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Afters Ice Cream Milky Buns Land in Pasadena
Hey guys, want some Milky Buns? Last night, cult favorite Afters Ice Cream opened in Pasadena to bring their novelty ice cream confections to the L.A. masses.
For those unfamiliar with the shop's signature "Milky Bun," it's a large glazed doughnut with no hole. Afters uses a patented press with metal plates to seal the bun and press in ice cream, and the result is a sweet, warm bun on the outside and frozen ice cream inside.
Food entrepreneurs Scott Nghiem, Andy Nguyen, and David Ly are behind the shop. The trio, who already have Afters locations in Tustin, Chino Hills, Long Beach, and Fountain Valley, spoke to LAist as they were preparing for last night's Pasadena grand opening.
“We’re really excited to bring the Milky Bun to a whole new audience. This location used to be an old vintage gas station. It has tons of personality compared to our other stores so we knew when we saw it that we wanted to be here,” Nguyen said.
The Pasadena location will have the same ice cream flavors as Afters' other outposts: "Cookie Monster," which is blue cookies and cream, jasmine milk tea, churro, Vietnamese coffee, and others. You can get a Milky Bun for $6 and add extra toppings like Fruity Pebbles breakfast cereal and mochi. The Pasadena shop will also allow patrons to do a 50/50 mix of two ice cream flavors inside a Milky Bun.
For those who thought the Milky Bun was a gimmick with a silly name, with over 300,000 sold, Afters is clearly no laughing matter. Since opening in 2014, Afters has become the most reviewed frozen dessert shop in Orange County on Yelp. The Fountain Valley location still has waits at night that can go up to 45 minutes.
Like Afters' locations, the Pasadena store will be open noon to midnight. “We’re all about a midnight and late night culture so we welcome that. We will be focusing on Los Angeles County for Afters so look out for more popping up near you,” Nghiem said.
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The next Afters location will be in Rowland Heights. In addition to Afters' expansion, Nghiem and Nguyen are also involved with GD Bro Burger, Nudo Nudo and are planning to open U Jelly in a few weeks, which will be a doughnut shop with sweet jelly drinks and their take on Vietnamese bánh mì sandwiches.
Afters Ice Creamis located at 1265 East Green Street in Pasadena.
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