In honor of the return of Snow Crane Ice Cream to Little Pearl ––Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays through the end of September from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. –– I asked Chef Takeshi Nishikawa a few questions about the lessons learned from his first pop-up earlier in the summer, as well as what Capitol Hill (the neighborhood) might taste like as an ice cream flavor! Answers have been lightly edited for clarity. Make your plan to visit– the pop-up will end on September 29.
What led you to create your ice creams and treats? I know you have a background in fine dining, but the way you make the ice cream feels a little like science and magic. How did you get there? Is there something more rewarding about focusing on sweet treats as opposed to savory fare?
I’ve spent 20- plus years in fine dining, most recently as Culinary Director at Rose’s Restaurant Group. Somewhere along the way I realized that ice cream lets me do the same thing savory cooking does — balance, restraint, technique — but with an immediacy that a tasting menu doesn’t have. Someone tastes it in three seconds and either lights up or they don’t. There’s nowhere to hide, and that honesty is what pulled me toward dessert.
But honestly, the bigger shift has been becoming a father. I have two girls, three and one, and something about that changes what you want to put into the world. Fine dining can be extraordinary, but it’s also rarefied: not everyone gets to sit down to a ten-course tasting menu. Ice cream is relatable. It makes people happy, plain and simple, and these days that’s what matters most to me. Watching my daughters’ faces when they try something new — that’s honestly become the whole point.
There’s still science and magic in it too: the physics of ice crystals, fat, and air is unforgiving. When it comes together, it really does feel like alchemy. But underneath all that, it’s just about joy.
What kinds of lessons did you learn from your pop-up the first time around?
The biggest lesson was really about establishing systems, hiring staff for the first time, and optimizing the operation for the space and for what we were actually trying to do. As a first-time founder, I learned quickly that it’s so much more than product. There’s marketing, there’s compliance, there’s a whole layer of the business behind the ice cream itself. Juggling all of that to make everything work, to reach whatever level of success you’ve defined for yourself; that’s the real challenge. There were a lot of obstacles along the way, but we made the best of the situation, and it set us up much better for Round 2.
What is YOUR favorite kind of ice cream?
Kinako, hands down. It’s made with roasted soybean flour and black sugar, and it’s our signature flavor for a reason. There’s something incredibly nostalgic about that flavor profile — it might sound unusual if you haven’t tried it, but once you do, there’s a comfort to it that’s hard to describe. It reminds me of home.
How is popping up here on the Hill different from doing so in Hyattsville or any other places you’ve had a temporary stall before?
Hyattsville is where Snow Crane found its voice — a farmers market crowd, very neighborhood-driven. Capitol Hill has a different rhythm and a more varied, curious audience, and being inside Little Pearl for this residency lets me build a tighter, more considered menu than a market stall ever could.
If you were to create an ice cream or dessert that embodied Capitol Hill (the neighborhood) what would you add?
Capitol Hill already means something personal to me — I spent about three years as Culinary Director at Rose’s Restaurant Group, right here in the neighborhood, so this residency feels like coming back to where I started. And there’s a funny parallel too: Snow Crane began at a farmers market in Hyattsville, and here I am a few blocks from Eastern Market, which has been the Hill’s market since 1873 — the last of DC’s original three public markets still standing. If I built a flavor around that history, I’d probably nod to Market Lunch’s famous blueberry buckwheat pancakes — toasted buckwheat as the base, with a blueberry swirl running through it. Something nostalgic and neighborhood-rooted, but built the way we build everything: technique first, comfort always.