L.A.'s best ice cream is from this secret pop-up. Here's how to get a pint. - BERITAJA

The champion crystal pick is often the crystal pick you’re eating. It could beryllium the chalky layers of vanilla and strawberry beneath the barroom crumbs of a Good Humor bar. The stabilizer-filled soft service from a accelerated nutrient restaurant. The fast-melting cone of chocolate malted krunch from your section pharmacy. But if you were to property maine for the crystal pick I crave pouring connected my lingua supra each others, it mightiness beryllium the strawberry crystal pick from Bradley Ray.

I first tried Ray’s ice pick astatine Antico Nuovo, Chad Colby’s Larchmont Italian restaurant. There, he and Colby made fior di latte crystal pick crowded pinch swirling ribbons of oliva oil, flakes of brackish and grilled focaccia. And a strawberry crystal pick that recalibrated what I thought I knew, loved and desired about crystal cream. It had a silky smooth, luxurious texture, bursting pinch consequence from Harry’s Berries, the Oxnard workplace down the about sought-after strawberries successful the country.

Bradley Ray mixes up a batch of strawberry crystal pick for Henry’s Secret Ice Cream, a pop-up cognition that offers play pint drops successful West Hollywood.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )

Now, Ray is down Henry’s Secret Ice Cream, a pop-up hosting play drops of his Harry’s Berries-filled strawberry crystal cream, and a big of different seasonal flavors retired of the aged Hall Pass crystal pick parlor successful West Hollywood. Flavors are posted connected the website and via the Instagram account each Wednesday astatine noon. Customers are fixed a pickup model to retrieve their pints from the shop connected either Friday aliases Saturday.

Recently, location was strawberry crystal pick made pinch puréed Harry’s Berries, sugar, a touch of citrus juice and vanilla paste. Ray folds successful macerated strawberries to guarantee maximum strawberry imaginable successful each spoonful.

“When I was a kid, I loved eating Breyers with my family,” says Ray. There were these small chunks successful it and that was my favourite part. I put the chopped small strawberries successful location to get a small consequence texture erstwhile successful a while.”

Each pint is brimming pinch capable fruit, cookies, condiment aliases brittle to consciousness for illustration a composed dessert. The mascarpone stracciatella is seasoned pinch a small dried sherry and packed pinch melted acheronian cocoa and Amarena cherries. Imagine a sophisticated, wonderfully sweet-tart Cherry Garcia.

The Milk and Honey is simply a play connected a dessert Ray spent 7 years making astatine NoMad successful New York City and Los Angeles. He layers an ultra milky fior di latte crystal pick pinch chromatic and oat shortbread, buckwheat chromatic caramel and crumbled chromatic brittle.

“At NoMad, crystal pick was integral to each dessert that we made,” he says. “I grew to emotion it.”

The edifice is besides wherever Ray spent 15 to 18 hours a time making crystal pick pinch his friend Henry Molina, the inspiration for Henry’s Secret Ice Cream.

“We mislaid Henry to crab successful 2022, and I wanted this to beryllium a tribute to him,” he says. “It’s bully to support his representation live pinch crystal cream.”

After leaving Antico, Ray started moving arsenic a backstage chef, but he ne'er really fto spell of his emotion of making crystal cream. Last summer, Ray began trading crystal pick done nonstop messages connected Instagram. He delivered the pints via the trunk of his car astatine a Vons parking batch successful Arcadia.

“I was conscionable playing about to spot if group would beryllium willing successful coming to prime it up,” he says.

People were interested, and Ray was engaged making 120 pints a time retired of his location kitchen. Last year, Lawrence Longo, the restaurateur down Irv’s Burgers, Prince Street Pizza and Bar Next Door, offered to fto Ray make crystal pick drops astatine the erstwhile Hall Pass abstraction connected Sunset Boulevard.

Using the West Hollywood store, his location room and different shade kitchen, Ray is capable to make about 340 pints of crystal pick a week. With the thief of Joanne Bae, his first employee, he’s hoping to make 600.

The pints of crystal pick tally for $18, aliases $23 for fruit-forward flavors for illustration the strawberry. It’s a precocious value compared to your mean market shop pint, owed to Ray’s sourcing of premium ingredients and seasonal consequence from the farmers market. The costs of ingredients besides intends he’ll beryllium sticking to crystal pick versus sorbet, which requires a higher attraction of fruit. A carton of Harry’s Berries ranges successful value from about $15 to $22, depending connected the variety.

Pints of Henry’s Secret crystal cream. The crystal pick pop-up operates retired of West Hollywood pinch play drops.

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )

“Sorbets, arsenic overmuch arsenic I’d for illustration to waste them, it’s truthful difficult to inquire personification for $34 for a pint,” Ray says. “And if you’re utilizing premium products, there’s really nary measurement about it.”

For now, he plans connected keeping a classical vanilla for the purists, and perchance the strawberry. The different flavors will beryllium up to his play whims. Maybe strawberry shortcake, acold brew-infused java crystal pick pinch cocoa salted caramel, aliases pistachio brittle.

The extremity is to summation accumulation pinch different installation and a bigger team. Right now, the play drops are trading retired successful arsenic small arsenic 23 minutes.

“I want this to turn organically into thing I’m proud of and that Henry would beryllium proud of and that this organization really loves,” he says. “If we’re not having fun, what are we doing?”