You can bank on it. There will soon be lines around an old gray granite bank just off Union Square in San Francisco. But angry depositors won’t be demanding their cash. Oh, they’ll be screaming, all right—for ice cream.
On Sept. 17, America’s third Museum of Ice Cream opens its doors. Private tours for up to 20 guests can be booked.
Under the 45-foot-high dome of the historic bank building, recast with a modern design and “signature playfulness,” visitors will be greeted at San Francisco Museum of Ice Cream with such wonders as “a magical candy garden, psychedelic rainbow unicorns, a push pop installation, a cherry on top sky [and] the renowned Sprinkle Pool… filled with over one hundred million custom-designed sprinkles,” according to a press release from the museum. There’s also a Pop Rocks cave. In all, 10 thematically tailored, immersive installations aim to delight children of all ages.
“Sort of a pop art, museum-sized photo booth,” is how Website SF Eats sums it up.
For sure, Instagrams will begin flooding cyberspace as a rotating cast of mostly local creameries offer visitors a “scoop of the week,” and a mochi ice cream-tasting experience is provided by California-based My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream. Not to mention the final sampling—a “never-been-tasted, custom, Museum of Ice Cream flavor,” according to the museum.
The experience will conclude with a Design Within Reach lounge and gift shop.
Tickets, available only in advance, are $38 per person (children under age 3 are free). At a pop-up version in New York City and a current, sold-out run in Los Angeles, they’ve been $29 for adults and $18 for seniors and children ages 3–12. But publicists for San Francisco Museum of Ice Cream say this will be an entirely new flavor compared to previous versions—and that more new locations will be opening this year and in 2018.
