The Scoop: How Our Junior Reporter Revealed ‘Caruso’s Greatest Secret’

The Identity of the Palisades Village Ice Cream Shop

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

Gavin Alexander has all the attributes of a great reporter—charm, tenacity, clarity and, perhaps most importantly, the luck of asking the right person the right question at the right time.

And, for many, one of the most important questions surrounding Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village project is not the parking or the grocery.

It is simple: Who is going to be offering ice cream amid the manicured lawns next summer?

Caruso has faced some rough crowds in the past, from national politicians to Palisadian critics of his architectural choices.

But even he could not withstand the gentle pressure when cornered by our 10-year-old junior reporter on a recent visit to the Palisades Village worksite.

So, when Alexander asked Caruso who would be the ice cream operator, a question the billionaire entrepreneur has brushed off from other dogged reporters for months, he folded like a Will Rogers beach chair—and spilled the (vanilla and other flavored) beans.

Gavin took the full-frontal “open question” approach: “Is there any scoop that the public does not know about that I can put in my article?”

“Wow, that’s a good question,” Caruso replied, clearly seeking to pivot away like the professional he is and then surrendering to the moment.

“We’ve signed a deal for an ice cream store with McConnell’s Fine Ice Cream, which is exclusive—the public does not know,” he revealed, yet again shaking his advisors with his frankness.

Caruso then thanked Sophie Herron, another pint-sized Palisadian who also brought the pressure. “She was the one who was very passionate about an ice cream shop,” he said.

Our junior reporter’s full interview with Rick Caruso can be read on Page 5.

McConnell’s is a big deal in the ice cream world: Time magazine has declared it “the best ice cream in the world, as anyone who has tasted it will argue.”

The Wall Street Journal has called it “the frozen gold standard.”

Yelp reviewers praise its velvety “mouth feel,” as well as the balance of choice between traditional flavors and the more unexpected seasonal blends such as whisky and pecan praline. It has recently added cookies and cream and banana and salted caramel to its menu.

Known to fans as “McCs,” the family-run parlor has been in business since it was established in Santa Barbara in 1949 by Gordan and Ernesteen McConnell.

Until the 1960s, the ice cream shop was merely an extension of the family farm.

But soaring land values persuaded them to focus on the ice cream and source from other farms in central California that offer grass for cows and a cage-free environment for their egg layers.

“No crap added,” boasts its website.

McCs remains headquartered in downtown Santa Barbara, with its dairy on State Street occasionally besieged by long weekend lines.

But it has opened up three other branches—in the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, Studio City and, most recently, Los Feliz.

The fifth branch will open at the Palisades Village next summer, although a lucky first 500 can enjoy a free sample when McC’s sets up a pop-up shop on the corner of Swarthmore on the Fourth of July.

And when it opens, the parking will be a lot easier than on State.

Or, if you cannot wait, McConnell’s do offer a “pint of the month” mail order service, which has nationwide subscribers, according to Yelp, even in dairy states such as Wisconsin.