Elena’s on Orange

Soft serve ice cream has always been more than a sweet treat for me – it’s a link to my childhood and a bridge between my family’s cultures. My dad, half-Norwegian and half-Greek, loved taking my sister and I for ice cream outings. 

My dad lived in Norway as a kid, the country with the highest ice cream consumption per capita, and often indulged in soft serve at local stands. When we moved to Athens, he sought out those similar flavors wherever he could find them, hoping to share his Norwegian memories with my sister and I. His favorite destination was IKEA. Not for the furniture, but for the soft serve cones at the end of the store. He would say those cones were the closest tasting to the ice cream he grew up with. In my view they taste simple, yet their cold and creamy texture make them a wonderful summer treat.

Since I was a kid, I always found myself drawn to soft serve ice cream wherever I go. If there is a stand nearby,  9/10 I will go and buy a cone. So when I heard that Elena’s on Orange opened in New Haven, I was thrilled. 

Elena’s only offers three flavors: classic vanilla, vegan chocolate made with oat milk, and a rotating weekly special. Every Wednesday they also have a test-kitchen flavor which they may or may not make the weekly special. Some flavors I’ve tried include miso, basil, and chai. 

It’s hard to put into words how delicious Elena’s ice cream is. The easiest way to explain it is that it is always the highlight of my day, no matter what kind of day I’ve had. The vanilla is so luxuriously creamy with a hint of sweetness, and the vegan chocolate is rich and velvety. The shop also offers a ton of toppings to personalize your cone, but my personal favorite (and also Elena’s) is a chocolate shell sprinkled with flaky sea salt. It is perfect in every bite. 

Every time I visit Elena’s it feels like a little nod to my childhood memories that has made soft serve so special to me. It’s a simple pleasure, but one that reminds me how much food can connect us to our past.