{"id":322718,"date":"2026-05-19T11:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/322718\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:23:21","slug":"where-to-find-the-best-ice-cream-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/322718\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to find the best ice cream in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The best ice cream is often the ice cream you\u2019re eating. It could be the chalky layers of vanilla and strawberry beneath the cake crumbs of a Good Humor bar. The stabilizer-filled soft serve from a fast food restaurant. The fast-melting cone of chocolate malted krunch<\/a> from your local pharmacy. But if you were to press me for the ice cream I crave melting on my tongue above all others, it might be the strawberry ice cream from Bradley Ray.<\/p>\n

I first tried Ray\u2019s ice cream at Antico Nuovo<\/a>, Chad Colby\u2019s Larchmont Italian restaurant. There, he and Colby made fior di latte ice cream crowded with swirling ribbons of olive oil, flakes of salt and grilled focaccia. And a strawberry ice cream that recalibrated what I thought I knew, loved and desired about ice cream. It had a silky smooth, luxurious texture, bursting with fruit from Harry\u2019s Berries<\/a>, the Oxnard farm behind the most sought-after strawberries in the country. <\/p>\n

\"Bradley <\/p>\n

Bradley Ray mixes up a batch of strawberry ice cream for Henry\u2019s Secret Ice Cream, a pop-up operation that offers weekly pint drops in West Hollywood. <\/p>\n

(Jenn Harris \/ Los Angeles Times )<\/p>\n

Now, Ray is behind Henry\u2019s Secret Ice Cream<\/a>, a pop-up hosting weekly drops of his Harry\u2019s Berries-filled strawberry ice cream, and a host of other seasonal flavors out of the old Hall Pass ice cream parlor in West Hollywood. Flavors are posted on the website and via the Instagram account<\/a> every Wednesday at noon. Customers are given a pickup window to retrieve their pints from the shop on either Friday or Saturday.<\/p>\n

Recently, there was strawberry ice cream made with pur\u00e9ed Harry\u2019s Berries, sugar, a touch of lemon juice and vanilla paste. Ray folds in macerated strawberries to ensure maximum strawberry potential in each spoonful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a kid, I loved eating Breyers <\/a>with my family,\u201d says Ray. There were these little chunks in it and that was my favorite part. I put the chopped little strawberries in there to get a little fruit texture once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each pint is brimming with enough fruit, cookies, sauce or brittle to feel like a composed dessert. The mascarpone stracciatella is seasoned with a little dried sherry and packed with melted dark chocolate and Amarena cherries. Imagine a sophisticated, wonderfully sweet-tart Cherry Garcia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Milk and Honey is a play on a dessert Ray spent seven years making at NoMad<\/a> in New York City and Los Angeles. He layers an ultra milky fior di latte ice cream with honey and oat shortbread, buckwheat honey caramel and crumbled honey brittle.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt NoMad, ice cream was integral to every dessert that we made,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew to love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant is also where Ray spent 15 to 18 hours a day making ice cream with his friend Henry Molina, the inspiration for Henry\u2019s Secret Ice Cream.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost Henry to cancer in 2022, and I wanted this to be a tribute to him,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to keep his memory alive with ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n

After leaving Antico, Ray started working as a private chef, but he never really let go of his love of making ice cream. Last summer, Ray began selling ice cream through direct messages on Instagram. He delivered the pints via the trunk of his car at a Vons parking lot in Arcadia.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re not having fun, what are we doing? <\/p>\n

\u2014 Bradley Ray, founder of Henry\u2019s Secret Ice Cream<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just playing around to see if people would be interested in coming to pick it up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

People were interested, and Ray was busy making 120 pints a day out of his home kitchen. Last year, Lawrence Longo<\/a>, the restaurateur behind Irv\u2019s Burgers<\/a>, Prince Street Pizza and Bar Next Door, offered to let Ray make ice cream drops at the former Hall Pass space on Sunset Boulevard.<\/p>\n

Using the West Hollywood store, his home kitchen and another ghost kitchen, Ray is able to make about 340 pints of ice cream a week. With the help of Joanne Bae, his first employee, he\u2019s hoping to make 600.<\/p>\n

The pints of ice cream run for $18, or $23 for fruit-forward flavors like the strawberry. It\u2019s a high price compared to your average grocery store pint, due to Ray\u2019s sourcing of premium ingredients and seasonal fruit from the farmers market. The cost of ingredients also means he\u2019ll be sticking to ice cream versus sorbet, which requires a higher concentration of fruit. A carton of Harry\u2019s Berries ranges in price from around $15 to $22, depending on the variety.<\/p>\n

\"Pints <\/p>\n

Pints of Henry\u2019s Secret ice cream. The ice cream pop-up operates out of West Hollywood with weekly drops. <\/p>\n

(Jenn Harris \/ Los Angeles Times )<\/p>\n

\u201cSorbets, as much as I\u2019d like to sell them, it\u2019s so hard to ask someone for $34 for a pint,\u201d Ray says. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re using premium products, there\u2019s really no way around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, he plans on keeping a classic vanilla for the purists, and possibly the strawberry. The other flavors will be up to his weekly whims. Maybe strawberry shortcake, cold brew-infused coffee ice cream with chocolate salted caramel, or pistachio brittle.<\/p>\n

The goal is to increase production with another facility and a bigger team. Right now, the weekly drops are selling out in as little as 23 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want this to grow organically into something I\u2019m proud of and that Henry would be proud of and that this community really loves,\u201d he says. \u201cIf we\u2019re not having fun, what are we doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Where to get your ice cream<\/p>\n

Henry\u2019s Secret Ice Cream, 9163 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, henryssecret.com.<\/a><\/p>\n