The Curious Case of D.C.’s Three-Figured Sundae Sensation (2024)

Caviar. Colorful gummy bears. Foie gras fat-infused cookies. Amaretto-soaked truffle ice cream. Umami-fied whipped cream. Sprinkles. These ingredients may not seem like they belong together — let alone on the same spoon — but at Pineapple & Pearls, they do.

The wild-sounding sundae station first landed on tables a few years ago at chef Aaron Silverman’s Capitol Hill showpiece and just one of three D.C. restaurants boasting 2-Michelin-starred status (Minibar and Jônt are the others). “Thousands” have been sold ever since, he reports, which suggests its whopping $150-a-pop price tag is no object when it comes to the luxe add-on after dinner (715 8th Street SE).

“We always have one optional special that is kind of over-the-top, ridiculous, and usually ends up being expensive,” says Silverman. These days he goes by “founder and creative director” of Rose’s Restaurant Group, which also includes one-starred Rose’s Luxury and Little Pearl nearby.

While there’s no dress code at Pineapple & Pearls, per se, customers booking on Resy are encouraged to come in their best “New Year’s Eve” celebratory look. As an ultimate special-occasion spot, a baller ice cream party might as well be the finale to an imaginative American tasting menu they’re already willing to pay $345 apiece for.

Scott Suchman

Silverman’s selling point for that extra sundae splurge? “This is something that you literally can’t get anywhere else in the world. Why? Because no one else is crazy enough to serve this,” he says.

The idea to construct ice cream with truffles and booze may never have happened, had early 2020 played out differently.

“When the pandemic hit we had all these truffles that were going to go bad because we closed,” he says. That’s when a light bulb went off: to poach and preserve peak seasonal shipments of Burgundy truffles in alcohol for a rainy-day use down the line. Now the black truffle-infused amaretto and squirts of truffle juice get blended into a rich ice cream base. The whole shebang whisked in a big silver bowl gets the Pacojet treatment and overnight freeze.

The gummy bear element took an unexpected amount of R&D. On a quest for the brand that tastes best with the sundae service’s wacky flavor pool, the team ordered an endless supply online. They bought so many bags, he says, Amazon originally flagged their account as hacked.

The winner was ultimately Albanese’s Gummi Bears, “which believe it or not, pair perfectly with caviar,” he says. The 40-year-old candy manufacturer in Indiana specializes in 12 squishy flavors like pink grapefruit, watermelon, and mango.

The dessert’s assembly line starts with the basics: dumping out a five-pound Albanese bag and sorting the cuties by color into clear containers. Over 70 bears, all neatly standing up in rainbow-like rows, finally find a home on each etched crystal plate.

Next up: spiraling Yukon gold potatoes into angel hair spaghetti curls, which get dumped in a fryer to produce a big web of crispy shoestring spuds. The nest gets smashed up to provide a crunchy ice cream counterpart.

Things start getting more complex (and non-vegetarian) from here, starting with the production of foie gras fat-infused sable cookies. After the luxe dough is hand-rolled between wax paper, the sheet gets a 30-minute trip in the oven before the carbs are cooled and broken up into various shapes and sizes for an ice cream shovel with French flair.

The dessert also calls for a whipped cream that swings savory due to dashi, blackened banana butterscotch sauce, and a generous dollop of Kaluga. The showy centerpiece of the puzzle is also a fluctuating factor in price (“at your leisure, order as much or as little caviar as you please,” he says).

Silverman is known to transform into a soda pop shop owner while dropping off the whimsical spread with tableside shavings of (more) truffles and frozen foie gras torchon atop each cold scoop. “We sometimes serve it wearing paper hats for fun — depending on the crowd,” he says.

Outside of the 28-seat dining room with a chef’s counter, the interactive conversation starter has also proven to be a natural fit at big-ticketed events. Silverman showcased the ice cream bar last year at the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival and Cartier’s glitzy annual jewelry gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in D.C. More recently, it was the comforting finale at a Moon Rabbit fundraiser for World Central Kitchen families affected by the devastating April 1 airstrike.

Tierney Plumb/Eater DC

The original vision for the sundae came from some of Silverman’s former chefs, and certain elements have expectedly evolved over the years. For instance, earlier choices for carbs (black olive shortbread) and caviar (California white Sturgeon) were later subbed out.

D.C. food influencer Danny Kim (@dannygrubs) recently posted a behind-the-scenes look inside the sundae-making process. His TikTok video went viral with over 577,000 views — and plenty of unsavory comments.

“People who aren’t local say ‘that sounds disgusting’ — and it does,” says Silverman. “It sounds like a Chuck E. Cheese dessert. It honestly probably shouldn’t taste good but it does — it’s amazing.”

Meanwhile, Pineapple & Pearls caused its own social media frenzy this spring by announcing its first-ever “singles night” mixer over dinner on the restaurant’s tab. The response blew past expectations, he says, with “thousands” of candidates flooding its DMs — and some going as far as submitting video entries. Six chosen applicants ultimately won a seat at the same Michelin-starred table on Thursday, May 16.

“One of our goals this year is to have more fun,” says Silverman, of the last-minute promo. Eater couldn’t confirm whether they shared the sundae after their free four-course spread.