Some of the region’s best ice cream recently expanded to Larchmont with a new location and a rainbow of flavors — just in time for L.A.’s current heatwave.
Dayglow coffee’s Tohm Ifergan and chef Zen Ong (formerly of Inda and E.P. & L.
P.) debuted Awan in West Hollywood in 2021 , and the plant-based ice cream made from Balinese vanilla and coconut cream instantly took off, garnering collaborations with and support from world-famous chefs, musicians and fashion designers. “We’re a vegan company second,” Ong said.
“To me the goal was the Indonesian core of it, the passion through it all — then realizing that the core recipe is vegan, being like, ‘Let’s just double down on it.’” In addition to being entirely plant-based, the ice cream ingredients are meticulously sourced. Awan’s chocolate ice cream, for example, involves kluwek, an Indonesian mangrove seed that, when fermented, yields an almost malted-chocolate flavor.
Its lemonade-inspired scoop blends Yuzu Co.’s imported fresh yuzu with live blue spirulina. And the signature vanilla includes shavings of gula jawa, the sugar of Indonesian coconut palms.
Next door on Melrose Avenue sits a new outpost of Dayglow, Ifergan’s coffee shop, which offers roughly 20 varieties of coffee. Dayglow focuses not only on single-sourced beans but also whimsical caffeinated concoctions inspired by films, directors and other creatives. The first Awan opened next door to West Hollywood’s Dayglow, launching as a walk.
