Beach Street Inn Adirondacks

New Zealand Ice Cream Shop Opens in Downtown Santa Cruz

Alongside nearly a dozen new Downtown Santa Cruz restaurants featuring carefully curated farm-to-table menu items, a unique new spot dedicated to soothing one’s sweet tooth has opened its doors.  This locally-owned shop features a singular specialty product, crafted with care – bringing the total number of sugar-forward businesses in Downtown Santa Cruz to a half-dozen.  Now, frozen dessert lovers can rejoice, with the opening of Nico’s Real Fruit Ice Cream. 

Portland-based Nico’s chose Santa Cruz as its second location on the Central Coast, following its first shop on Cannery Row in Monterey.  This New Zealand-style ice cream begins with a vanilla ice cream base blended with frozen fruit into a smooth soft serve. Choices of fruit include strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and marionberries, which can be topped with spicy tajín, sour chamoy, graham cracker dust, coconut flakes or rainbow sprinkles.  

This downtown shop joins five others which exclusively feature ice cream, cookies, and candy: The Penny Ice Creamery, Mission Creamery, Ashby Confections, Pacific Cookie Company and It’s Sugar.