West Village just in time for New York City's first heat wave of the summer. This sexy ice creamery is the love child of Steve Rappaport, SoHo leather outfitter, avid ice cream consumer, self-proclaimed "extremist" and entrepreneur extraordinaire who compares producing frozen treats to designing a beautiful suede coat. Rappaport believes the superiority of any product "is completely dependent upon the quality of the raw material and the skill of the manufacturer."

The ice cream comes from upstate artisans who create the super premium handmade blends in exotic flavors like Sandy, a Belgian chocolate ice cream with pieces of pistachio halvah, and Likity Lite, a deliciously dense, low-cal soft serve line featuring flavors like Dulce de Leche and Peanut Butter. If a scoop or two just won't do, there's always Mary's epic sundae-Too Much is Just About Enough-in which three scoops rest ever so peacefully atop a brownie, homemade chocolate chip cookie, or Krispy Kreme doughnut.

As I perch myself on a bar-stool-turned-ice-cream-cone and get to licking, I can't help but embrace the fact that Mary's Dairy has put familiarity and tradition to shame. Giggling while reading the playful poetry that adorns the walls alongside Rappaport's mischievous Socratease t-shirt line, I can't wait to spread the word. This pretty little ode to an ice cream parlor very well may be the new coffee shop hipster hangout of the summer, with just a little more sweetness and a lot more sass.