A childhood staple is getting a well-deserved upgrade in Richmond. Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches, a small-batch dessert operation with roots in the kitchen of Greenleaf’s Pool Room, is serving up something familiar—but better. Way better.
Co-owner and executive chef Hannah Pollack started making the sandwiches as a kind of throwback. “We wanted to do an old-school dessert,” she says. “That’s kind of what we do at Greenleaf—old-school dishes, just updated.” It didn’t take long for the idea to move from a one-off kitchen experiment to a full-blown business. “We started selling them at the farmer’s market and people really seemed to like them, so it just kind of took off.”
Pollack named the business after the Oriental Nightingale—a nod to a legendary pool player and the wife of Ralph Greenleaf, namesake of the downtown bar where she works. That same kitchen is where she still makes every batch of ice cream sandwiches by hand, with help from her husband and co-owner Xavier Meers, plus her parents, who help stamp and label packaging.
Forget the sad, freezer-burned sandwiches you remember from ice cream trucks. Nightingale’s version is thick, soft, and genuinely indulgent. The ice cream is churned fresh. The cookies are baked from scratch. And the result is rich, creamy, and deeply satisfying. “My goal is to keep the quality, no matter how many we make or sell,” Pollack says. “It’s really important to me that every sandwich we put out makes people happy.”
Each batch takes two full days to make—from mixing and baking to freezing and assembling—which means Pollack is in near-constant production mode. Since launching officially in October 2015, the business has grown fast. Their first wholesale account came in early 2016 with Chiocca’s Deli. Not long after, Nightingale sandwiches started showing up in coolers across central Virginia: Elwood Thompson’s, Shields Market, Tom Leonard’s, JM Stock, Outpost Richmond, and The Bucket Trade in Petersburg, among others.
Flavors rotate with the seasons, but a few have become fan favorites. The Classic—vanilla ice cream between two chocolate brownie cookies—is the flagship, available year-round. Others like strawberry shortcake, key lime, salted caramel, and the indulgent Fat Elvis (banana ice cream and peanut butter cookies, dipped in chocolate) have developed a loyal following. “The Fat Elvis is just fun,” Pollack says. “It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid.”
This summer’s newcomers include chocolate-covered cherry—vanilla ice cream with fresh cherries, chocolate brownie cookies, and a chocolate dip—and a white peach sandwich with chunky peach ice cream and sugar cookies.
Pollack is also clear about what keeps her business grounded: supporting Richmond’s local food economy. Nightingale sources all its ingredients locally, and sells exclusively through independent shops and markets. “I think it’s really important, especially in Richmond, to support all the local businesses,” she says. “There’s so many of them, and we all need to support each other or there’s no way we’re gonna make it.”
You can find Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches at Greenleaf’s Pool Room, 100 N. 6th Street, or pick one up from a local vendor. Just don’t expect to stop at one.
