Inside Caleta, Bad Habit’s New “Not a Wine Bar”
The full scoop 🍨
The Deligram shines a spotlight on the many incredible food artisans of New York–and beyond. This week, we’re circling back to the first makers we featured: Jesse and Javier Zuniga of Bad Habit Ice Cream. Back in March 2021, the newly engaged couple was working full-time in restaurants, and also spending 40-50 hours a week making delicious ice cream out of their Bushwick apartment. A lot has changed since then. Now, they’re married and opening up Caleta, their first brick-and-mortar shop and bar in the East Village. Here, the duo provides an exclusive preview of their new space
Jesse: It’s sort of funny to try to answer… honestly we probably haven’t fully processed it yet. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. We’re feeling a lot of emotions: excited for the future, proud of what we have been able to accomplish, and so ready to welcome guests this weekend!
When we started Bad Habit we really weren’t expecting it to change our lives in the way it did. We were both working in kitchens for major chefs, and we were focusing on that. When Bad Habit started getting popular enough for us to do that full-time, we jumped in the deep end. I’m sure some people thought we were crazy for going for it… but it’s been nothing short of the most fulfilling experience.
We worked on Bad Habit for a year full-time while also working full-time as Sous Chefs. About a year after doing that, we started looking for our first brick-and-mortar. We had majorly outgrown our space (our small apartment had been taken over by chest freezers, boxes of packaging and ice cream machines). From the beginning we knew that we wanted to create a concept that would be public-facing and would be the home to Bad Habit so that we could create a conceptual world surrounding the ice cream, while also allowing us to expand wholesale production (we’re relaunching our wholesale program late January 2023).
Javier: Caleta is the home to all things Bad Habit and truly the stage where we can showcase our product. But it goes beyond just one pint of ice cream. Caleta is the loud music on the speakers, the drinks, the design of the space itself, and the people who work in it. It is less of an evolution than another storyline in the book. Guests are able to take Bad Habit ice cream flavors to stay or to go, but now they can also have beer, snacks, etc. They can come hoard pints of limited-edition flavors to their apartment, or they can tuck away in the lounge area on a date, they can come with their families and sit at the bar…
A great example of the relationship between the two brands is the dessert menu itself. The three plated desserts (they will rotate frequently) will always have Bad Habit as its main focus. For example, our summertime Sweet Corn Baked Alaska is back as a Houjicha Baked Alaska, and who knows… maybe that Houjicha ice cream will make its way into a limited-edition drop later this month!
Javier: Caleta is Venezuelan slang for a “secret way of doing something.” The initial idea behind Caleta stemmed from the fact that we never, ever, ever wanted to open a scoop shop. We wanted an ice cream shop where we can confidently present a guest with a perfectly balanced cup of ice cream and say that’s it… it doesn’t need anything else.
Caleta became the space that would function as a place to expand our menu (our flavor list here is three times as long as it has been before, and we’re also introducing Bad Habit sorbets for the first time!) and would also hopefully offer something unique to the neighborhood. Enter: our “Mom and Pop” space that is definitely “Not A Wine Bar’ and “Not a Scoop Shop.” It’s a totally new concept. No sprinkles, no add-ons; every square inch of this space has been thought out to add to the experience of Bad Habit.
Jesse: We have been lucky throughout this process that everything has happened very organically. Yes, we each work over 100 hours a week; yes, we are fully committed to bringing our dream to life; but we’ve been lucky that we haven’t had to force any of it. In our relationship, in our home, with our businesses, we have always felt that everything will happen when and how it’s supposed to. We always knew that we wanted to have our first brick-and-mortar in the East Village, and when we saw the space we laughed it off at first… It looked nothing like it does today. But we knew we wanted to take the leap, so we did. We signed a ten-year lease, built our dream team, tore down a lot of walls, built a lot of walls, and subsequently created a space that truly reflects us as individuals, as a couple and a team, and also a business; it equally speaks to the past as the future we hope to build.
Jesse: Our first date ever was at a dive bar in the East Village, and between the dark lights and the loud music we were able to forget about the outside world and to build a secret one for just us. We want to create that for everyone who comes in through our door, or has our ice cream elsewhere. This project is extremely personal; it’s our own playlists, it’s the dishes we’ve long wanted to snack on, and the energy we’ve always found comfort in. We hope guests will have a totally unique, unexpected experience.
Javier: At Caleta, the return of the mussel toast and new dishes like potatoes with hazelnut romesco and trout roe. With Bad Habit, it’s classics like crème brûlée next to exciting new flavors like dill and yuzu. Our flavor board will change frequently. Also, sorbets! Rather than sacrificing what Bad Habit ice creams are by creating a lesser vegan version of the original, we are launching a new line of vegan/dairy-free sorbets (first up: kiwi and lemon).
Jesse: The most challenging but also the most rewarding aspect of this project was how much of it was DIY. We learned quickly that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. And if you don’t know how to do it… you better learn… quick.
This project represents everything to us. We started two years ago by buying a small countertop machine, freshly engaged, with our puppy, Slayer, by our side. It means so much that we are able to bring our vision to life, and even more so that we are able to do it together on our terms. We hope that Caleta grows into a place ruled by organized chaos; the beauty of the East Village is in its innately undone nature. It’s unpretentious, it’s punk, it’s DIY, and within that there is room for beauty and refinement. For Bad Habit, we hope to continue playing around with different flavors, building our brand, and hopefully expand wholesale throughout the East Coast.
Want more? Revisit our original feature on Bad Habit Ice Cream here.
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Photos by Teddy Wolff for The Deligram.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.