Petrushka Bazin Larsen and Nick Larsen
Sugar Hill Creamery | New York
february 2023
Although Nick Larsen and Petrushka Bazin Larsen have made their ice cream business a cornerstone in Harlem, neither started their careers in hospitality. Growing up in Minnesota, Nick Larsen moved to New York City to pursue a career in comedy, waiting tables as a side gig to pay the bills. Realizing the entertainment industry wasn’t for him, Larsen went all in on restaurants—following a front of house path and working as a server at Bar Boulud, captain at Bouley, service director at Blue Hill, and eventually general manager of Telepan.
Petrushka Bazin Larsen came to ice cream from a different angle: her career was in museum curation and education. While in grad school in San Francisco, Bazin Larsen and her friends would frequent Bi-Rite Creamery for creative flavors, like their signature orange and cardamom. Moving back to New York City, Bazin Larsen worked at the Studio Museum in Harlem and was the program director for The Laundromat Project. She also served as the Vice President of Programs & Education for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum from 2015 to 2017.
When Telepan closed in 2016, Nick was left without a job. Feeling inspired by a delicious bowl of ice cream on a hot day in Washington, D.C., the couple began working on the concept that would become Sugar Hill Creamery. In 2017, Bazin Larsen came on full-time, bringing her community building expertise to the business. Not only serving delicious ice cream, the duo also uses their business to create meaningful programming for the Harlem community, their neighborhood for close to 20 years. Their Mayor of Harlem Award, for example, highlights community leaders and creators and their causes. Larsen and Bazin Larsen’s shops also serve as important community hubs. They host new mothers' groups, a rotating roster of speakers, and also give their staff pop-up space to support and market their professional passions (whether it be culinary, art, or music-focused).
