Sorry Not Sorry Creamery, the popular ice cream brand from Las Vegas, opened this month in Long Beach, bringing its decadent flavors to Belmont Shore.
It’s been quickly expanding. This is their sixth location in four years and their second in Southern California. They decided on Long Beach after seeing how successful their store in Cerritos was.
“I just think the community in Southern California really resonates with the brand,” co-owner Drew Belcher said.
Sorry Not Sorry is trying to be timeless. When Belcher and his business partners started talking about opening something together, they knew they wanted it to last, not just a trend that would fade over time. They landed on ice cream because of its long history as a beloved treat.
“We truly believe that the ice cream cone is forever,” Belcher said.
But they also want to stand out. They pride themselves on using the highest-quality ingredients, including dairy from Scott Brothers Dairy — a 100-year-old family farm in Chino — which Belcher said is “arguably the best dairy in the entire United States.”
While many brands of ice cream are pumped full of air and use about 10% butterfat, Sorry Not Sorry’s ice cream is denser and richer with 16-18% butterfat.
“Very dense, very creamy. Amazing mouthfeel. Unbelievable,” Belcher said.
For Belcher, ice cream has always been nostalgic. He first fell in love with the sweet treat while going to Dairy Queen with his family as a child. He loved the soft serve and the dipped cones.
“Ice cream is more than just a product that you consume. Ice cream is smiles,” he said.
When Sorry Not Sorry first opened in Las Vegas, they wanted to show off something the city had never seen before. That meant unique flavors like ube honeycomb, milk and cereal, honey lavender, and the seasonal black sesame cookies and cream.
Belcher said it took a while for Las Vegas customers to get on board with their flavors, but he’s happy the Long Beach community “gets it.”
“Vegas is always kind of behind other cool emerging markets like Southern California or New York, or even some parts of Miami that really had these cool, trendy eateries,” Belcher said. “Long Beach and Cerritos immediately understood what we were trying to accomplish, and they loved the flavor profiles that we were coming up with.”
Belcher hopes his shop can give people a little bite of joy each time they visit. One of Belcher’s favorite things is seeing people enjoying the ice cream and having a good time with their friends and relatives.
“It’s really cool because we’re creating cool family memories that’ll outlive all of us,” he said.
Sorry Not Sorry, 4612 A Second Street, is open every day from noon to 11 p.m.