Hokey Pokey, Ice Cream, Prenzlauer Berg

 You need to have a compelling reason top open an ice cream shop in Berlin.

I say this because ice cream is the number two most popular thing to eat here after sausages.  You can’t find a cluster of restaurants without an ice cream shop.  Everyone does it, young old, suited, barefoot, they are all licking away.  There is no shame in ordering a spaghetti ice (vanilla ice cream pressed through a potato ricer and topped with a strawberry sauce to mimic tomato sauce and white sprinkles to suggest Parmesan) no matter what your age.Ice cream in Berlin is cheap.  One scoop is usually around €1 (although two years ago, I remember it being €0.60 at the shop across the street).  The bright, crayola box flavours are often wacky; black vanilla, sweet woodruff or the mouth puckering German darling, from everything to face creams to health tonics to….ice cream - sea buckthorn.  At €1 a scoop, I am game to try most of them, cast off my shoes and waggle my toes happily at the simplicity of it all.Whenever I am in Prenzlauerberg for a meal (A Magica tonight) I often skip dessert and go for a decidedly fancier scoop with a lot of American / British flavours like Rocky Road, Banana Peanut Butter and the one for which the shop is named: Hokey Pokey.  But also a lot of superb single flavours - Sicilian pistachio, Indian Mango, Hazelnut and so on.The ice cream at Hokey Pokey is as good as that of Vanille & Marille in Kreuzberg but oddly without the long line and more places to sit.  Incidentally, I heard a rumor that the team behind Hokey Pokey was somehow related to or had done time at Vanille & Marille.  (Lovely post on Vanille & Marille from The Wednesday Chef on her Berlin on a Platter website here).

Hokey Pokey
Stargarder Strasse 73
10437, Prenzlauer Berg
T. 0176 80103080
www.hokey-pokey.de

12 Responses to Hokey Pokey, Ice Cream, Prenzlauer Berg

  1. Sasa says:

    Hokey Pokey, a New Zealand classic! Even though it’s winter here, we’ve been eating a lot of icecream, last night was gingernut (as in the biscuits (cookies) do you know them?) icecream with apple crumble, a winning combination, the first time together, but not the last. Once in Japan I had squid ink icecream and also beer icecream, neither of which I recommend particularly.

    • I do know Anzac biscuits as a matter of fact. Anna Hansen (New Zealander) , who went on to open The Modern Pantry, used to make them for Melrose and Morgan. Yum.

  2. as i leave around the corner, i pass the place very often, but never tried it. now i have to… :D

  3. Giulia says:

    Is that Mango L. is holding? it looks lovely. And I can’t believe how long her hair is getting…time flies.

  4. Sylee says:

    I think he mentioned he worked as a pâtissier in the Ritz? I make excuses to go to Prenzlauer Berg (almost an hour’s journey now!) just to eat the ice cream here. I wish I were joking! A divine vanilla on a hot day last week, crackly with seeds…

    • I’ve tried quite a few of their flavours now and they are excellent. I am always surprised I don’t see more people on the benches outside? Don’t they know how good that ice cream is?

  5. andBerlin says:

    I definitely have to go here - another place added to an ever-growing list!

  6. I love Hockey Pockey! It’s so close to where I live that I am a regular. You must have been lucky though because usually, you do have to wait in line. The patissier behind it gave an excellent sorbet-making-course at Goldhahn & Sampson a couple of weeks ago! It was a fun evening, I especially loved the chocolat sorbet me made!

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