Salt & Straw Opens its First Ice Cream Shop in Las Vegas

The popular West Coast ice cream shop known for its oddball flavors and round-the-block lines is officially moving into the Uncommons on Friday, June 16. The ice cream shop garnered popularity for its super creamy, flavorful scoops in flavors like strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper, spiced goat cheese pumpkin pie, and salted, malted, chocolate chip cookie dough. Next week, the Portland, Oregon-based ice creamery becomes the newest tenant inside the UnCommons shopping and dining complex in southwest Las Vegas.

"I’ve got a couple flavors that might be a little provocative. I love provoking conversation with ice cream," co-founder and head ice cream maker Tyler Malek said during a visit to the site of the new shop last October. That month, the shop added Halloween-inspired ice cream to its year-round line-up of signature flavors. Among them, Malek blended his own versions of Kit Kats, Reese's peanut butter cups, Snickers, and Heath Bars into a salted butterscotch ice cream for its Great Candycopia flavor. He also made a flavor with real candied insects. "I love this idea of using these flavors to kind of just be a little creepy and kind of like push you out of your comfort zone a little bit," said Malek.

When the shop opens next week, it will offer a line-up of flavors for June's Upcycled Food Series. The flavors incorporate ingredients that would have otherwise ended up in a food waste destination. The day-old bread pudding and chocolate ganache ice cream employs Portland bread that would have gone to waste for a custard bread pudding, layered with chocolate ganache. The cacao pulp and chocolate stracciatella gelato is made using the whole cacao pod. And a salted caramel and okara cupcakes flavor incorporates okara flour — made from the pulp left over from making soy milk — with salted coconut oat milk ice cream, dark chocolate cupcakes, and vegan caramel. Other flavors for June include lemon curd and whey and a malted chocolate barley milk ice cream.

Of course, the shop will sell its signature ice creams, which include chocolate gooey brownie, honey lavender, and a pear and blue cheese flavor. And Salt & Straw will employ 10 to 18 people so that visitors can rightfully sample two or three or 20 flavors before placing an order. Back in October, Malek teased creating a flavor just for Las Vegas, maybe one that played on the classic Vegas prime rib and 99-cent shrimp cocktail. It remains to be seen what came of that idea.

Within the UnCommons (6880 Helen Toland Street), Salt and Straw is located between what will be the Italian restaurant Amari, the Nikkei restaurant Kaiyo, and the now-open Urth Caffe. The shop will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.