Henry's Secret Ice Cream

Bradley Ray walked into Eleven Madison Park cold, staged for a day, and left with a job as a pastry cook. By the time he opened NoMad in New York, he'd risen through the ranks to pastry sous chef at EMP. At NoMad, he spent seven years perfecting the legendary dessert dubbed "Milk & Honey." It's also where he met colleague and best friend Henry Molina, who died of cancer in 2022 and after whom Henry's Secret Ice Cream is named. The two were obsessed with ice cream, spent thousands of hours churning out the good stuff (at NoMad, most desserts had ice cream), and moved to LA together to open NoMad. Despite NoMad not working out, Ray fell in love with the sunshine and produce and never looked back.

Ray had stints at Antico Nuovo (where he began spinning pints of ice cream to accompany pizza-to-go during the pandemic), and Etta and Asterid, before tiring out altogether and doing the private chef thing for a while…till he got sick of that too. So he started doing what any former EMP pastry chef would do: slinging pints out of his trunk in an Arcadia Vons parking lot. A nudge from Lawrence Longo (Prince Street Pizza, Bar Next Door) encouraged Ray to use the facilities of the shuttered Hall Pass Ice Cream space to do his drops. Word caught on fast, and Henry's Secret Ice Cream is still trying to keep up with growing demand. (At this point they're looking for a bigger production facility and have the vision to turn the current spot into a liquor store, but for pints of ice cream.)

As of now, though, you can't just walk in and buy a pint of Henry's Secret Ice Cream. You have to catch the drop, which happens via the website every Wednesday at noon. A reel teasing the special flavor of the week is released around 9am on the day of, with pints typically gone by 12:20pm. Pickup is that weekend (Sat–Sun 11am–2pm; 2:30–7pm), and the whole operation runs on one ice cream maker (as of this writing) that spins just ten pints at a time, which means the machine hums for about 60 hours (200 churns) to hit the 1,500 to 2,000 pints that sell out weekly.

The flavors swing from comfort to chef-y. Recently, the aptly named "Getting Figgy With It"—mascarpone and fig (fig leaf and fig compote)—showcased Ray's Michelin roots without being cloying about it. One of the things that makes Henry's special (and worth the splurge; pints will set you back anywhere between $18 and $23 a pop) is the high-quality ingredients and farmers' market fruits. Case in point, a seasonal Mango pint blends Wong Farms Valencia Pride mangos—a creamy, tart, citrusy, non-fibrous mango—with a vanilla and sweet cream base. Henry’s first flavor, Carrot Cake, layered a cream cheese base with soft carrot cake, caramelized walnuts, and candied pineapple. Ray’s business partner and native Angeleno, Joanne Bae, was the opening pastry chef at RVR (if you've had the carrot cake at RVR, you understand the cred). Some flavors make repeat appearances, such as Strawberry made with a sweet cream base and Harry's Berries Gaviota strawberries. Or their third flavor to drop, an out-of-this-world Pistachio Brittle, which is slowly becoming a signature. Hopefully the same will become true for Milk & Honey—fiordilatte base swirled with buckwheat honey caramel, oat shortbread and honey brittle—an homage to the NoMad dessert. The throughline in every pint is a distinct creaminess and richness that makes you want to try anything Henry's Secret Ice Cream churns out. Especially since you never know if the flavor will come back around. The message is poetic: enjoy things while they're here, be it a pint of some of the best ice cream you've ever had, or your best friend.