A Remembrance of the Ice Cream Connection

Given the news of yet another mom ‘n’ pop closure — this one being Williamsburg’s 25-year-old Deli Mart, which was apparently the victim of a 40 percent rent hike — we find ourselves feeling particularly appreciative of Jeremiah Moss’s remembrance of the long-lost Ice Cream Connection at 24 St. Marks Place.

A fixture of the block between Third and Second avenues in the early 1970s, it sold flavors with drug names like Panama Hash and Acapulco Gold and was immortalized by Gael Greene in a 1970 New York magazine article. In 1974, the place was taken over by the owners of Dojo, a Japanese restaurant.

Although another location of Dojo still exists on Mercer Street, the St. Marks location is long gone. And the current tenant in the onetime Ice Cream Connection space is Pinkberry, which says pretty much all there is to say about where, exactly, gentrification has taken the neighborhood.