Another Lower East Side business has been forced to close permanently due to COVID-19. The ice cream shop at 221 East Broadway, Ice & Vice, made the announcement through it social media channels:
It is with great sadness that we announce Ice & Vice will be closing its doors November 1st, permanently. Our shops – LES, LIC, TimeOut Market – will be open until the end of that day for our final hurrah. We want to thank our loyal fans, customers, partners, and community for the past 7 amazing years. We are blessed to have been given the opportunity to share our vision for ice cream with the world. From selling ice cream on a street corner in Williamsburg, to winning the Vendy Awards, to opening our flagship shop on the Lower East Side, our journey has been nothing short of the American Dream for a couple of ice cream weirdos. As hard as we’ve tried, we were not able to overcome the economic reality of this pandemic. As our great city of NYC has been crippled by COVID-19, we too were challenged with the public safety, financial strain, and emotional impact of this virus. In the end, we were unable to meet this challenge. But there is no such thing as goodbye… Let’s just say, this is ta ta for now. Come roll through our shops before Nov. 1st and celebrate with us our journey.
Paul Kim and Ken Lo opened the Lower East Side store in 2015. When the shop closes at the end of the month, there will be two vacant storefronts side-by-side in the building at the corner of East Broadway and Clinton streets.
