Haagen-Dazs

Haagen-Dazs was founded in the Bronx, New York by Reuben and Rose Mattus in 1961, who invented the brand name to evoke a Scandinavian artisanal quality that the product, which was made in New York from American ingredients, did not actually have. The invented Danish-sounding name, which means nothing in any language, was a marketing choice rather than a description, but the product it marketed was genuinely different from the American ice cream of the time. The Mattuses used cream instead of milk solids, real egg yolks instead of stabilizers, and no air pumped into the mix to increase volume, which produced an ice cream with higher butterfat content and denser texture than the national brands.

The formulation that Reuben and Rose Mattus developed became the definition of super-premium ice cream, the category that distinguished itself from the standard commercial ice cream through the higher fat content, the lower overrun (the amount of air incorporated during churning), and the use of real ingredients rather than artificial flavors. The standard commercial ice cream of the 1960s and 1970s contained 25 to 50 percent air by volume; Haagen-Dazs was formulated at much lower overrun, which produced the spoon-resistant density that made the brand’s texture distinctive.

The Georgetown M Street scoop shop at 3120 serves the M Street commercial foot traffic with the Haagen-Dazs portfolio of classic and seasonal flavors. The vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and rum raisin that the brand established as its signature flavors continue to be among the most ordered at the M Street location, alongside the more recent additions to the portfolio.

The M Street dessert location serves the post-dinner and shopping-break ice cream demand that Georgetown’s commercial corridor generates. Hours run from noon daily with extended close on Friday and Saturday. The Haagen-Dazs M Street Georgetown address serves the dessert demand of the commercial street in the mid-block of the main M Street retail cluster, which generates the post-shopping and post-dinner pedestrian traffic that an ice cream shop at this address captures. The M Street foot traffic on weekend evenings, which is the highest density pedestrian traffic in Georgetown, passes the 3120 address regularly, and the scoop shop format is well-suited to the walk-and-eat consumption mode that M Street encourages. For the family visiting Georgetown on a Saturday, the Haagen-Dazs at 3120 M Street provides the familiar and reliable ice cream option in the commercial district’s dessert category, alongside the artisan and chain ice cream options that the M Street and K Street cluster also provides. The Georgetown M Street scoop shop at 3120 is open from noon daily and serves the commercial street foot traffic through the evening hours. For the Georgetown visitor who has completed the main M Street shopping circuit and wants a post-shopping ice cream before returning to the car or crossing back to the Key Bridge, the Haagen-Dazs at 3120 M is the reliable choice at the point where the walk turns around. The brand’s selection of flavors, stable across decades, provides the certainty that a familiar brand offers.