3. Nesberrys
(Green Acres Mall, Valley Stream, NY; 225 Hempstead Turnpike, West Hempstead, NY; 164-17e Jamaica Ave., Jamaica, NY; 516-881-7782)
Nesberry’s is the USA’s only Jamaican ice-cream chain, with three shops between Long Island and Queens, New York. A Kingstonian who previously worked at the Jamaica Observer, Marlon Davis founded Nesberry’s, named for the sweet, pear-like fruit indigenous to the Caribbean and Central America, at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, Long Island, in 2012. “It started off with me one day having my own cravings for a particular flavor of ice cream from Jamaica—stout—and I couldn’t find it anywhere,” Davis says. “If I was craving it, I figured there were some people from the Caribbean who were feeling the same way. After I did some research, we found there was a definite need.”
Launching in a mall proved to be a savvy decision, allowing Nesberry’s to get its product before consumers who might otherwise have never set foot in, or even heard about, a Jamaican-themed ice cream shop. “[Being in the mall] has exposed a lot of different cultures to the way we do ice cream in the Caribbean,” Davis says. “Everything we do in the Caribbean, there is care taken to give it that certain kind of flavor and taste. We use real fruit and real ingredients and prepare it in a way that makes it more flavorful–in Jamaica, the flavor has to taste strong and, if it doesn’t, people believe it’s not real. We use the real thing to give it the real taste.”
In 2014, Davis opened his second and third shops in Hempstead, NY, and Jamaica, Queens. But branded retail stores are just one part of the bigger picture for Nesberry’s, which wholesales its product to West Indian takeout spots and restaurants throughout the New York area.
FLAVORS: Irie Jamaican Stout, Grape Nut, Blue Mountain coffee, rum raisin, egg nog, Jamaican rum cake, pineapple coconut, soursop, melon sorbet, sorrel & ginger, champagne, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, butter pecan, cookies & cream, pistachio, red velvet cake, mango sorbet.