December 2017
San Francisco, CA
The city of San Francisco (and New York) currently have Museums of Ice Cream (MOIC) you can schedule a time to visit. The first Museum of Ice Cream took place from July to August 2016 in a 5,000-square-foot space in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. It sold out in within a few days, so when I saw photos online form the New York Museum and heard it was making its way to Los Angeles I wanted to go so badly! The LA Museum of Ice Cream would be larger than the initial NY location and would be open from April 22 to May 29 2017. The tour included two curated ice cream tastings and surprise edible treats, but again tickets sold out quicker than I could get my hands on some. So I moved my sights onto the SF MOIC pop up which was target to open Fall of 2017, and thought I’d have luck since it was already planned to extend its dates due to the other locations popularity.
The concept makes sense, who doesn’t love ice cream and the real draw behind the museum was the amazing fun photos that were “once in a lifetime”. This was at the beginning (or what felt like the beginning) of the pop-up museum craze, this article said it best about why they are so successful/popular.
The time-limited aspect should not be overlooked, either. Part of what the Instagram generation are after is a unique – or, at least, limited – experience that feels vital. This is a crucial part of how the excitement is generated that leads to the buzz surrounding a successful pop-up museum. If one can be visited at any time, then there is necessarily less of a social media frenzy, even if one is generated at all. That’s why they need to both pop up and disappear.
Manuel Charr – July 2019
While the SF location is now a permanent fixture, I still very much treasure my visit and photos, but it will certainly be interesting to see how long it will last without the “pop-up” “limit time only” aspect.
But on September 14th 2017 (with the help of an AMEX pre-sale) I got tickets to go to the MOIC that December!
Each room of the museum is set up for a unique interactive and fun photo opportunity (check out more guest photos on Instagram via #museumoficecreamSF). Many of the rooms have ice cream tastings for every guest that is included in the cost of your ticket! But the most fun and un-pictured room was the sprinkle pool, guests get a limited amount of time to spend jumping and swimming (and taking photos) in the rainbow sprinkle pool. And when you’re asked to keep moving and get out of the pool, there is a sprinkle blow dry room immediately following to make sure you don’t “sprinkle” the city as you leave. This was definitely not 100% effective, sprinkles made it back to the restaurant we went to and to our hotel room that night. Overall it was a fun evening spent with an amazing friend and I am so happy we got t0 experience it!
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Oh my gosh! You are so awesome for doing this! Hope you are enjoying triping down memory lane.
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