Dirty Martini becomes soft serve: Taiwan’s NINAO teams up with a famous New York bar to create this summer’s most stylish dessert shop

The Lower East Side of Manhattan has long been known for its trendy restaurants and nightlife, and now there is another reason to make a special trip. Double Chicken Please, which has been named to The World’s 50 Best Bars list, has teamed up with Yu Lee, founder of Taiwanese soft-serve brand NINAO, to create a new soft-serve shop, Unnecessary. From a Dirty Martini to a Waldorf Salad with notes of whisky, this is more than dessert: it is “frozen cocktails” to be enjoyed by the spoonful.

When Double Chicken Please meets Taiwan’s NINAO

 

在 Instagram 查看這則貼文

 

Unnecessary（@unnecessarynewyork）分享的貼文

Known for turning food into cocktails, Double Chicken Please excels at transforming familiar flavors such as Cold Pizza, Key Lime Pie, and Mango Sticky Rice into drinks. This time, co-founders GN Chan, Faye Chen, and Frank Zheng invited NINAO founder and ice cream chef Yu Lee to bring the flavor ideas they have developed over the years to a more casual medium: soft serve.

Unnecessary carries on Double Chicken Please’s keen sensitivity to aroma and layers of flavor while incorporating NINAO’s command of frozen-dessert texture. Drawing on their respective expertise in cocktails and desserts, the two show that cocktails do not have to come in a glass; they can also become smooth, delicate soft serve full of variation.

A Dirty Martini becomes dessert, with an unexpectedly appealing savory flavor

 

在 Instagram 查看這則貼文

 

Unnecessary（@unnecessarynewyork）分享的貼文

The shop offers alcoholic and nonalcoholic options, and the most eye-catching is undoubtedly the Dirty Martini, inspired by the classic cocktail. Made with olives, fennel, juniper, dry vermouth, and Grey Goose Vodka, it transforms the cocktail’s crisp, spicy character into a chilled, creamy texture, with savory, herbal, and boozy notes unfolding layer by layer on the palate.

The current menu also includes Waldorf Salad, made with apple, grape, celery, walnut, and Islay whisky. Nonalcoholic flavors include Dodo Green, which blends Yakult, jasmine, and elderflower, and Not-So-Plain Vanilla, with bourbon vanilla, tonka bean, and osmanthus oolong. Even those who do not drink can experience the carefully structured aromas of a cocktail. Unnecessary’s official website

More than an ice cream shop, it is also a retro listening lounge

 

在 Instagram 查看這則貼文

 

Unnecessary（@unnecessarynewyork）分享的貼文

Unnecessary’s surprises extend to its space. Designed by Scott Kester Design, the interior uses cherry wood, warm lighting, and mid-century-inspired furniture to create the feeling of stepping into a vintage living room. Look up, and you will see a ceiling installation inspired by artist James Turrell. The shop also features a custom sound system and a vintage Hitachi amplifier, with DJ performances held from time to time. Beyond being a soft-serve shop, it also feels like a listening lounge where guests can slow down, listen to music, and take in the night. Time Out New York

The little “unnecessary” things may be what life needs most

 

在 Instagram 查看這則貼文

 

Unnecessary（@unnecessarynewyork）分享的貼文

The name Unnecessary may seem a little ironic, and its logo deliberately crosses out “Un,” leaving “Necessary.” Like dessert, cocktails, music, and art, these are not things one absolutely needs in life. Yet it is often these small pleasures that make an ordinary day worth remembering.

Unnecessary has officially opened at 66 Delancey Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, near Double Chicken Please. The next time you visit New York, save a little room after making a pilgrimage for world-class cocktails to try this Dirty Martini that must be enjoyed with a spoon.

Join Popbee Circle and subscribe to the Popbee newsletter to receive the latest updates and get early access to exclusive perks and special offers. Beyond this article, here are a few recent stories worth checking out: