It’s spicy and golden.
Kim and Tyler Malek, the cousins and founders of Salt & Straw ice cream, would offer just this hint the other morning about the Vegas-only flavor they’re working on for the Salt & Straw shops opening Wednesday at the Flamingo and Paris Las Vegas on the Strip.
Given Salt & Straw’s sometimes-embrace of absolutely bonkers flavors that somehow work — remember Gruyère and tomato custard tart? — spicy and golden might be almost any flavor combination: chili gulab jamun, Sichuan mala egg noodle, ghost pepper corn dog. Who knows?
“It’s not only over-the-top from an ingredient perspective but also from a technique perspective, so stay tuned on that front,” Kim Malek said of the flavor.
In Vegas, where nothing is too over-the-top, especially on the Strip, Salt & Straw’s inventive ethos, its rotating monthly menus and its ecumenical approach to ingredients should find a natural home, joined by the brand’s commitment to reducing food waste and its belief that ice cream creates connection.
“When we opened almost 15 years ago, our entire dream was to have community gatherings over ice cream,” Kim Malek said. “It’s unbelievably cool to be opening in Vegas and bringing that to the Strip and having our ice cream in the middle of all the things.”
Out of the shops, into the street
The origins of Salt & Straw are well known: It began as an ice cream pushcart in Portland, Oregon, in 2011, later becoming a bricks-and-mortar shop, then expanding to eight states across the U.S., guided by the (sometimes madcap) flavor and ingredient alchemy of Tyler Malek and the business-savvy of Kim Malek (and, in the early days, her strong scooping arm).
The first Salt & Straw in Vegas opened at UnCommons in 2023. On the Strip, the Paris shop lies beneath one leg of the replica Eiffel Tower, near Arc Bar, while the Flamingo store is located near Gordon Ramsay Burger. Customers enter both shops from the Strip side, not from inside the casino, a choice meant to conjure a signature feature of Salt & Straw.
“We’re known for having lines out the door and people walking by on the street, so that was important for us, letting the energy of the shops go beyond our four walls,” Tyler Malek said. “Making sure our energy flows out of our shops and into the street.”
Debut flavors to look for
The two Strip stores will be the final Salt & Straws to open in 2025, bringing the total to 53, Tyler Malek said. The shops are launching with an Icon Series menu (available through January) featuring some of Salt & Straw’s most iconic flavors:
• Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache: almond brittle and creamy chocolate ganache swirled in vanilla ice cream.
• Birthday Cakes & Blackberries: double-vanilla ice cream studded with rainbow sprinkle birthday crumble and ribboned with blackberry jam.
• Chocolate Chili Crisp Peanut Butter Cups: milk chocolate ice cream with bite-size housemade chili crisp peanut butter cups and swirls of peanut butter marshmallow fluff.
• Death by Chocolate Chocolate Cake (vegan): chocolate barley oat milk swirled with chocolate caramel fudge and hunks of chocolate cake, finished with chocolate ganache.
• Pots of Gold & Rainbows: Rainbow marshmallows tossed into cereal-steeped ice cream.
“We’re trying to pull out all the stops with some of the best flavors in our repertory,” said Tyler Malek, who added that the next seasonal menu (chocolatier) would launch in February, followed by the cereal menu in March and so on with themed menus throughout the year.
Will caviar, another Vegas staple, eventually be among the flavors on the Strip? “I’ve tested it a few times, caviar and ice cream, and it needs to be a topping,” Tyler Malek said.
Onto every scoop, a little brine must fall.
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at [email protected]. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.