The Long Beach Creamery’s checkered floor gives the ice cream shop a classic 1950s feel. As soon as you walk in you are welcomed by friendly team members ready to help you find your new favorite ice cream flavor.
Amadril never planned on starting an ice cream business. In fact, her first business was a Mexican food restaurant in Rhode Island, which she was forced to close after her money was frozen in a banking crisis.
“I basically lost all of my money,” Amadril said. “One day I had money to buy ingredients and the next day I didn’t.”
She then moved to California where she met her neighbor Sasha Kanno, founder of Farm Lot 59, a local market in Long Beach.
Amadril said she discovered her passion for mixing new ice cream flavors at a birthday party for Kanno’s son. After Kanno showed Amadril the tools needed to make ice cream, she let her creativity flow. Amadril said she constantly thought about creating new flavors and still does today.
“I started playing around with ice cream just to see if I could make one,” Amadril said. “It’s not my favorite food in the world, it was just the creation process was so much fun.”
Ice cream soon filled Amadril’s freezer. She promoted it on Facebook and sold it from her backyard and through local businesses, including Farm Lot 59. Now, Amadril sells her ice cream through her two stores.
Dina Amadril opened her first Long Beach Creamery location at 4141 Long Beach Blvd. in Dec. 2014, and her second location at 222 E. Broadway Ave. in June 2018.
Lauren Campbell has been a team member at Long Beach Creamery for over five years. “I love it here,” Campbell said. “It’s a great environment, great customers, and scooping ice cream for people is awesome.”
Campbell said that while the original Long Beach Creamery has more of a community following, the second location’s customers are mostly tourists.
Kathy and Jim Harel, first-time customers, heard about the ice cream shop through their daughter.
“It’s actually my daughter who is the regular, and so I’m coming out here on her behalf, she’s been a regular for a long time,” Kathy Harel said. “She likes the unique flavors and the creamy consistency.”
Some popular flavors include “Saltine Dream” and “Midnight Oolong.” Other flavors, like “Chocolate Noir,” are rotated out each month in accordance with what ingredients are in season.
The ice cream shop collaborates with local farms and businesses to make this possible.
“Everything is homemade, organic, locally sourced, so we go to great lengths to make sure we get good quality products to give to people,” Campbell said.
At the moment, the rotating flavors are Buttercake, Apple Filling, Sweet Corn Guava, Lemon Bar, Ginger Chip, Banana Bread Chai, Goat Cheese Cherry and Ube Ube.
“I think what makes us special is the fact that the team is involved in every facet of making it,” Amadril said.
The Long Beach Creamery is open Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 12:00-10 p.m. and Sunday from 12:00-9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday it is closed. Their prices range between $1 and $14.
