Made in the Hudson Valley: Lost Borough Ice Cream brings taste of the world to Yonkers and beyond
The original Lost Borough Ice Cream is at 1 Larkin Plaza in Yonkers, but the buzz from the community prompted Cruz to open a second location in Manhattan.
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Nestled right in the heart of Downtown Yonkers is Lost Borough Ice Cream, where co-owner Patrick Cruz lives his sweet dream of bringing a taste of the world to New York's "lost borough."
"I've always loved food," Cruz says. "I've always been a foodie and I joke that I have a degree from the Food Network. I actually have a Master's in Public Health, but I've always wanted to get into something with food, and I love desserts."
Previously a full-time social worker, Cruz's journey into the food industry had a sweet start with a trip to Chicago in 2019.
"[I] went to an ice cream shop there and kind of fell in love with everything about it," he said. "When you were waiting on the line to get inside, you were hit by the smell of waffle cones being made. When you went inside, you saw employees giving ice cream cones to children. To me, it was almost like they were selling happiness. So, that's what inspired me to open up an ice cream shop...I decided to recreate that in our way here in Yonkers."
For help, he turned to his social work colleague, Ka-Wana Jefferson. Since Jefferson previously owned a restaurant, Cruz believed she would be the perfect addition to the team. A few years later, Lost Borough Ice Cream was officially born to offer homemade, unique flavors connected to some of Cruz's most key memories.
"A lot of our flavors are inspired by my international travel and offering things that you wouldn't get here in America," he said. "We have a cherry blossom or Sakura flavor that we offer every year around cherry blossom season...[We have] other flavors like Brigadeiro, which is like a Brazilian chocolate truffle. I love Brazil. I've been there three times."
Some flavors, however, have even more of a personal meaning.
"A lot of the original flavors were from my childhood," Cruz said. " I'm half Dominican [and] half Puerto Rican, so I grew up with flavors like coquito or bizcocho, which is like Dominican birthday cake. So, those were easily translated to ice cream flavors...We [also] have a flavor called Cafe Bucelo, which is a coffee flavor…I have fond memories of my grandmother giving me a small cup of coffee."
For Cruz, this job has allowed him to have a creative outlet, something he was not able to use when working as a social worker. Since switching careers, the range of ice cream flavors he has created has brought in customers from as close as the apartments right above the shop, to as far as the Dominican Republic.
"So many people say, 'Thank you for bringing this to our neighborhood,'" Cruz said. "So, that is amazing. It's just ice cream, but it's an amazing feeling to have that appreciation from the community...It's a great feeling, especially when you know that people are connecting to the products."
The original Lost Borough Ice Cream is at 1 Larkin Plaza in Yonkers, but the buzz from the community prompted Cruz to open a second location in Manhattan. That shop can be found at 4791 Broadway in Inwood.
