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Thai Ice Cream Roll Store Closes 5 Months After Its Debut on Austin Street

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | December 1, 2016 2:35pm
 Snow Story, serving Thai-style ice cream rolls, closed after opening at 72-38 Austin St. in June.
Snow Story, serving Thai-style ice cream rolls, closed after opening at 72-38 Austin St. in June.
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DNAinfo.com/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

QUEENS — An ice cream parlor serving Thai-style ice cream rolls closed five months after it opened on Austin Street due to declining demand, its manager said.

“It didn’t make sense to keep it open in the winter,” said Tommy Zhang, a manager at Snow Story, which opened at 72-38 Austin St. at the corner of 72nd Road in June.

The store owners, who signed a 3-year lease, posted a ‘for rent’ sign in the window in hopes of subletting the space to another business, Zhang said.

Snow Story, where customers could watch as ice cream base was poured and spread over a flattop before being scraped into several rolls, faced strong competition ever since it opened.

Snowdays shaved cream shop opened its new outpost at 72-24 Austin St. in May.

The busy commercial strip also used to feature a Haagen-Dazs store at 70-40 Austin St. The parlor, however, closed in September after more than two decades.

Shake Shack, which opened at 71-26 Austin St. in May, also serves frozen custard, and a nearby Dunkin Donuts, at 73-02 Austin St., offers Baskin-Robbins ice cream. 

The closure of Snow Story prompted dozens of comments on a neighborhood Facebook page

"For anything to survive on Austin Street, you better be original," one member wrote.

"How do you open ice cream shops on top of ice cream shops!," wrote another. 

Zhang said that, depending on whether the owners will find someone willing to take over the lease, there is still a chance the ice cream store may reopen in spring.

“We will see,” he said.