By Scott Lynch
Caffe Panna, Hallie Meyer’s Roman-style “cafe-bar-gelateria” on Irving Place in Manhattan, was an instant hit when it first opened in 2019, with eager locals and destination ice cream fiends forming lines out the door for her constantly-changing selection of scoops, sundaes and affogatos. Just about every day there were new things to try here. And they were all great. It was an incredible time to be alive.
Then came the pandemic, and even though Meyer stopped inviting people inside her cafe — and 86’ed cones from the menu, and stopped allowing samples, and reduced the number of days and hours the place was open — Panna, amazingly, became an even bigger hit, thanks to her pivot to hand-packed pints, available for pickup or delivery. Pint containers weren’t even an option in pre-pandemic times, and today they account for more than half of all Panna’s sales.
New and exclusive to Greenpoint: Cafe Panna granitas! Pictured are strawberry and espresso, $8.50 each (Scott Lynch)
But with success came constraints. “Everything is made in-house, and we pack every pint by hand,” Meyer says. “So we quickly maxed out every square inch of Irving Place, and every square minute of the week.” And she hated having to turn down new wholesale partners and catering requests (I was amazed by how many weddings Caffe Panna does) because she simply didn’t have the capacity to make even another scoop’s-worth of ice cream.
So two years ago Meyer signed a lease on an enormous space at the corner of Norman and Banker in Greenpoint, and she loves it so much over here that she’s moving her home to Brooklyn in a couple of weeks just a few blocks away from the shop. “Greenpoint is where I want to eat right now. This is where I want to live. And I’m really excited to be a part of this community of new food places here,” she says. “That’s something I didn’t experience in Gramercy; it’s very old guard over there. So this is really cool, to be in such a different vibe of a neighborhood.”
Now in Greenpoint (Photo by Scott Lynch)
Meyer calls the Greenpoint Caffe Panna her “ice cream factory” —3,500 of the 5,000 square feet here is given over to production —but what she’s really done is give Brooklyn the best of all ice cream worlds. For the casual walk-up ice cream seeker, there are scoops available in at least a dozen different flavors, including everyday classics like the strawberry and graham cracker Red Flag, the dark cocoa chocolate and, my longtime favorite, the peanut-butter-swirled “Aud’s Dream.”
On opening day the special scoops featured flavors such as brown butter cinnamon, vegan raspberry sorbet and maple rosemary shortbread. These will all change tomorrow, and the next day, and all the days after that. And you can mix things up further by adding a drizzle (caramel, chocolate, olive oil), and/or a “crunch” (Oreo brittle, sprinkles), and/or a dollop of panna, the light, sweet, freshly whipped, molto Italiano cream that gives the place its name.
Or maybe you want a sundae? Or a soft serve sundae? Or how about an affogato for a nice caffeine jolt with your frozen treat? These also change all the time, but if you see the sungold soft serve sundae on the menu, my advice is to pounce; it’s one of Meyer’s most delightful creations, a mountain of rich “fior di panna” ice cream studded with sweet tomatoes and topped with basil, olive oil, and sea salt.
Left: Limonata float, $11.50; right: sungoldsoft serve sundae, $8.50(Photo by Scott Lynch)
New and exclusive in Greenpoint are Caffe Panna granitas, which are likely the best icees you’ve ever had in your life flavored with the likes of fresh strawberries (refreshing and delicious) or “our favorite espresso from Rome, Sant’Eustachio” (refreshing and potent). Order any and all of the above at the window on Banker Street and, if you want, bring your treat inside the shop and chill for a minute while you eat it. There are a few tables set up outside on Norman as well.
And, of course, there are the Caffe Panna pints, available for pickup — or, coming soon, delivery — in Brooklyn. The pint menu also changes daily — it gets posted on her Instagram —but the three local-collab flavors I had this week were amazing. Working with Sam Short’s superb Pan Pan Vino Vino bakery Meyer made both guava cream cheese bun and tahini chocolate cookie ice creams. And with Taku Sando, the great Japanese sandwich shop on Greenpoint Avenue, she whipped up a milk bread ice cream that was shockingly good.
Collab pints with Meyer’s new Greenpoint friends Pan Pan Vino Vino and Katsu Sando. All pints are always $13 each (Photo by Scott Lynch)
In addition to the good vibes and great ice cream Caffe Panna brings to this stretch of still-kind-of-industrial Greenpoint, there’s also an event space within the complex for birthday parties and such, and Meyer plans on hosting ice cream-making classes here as well. “I’m really excited to have these ‘guest experiences’ because we don’t really know how Brooklyn is going to react to us,” says Meyer. “So many people here have no idea who we are. They may be excited about the idea of an ice cream place opening, but they’ve never been to Caffe Panna before. So it’s a new challenge.”
My prediction: this once-quiet corner is going to be hopping all summer long.
Caffe Panna Greenpoint is located at 16 Norman Avenue, at the corner of Banker Street, and is currently open on Wednesday through Sunday from 1:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
