Today may have seemed like your typical rainy day in New York City, complete with unreasonable train delays and lost eyes due to commuters with umbrellas.
But today was no typical day, because today was the grand opening of Wowfulls first brick-and-mortar shop on the lower east side.
For those who don’t know, Wowfulls serves Ice Cream desserts revolving around egg waffles also known as Gai Dàn Jai, which originated in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Wowfulls began popping up in New York with stalls at the seasonal, Smorgasburg, a gathering of local food vendors (opening for the season, this weekend) as well as summer music festivals such as GovBall.
Today, Wowfulls celebrated their grand opening with $1 Wowfulls for the first fifty guests, $5 for everyone else (a deal which will last all weekend), plus exclusive Wowfulls t-shirts and pins.
You may still be rolling your eyes, similar to some of my friends who were all..
And to answer that question,
If you’ve read my previous post on NYC Food Fads then you’ll know that there isn’t much that will stop me when it comes to popular new food joints. I won’t lie though, during the final ten minutes of waiting I was sure that I would lose all my toes or at least a couple of my fingers; and I did consider quitting. But I had come so close, and I was getting that t-shirt.
I’m going to save myself the embarrassment of stating exactly how long I waited, but Wowfulls only opened at 1PM and as I write this, it is only 4:15 and I am warm, dry, and sipping orange spice tea.
Wowfulls is a small shop, which I expected, so there were only so many people who were let in at a a time. As far as how they designed their small shop, I adore it.
From white-painted brick walls to wooden shelves of team Polaroid’s and mock-Wowfulls, you can tell that a lot of though went into the design. But at the same time, the whole place is so understated. A+ for decor, Wowfulls.
Customers have the choice of three different waffles wowfulls.
- The original Wowfull
- The coconut Wowfull
- The coffee Wowfull
I have heard that they also have an amazing green-tea Wowfull, so my guess is that the menu will eventually expand or at least rotate daily.
Then of course you have your choice of ice cream, toppings, and drizzle.
I went with an original Wowfull with captain crunch cookies & cream ice cream (because seriously, how epic is that combination?), and a condensed milk drizzle with white chocolate chips.
I’m going to cut to the chase and say that Wowfulls gets a big 10/10 for me.
While the ice cream and toppings were mouthwatering, it really is the waffle that makes the snack. It’s soft, but still has the slightest crisp to it so that it holds it’s shape and texture. Not to mention, the staff is awesome! For a group of people who had already been making these awesome concoctions and dealing with customers for two hours straight, they were still bubbly, upbeat and super friendly.
You could tell that they are a team made up of people who are proud to have gotten this far, and are super excited to be a part of this.
Moral of the story: Go get a Wowfull.
In case you’re interested in saying “hi”, I’ll be there at least five more times this spring wearing my exclusive Wowfulls LES t-shirt.
