although winter is trudging on, we know warm spring days are just around the corner. with that said we are looking to add more spooniesl! we need part & full time spoonies that can commit to work through the end of summer. we are taking applications now and plan to start interviews in early march. our busy season starts in the middle/end of the march so we need to staff up. we offer only a couple "summer-only" positions and seek folks that will be around for a while. if you've never had a job, don't be afraid to apply! one of our missions is to cultivate work ethic. our trade-off is we look for a longer term commitment - anyone we hire in the spring & have to teach basic job skills would have to commit to working for about a year (during school next fall/winter).

we offer competitive wages, tasty treats and a positive work enviroment (& health benefits & more for eligible spoonies are available!)

download the application and take a look (they are also available at the store). it has lots of information about the job and also asks lots of questions. (it should print out and fold into a double sided, trifold)

Download file

some basics: all new spoonies must work at least 2 shifts a week (about 12-15 hours minimum) including a closing shift during the week (monday-thursday) & a weekend shift (friday-sunday). it's a fun place to work but we have high expectations for work ethic and attention to detail. we need applicants to be self-motivated & responsible . . . bordering on compulsive!

please return the application in person to the spoon. we will contact applicants if their application matches our current needs. yeah for being a part of feeding people tasty things!

On December 16th, the bent spoon joined the gathering of sustainable food purveyors, producers and cooks at the New Market Building in Manhattan's Seaport neighborhood. 5000 New Yorkers & visitors braved the harsh weather to get a taste of the place. The New Amsterdam Public wintermarket was an effort to bring together foodies involved in all parts of the food chain to promote sustainable agriculture & stengthen regional food systems. Moreover, the goal of the event is to draw support for a permanent new public market that teaches not only the value of food for its nourishment but for how and where its produced.

over the upcoming week our case will be filled with those flavors that are quite significant to us. here is a sampling of flavors that will appear (& disappear!) over next several days:

bourbon pumpkin (with chocolate covered maple candied walnuts) and ginger pumpkin (with pieces of crystallized ginger) (made with cherry grove organically grown long island cheese pumpkins), cranberry cider sorbet (with terhune apple cider & jersey cranberries), wild turkey chocolate bourbon pecan (like chocolate pecan pie with wild turkey bourbon), cranberry mascarpone (with nj cranberries), madagascar vanilla bourbon caramel (with maker's mark & jim beam bourbon & our fleur de sel handmade caramel), cinnamon (with indonesian & chinese cinnamons), brown sugar & clove (made with natually processed, molassesy, muscavado brown sugar).

soon enough more of the christmas & new years flavors will appear. we're looking forward to our peppermint schtick (with pieces of our handmade all naturally colored & organic peppermint flavored candy canes), eggnog, anise seed (makes us think of pizzelles warm off of the iron), pear prosecco (with organic pears & a tasty sparkling italian wine) & grapefruit campari (with freshly squeezed organic grapefruits).

hours this week: monday 11-6; tues 11-10; wednesday 11-6; closed thanksgiving; black friday 12-11.

remember that the palmer square christmas tree lighting is this friday novemberf 23! stop by and warm up with some of our thick & rich euro style hot chocolate & homemade madagascar vanilla bean marshies!

so what do we consider our ice cream & sorbets anyway? well, we call it artisan ice cream & sorbet. this is to highlight the traditional, slower, ingredient-driven, by-hand methods we use to produce it. we roast nuts, make them into nut butters, hand crack & separate dozens of local, certified organic farm eggs each week. we pit & peel & blend up all manner of fruits (and extra-special vegetables) into intensely and super fresh-flavored sorbets. just like little "arteests", but nature is our palette!

we sometimes refer to it as gelato-style ice cream & sorbet in the store, but it's truly a hybrid of (traditionally northern-style) italian gelato, traditional french glace & american ice cream. we make all of our bases from scratch, by making a crème anglaise custard base using those special eggs from farmer john @ runnin free farm and dairy from new jersey (hormone- & antibiotic-free) cows. we run our batches fresh daily (often many more times than that), with a very low amount of air (called overrun) whipped in. finally, we serve the product immediately (not deep freezing it) out of an italian gelato case.

yum. it's really quite a community culinary event, with lots of local animals, bees, farmers, & spoonies participating in the process!

anyway, thanks bon appetit magazine!

the flavor: we infused our tasty 61% dark chocolate ice cream with the locally grown mint to make a creamy delicious treat. throughout the growing season we produce a special flavor (in cooperation with the whole earth center & often other local producers) as a donation to the princeton school gardens.

stop by the whole earth center this month to get a pint for $7.50.
all but $.50 (for the snazzy reusable packaging) goes to the program.

we're pleased to report that our neighbor and farm friends at terhune orchards were picked as another "local secret, big find" for 2007! yay!

slow food usa is holding its annual auction with proceeds benefiting slow food programs nationally and locally. as members of slow food we are proud to participate in this auction.

the slow food movement is active in 50 countries with a worldwide membership over 80,000. the movement is a reaction to the homogenization & standardization of food, flavor and tastes. slow food is dedicated to preserving traditional methods of food production, taste, culture and the environment.

at the bent spoon we look to using local products (eggs, fruits, herbs, etc) first in crafting our artisan ice cream and sorbet. moreover, we make our product fresh daily, entirely from scratch utilizing traditional methods that require more time and effort but we believe makes our product taste better.

our auction contribution: we are offering six pints of our artisan ice cream or sorbet packed up and shipped to anywhere in the continental usa! click here to check out our item in the auction.

please help preserve the unique & exciting tastes from around the world by supporting slow food in this auction and by pints of our artisan ice cream or sorbet packed up and shipped to anywhere in the continental usa! becoming a member.

we're back at mediterra's plaza for monday movie night!

each movie night we'll have our custom vespa with ice cream sidecar in the plaza serving up bent spoon goodness. . . we'll have selection of our artisan ice creams and sorbets available.

bring a blanket or a chair and sit back to enjoy some classic movies starting around 8:30 pm (dusk).

the line up:
june 11th ~the muppet movie
june 18th ~a fistful of dollars
june 25h ~north by northwest
july 9th ~the bride of frankenstein
july 16th ~vitelloni
july 23th ~a night at the opera
july 30th ~rudy

please stop by the whole earth center to get a pint! all but $.50 (for the reusable packaging) of the $7.50 is a donation to the edible garden program. currently the donations are towards the garden at littlebrook elementary school. If you stopped by the spoon over the past couple days we hope you got to try the raspberry mint sorbet with organic raspberries and locally grown mint from the riverside school!

yay princeton!

in this month's issue of nj monthly, princeton is named as one of new jersey's best downtowns. the article leads in with "brains and beauty --and artisinal ice cream." yay! the article gives a brief history of the town & also mentions some of our neighboring businesses. we hope the resurgence of interest in living, shopping & eating in downtowns in nj continues. we truly believe we are fortunate that princeton has retained its walk-ability along with its unique charm. happy spring!