Häagen-Dazs Shops is marking 50 years of New York City retail with a 10-day LTO co-developed with Supermoon Bakehouse, the Lower East Side bakery known for viral, flavor-forward pastries. The Ube, Vanilla & Cornflake Cookie Dazzler runs October 15–25 exclusively across 10 Häagen-Dazs Shops locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan — the same market where the chain opened its first unit on Montague Street in Brooklyn in 1976.
The LTO Build
The limited item layers Häagen-Dazs's original Vanilla Ice Cream — one of the brand's founding flavors — with three Supermoon signatures: an Ube Glaze, crumbled Honey Roasted Cornflake, Macadamia & White Chocolate Cookie, and Honey Joy Cluster. The build is finished with whipped cream, an additional Honey Joy Cluster, and a second application of Ube Glaze. The construction follows a documented industry trend toward textural contrast and global-flavor layering in premium frozen-dessert dayparts, where ube has emerged as a recurring menu signal among operators targeting millennial and Gen Z dessert occasions.
The chain operates 200-plus franchised shops nationally, making the New York concentration of this LTO a deliberate market-specific play rather than a systemwide rollout. Confining the item to 10 units limits franchisee execution risk while generating localized traffic and earned media — a trade-off increasingly common among franchise systems testing premium, ingredient-intensive menu builds before broader deployment. The anniversary framing also supports brand equity for franchise recruitment, reinforcing the chain's tenure and urban-market roots to prospective area development agreement candidates.
Anniversary Traffic Driver
To drive opening-day traffic to the original Montague Street location, the brand is offering the first 50 guests $0.50 Dazzlers, $50 gift cards, and additional anniversary gifts on October 15 — a promotional mechanic that fuses nostalgia with tangible transaction incentive. Adam Hanson, President of Häagen-Dazs Shops, called Supermoon "the perfect partner to help us celebrate 50 years of Häagen-Dazs Shops with a truly one-of-a-kind creation." Aron Tzimas, Founder of Supermoon Bakehouse, described the collaboration as "both nostalgic and completely new — a true celebration of two New York originals."
The partnership reflects a broader operator strategy of cross-brand collaborations to extend reach without permanent menu complexity. For Supermoon — a single-location artisan bakery with significant social media traction and critical recognition from outlets including The New York Times and Eater NY — the tie-up provides franchise-scale distribution for its flavor signatures without capital outlay. For Häagen-Dazs Shops, aligning with a culturally resonant independent validates premium positioning at a moment when the frozen-dessert segment faces traffic pressure from fast-casual competitors and at-home consumption trends. Operators in the premium ice cream and dessert-focused QSR category have increasingly leaned on chef collaborations and limited-time menu storytelling to defend check averages and sustain daypart relevance.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
