- This is definitely my go-to place for ice cream
because the flavors are so good and different
and because everyone here is awesome.
Like, it's so fun to be around here.
- I go to school down the street,
and I was looking for ice cream, and it was just here.
It was the closest place.
Little did I know it was the best ice cream
I'd ever have for the rest of my life.
- Couldn't live without it.
So yeah, it's really good.
Like, out of 10, I'd say it's giving me a 12 right now.
Caroline: Meet Mashti and Mehdi Shirvani.
They own Mashti Malone's Ice Cream in Hollywood.
They're credited for introducing Persian ice cream to LA.
In a previous video, I crowned them
the best ice cream in LA.
And since then, I couldn't wait to go back for more.
We're back at Mashti Malone's.
Hello.
- Hello.
- How've you guys been?
- Very good.
- Whipping up some ice cream.
It's all my favorite flavors.
- I'm Mashti Shirvani, the older brother.
I came here before the revolution in Iran.
And in 1980 I opened this business.
I had little savings. I bought the business
from the landlord.
And I start making ice cream for local Iranians.
Meanwhile, I was working in the restaurant
to sort of support myself.
Little by little I started.
It was difficult first.
Especially, we don't have walking traffic here.
So I had to keep the customers when they were coming.
Every single person, I was giving them samples.
It's how I built my business.
Caroline: What sets it apart are the flavors.
Mehdi: We don't create, like, weird flavors.
It's mostly floral or fruit-based or herbal-based.
Things like that.
- We got the rosewater with noodles.
- First place I ever had Persian cucumber.
- And it's good.
It's great.
- Here you get all these wonderful flavors
that you don't get in Italy like with saffron.
This is like saffron and rosewater. This is orange blossom.
- I don't know what rosewater's normally used for,
but I love it in ice cream.
Mehdi: Saffron pistachio rosewater has been always
our bestseller.
Rose was
very unusual
and unknown
to American cuisine.
They'd never heard of rosewater.
So it took him and us
so much sampling and
kind of lecturing
about the ingredients.
So those who were not famiLiar with the flavor
to kind of accept that rose can be eaten too.
It's just like vanilla.
But the thing is vanilla is more popular here.
Rose is more popular in the other parts of the world.
Caroline: The creamery gets some of
its ingredients overseas
including imported saffron from Iran.
- Right now there is sanction, but right before sanction
we brought enough for-
- A lot, yeah.
- the next couple of years.
Mashti: Everything you see here, that's what we put.
As much as possible I use natural ingredients.
It's expensive, but I'm very happy.
Oh, it's an interesting yellow color.
It smells so good, yeah.
- We didn't put any food coloring, nothing.
- So the saffron gives it that yellow color.
Mashti: Yeah, yeah.
Wow.
Caroline: When you visit,
order the Mashti Ice Cream Sandwich.
It's Mashti's famous saffron-rosewater ice cream
sandwiched between two wafers and rolled in pistachios.
The texture...
This gets an A+.
It is just creamy and stretchy.
It's just, it's so satisfying, wow.
Mmmm.
It's really nice 'cause you get
little chunks of pistachios that were blended
into the ice cream,
but also whole pistachios all around the sides.
It kind of gives that nice balance from, like,
the creamy ice cream to the crunchy pistachio.
It's really good.
And then you get these, like, nice, chewy wafers.
- You can tell in the flavor and the texture
everything's really fresh and vibrant, all the flavors.
And the thought that goes into everything, I really enjoy.
- If you go to another ice cream shop there'd probably
only be chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry,
but at Mashti Malone's there's
all kinds of different things.
- This is our first time actually.
- Our first time.
- We're visiting from Oregon, and I've been wanting
to come here for three years.
It lives way beyond my expectations.
- I guess more than 80% of our customers are non-Persian.
They come from every ethnicity and every group.
They come here.
But this is like a destination for them.
They make plans to come and have ice cream.
Caroline: I don't regret my decision for naming it
the best in LA.
It's seriously so good. Maybe even better
the second time around.