Not to worry, neighbors: after two weeks closed for renovations, staff changes and food experiments, is back and better than ever.
Their temporary closure was well-timed with the dregs of winter when “fewer people were coming down in the dark and cold,” said owner Joe Slakas. “But now the sun and warmth is back and we're back too.”
LICKS, as the coffee/gourmet snack shop on the river side of the train station calls itself, has installed some shiny new machines which help up the offerings of this sunny space. There's a juicer for juicing, timed perfectly with nearby Riverstone Yoga about to open any day now, and coinciding with their nutritionist-guided program of cleanses and such.
Anyone who's made juice at home knows about the pulp problem. Juicers generate buckets of perfectly edible “waste” – which Slakas is trying to put to good use.
One idea: he's zesting the citrus before pressing and using the peels for flavoring the frozen treats. He's heard that certain pulps can be used to make cookies, “like a dough,” but he doesn't have the means (yet) to try this.
“Juice,” he said, “just fits into using every piece of fruit that comes in here.”
Soon there will be two fresh juice options in town, as is coming to Main Street. But Slakas said there's more than enough market for the both of them and “we're a growing community down here.”
With a new case just for gelato, there's also more than enough room now for Slakas to craft up to 30 unique flavors of ice cream, sorbet and gelato. He's experimenting with cucumber-based sorbert, has a new recipe for avocado gelato, and will even offer paletas, the Mexican-style popsicles made with less sugar and fresh fruit chunks in flavors like yogurt-blueberry and strawberry, and which happen to be “very pretty.”
What Slakas can't incorporate into this recipes, he hopes to someday put in a compost pile (as he is working with Hudson Harbor owner Joe Cotter to do).
Most anything goes, but he has his creative limits. Slakas rattled off some infamous vendors who may go too far with their gelato di pesche (NYC) or the San Francisco guy known for fois gras ice cream. “I'm a little reluctant to do meat and fish,” Slakas said. “I just don't think I can mix my meat with my dairy. ”
Also good news.
