Salt & Straw Expands In San Diego, Celebrates With Special Flavor
SAN DIEGO, CA — Salt & Straw, known for its creative and handcrafted ice cream flavors, has a new scoop shop in San Diego.
The chain, which features a monthly rotating menu, opened Friday at the Westfield UTC shopping center. It’s the small-batch, chef-driven ice cream company’s third scoop shop in the San Diego area.
“This is such a special community here,” Kim Malek, co-founder and CEO of Salt & Straw, told Patch. “We could really see it being a perfect fit.”
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Malek and her cousin, Tyler Malek, started Salt & Straw 2011 in Portland. Over the years, they have grown their company from a single pushcart to 32 scoop shops, mostly on the West Coast, including the newest location at Westfield UTC.
Malek said she and her cousin started Salt & Straw “with no aspirations or thoughts that (they) would grow.”
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“It’s just been an unbelievable experience,” said Malek, a Portland resident who was in San Diego this week for the grand opening of the new shop.
Now open at Westfield UTC, Salt & Straw also has scoop shops at One Paseo in San Diego’s Carmel Valley area and on Italy Street in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood.
“San Diego is such a beautiful city with such lovely neighborhoods,” Malek told Patch. “We’ve been so warmly received in Little Italy and One Paseo.”
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Malek, who called herself an “aspiring San Diego transplant,” said it’s been a “dream” to set up shop in the La Jolla area. The mother of three said her family often visits the area.
The La Jolla Salt & Straw location is at 4575 La Jolla Village Drive, Suite 1150, at Westfield UTC.
“This just felt like a destination for a lot of different parts of the community,” Malek said about the space at the shopping center.
To celebrate the opening of Salt & Straw in La Jolla, the scoop shop will serve a special ice cream flavor created with acclaimed San Diego chef and former Top Chef contestant Brian Malarkey.
The flavor, Roasted Beets & Goat Cheese, features beet ice cream ribboned with a roasted beet and apple jam, swirled together with a chevre goat cheese gelato and splattered with candied walnuts. The flavor — which debuted in Salt & Straw’s 2018 Guest Chef Collaboration Series — will be available in limited quantities for opening weekend while supplies last.
Salt & Straw will also accept donations to San Diego’s Doyle Elementary School during opening weekend.
In addition to the special flavor and fundraiser, Salt & Straw will feature its Upcycled Food Series on the menu.
Available from Friday through the month of June, the series features five flavors, each in partnership with brands focused on reducing food waste in the U.S. Through the series, Salt & Straw aims to save roughly 38,000 pounds of food from going to waste.
“We’re working with five different organizations that are upcycling food that would have gone to waste and turning it into beautiful ice cream flavors,” said Malek, whose favorite classic flavor is Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper. “It’s been a life-changing experience for us.”
The growing company has plans to continue to expand, with a couple more shops slated to open later this year in Southern California, Malek said. As for San Diego? Another scoop shop in the region isn’t off the table.
“With the incredible welcome we’ve had in San Diego, we are always continuing to look around and see where the right place is,” she said.
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