When he isn’t running a Peruvian ice cream shop cafe on weekends around the corner of Catalpa Avenue in Ridgewood, Jonathan Alvarado works as an anesthesiologist at a veterinary clinic in Manhattan. Dealing with animals, he says, is something he does well. Unexpectedly, making ice cream is also something he does well. After watching the frozen yogurt and ice cream booms pass through the culinary ecosystem, Alvarado said he taught himself how to make ice cream and followed by starting up this shop on the side. Closed during the winter months, Creme & Sugar has just opened its doors for another summer.

What makes Cream & Sugar different from, say, the Carvel down the road or even the recognizable bougie chains, are the flavors. Immediately, my eyes are drawn to the lower half of the sharpie-drawn list: plum shiraz, raspberry riesling, chocolate chip bordeaux.

Alvarado is nowhere near the first person to combine wine and frozen dessert—every summer someone in Williamsburg tries to make it happen—but there’s a charm to his approach. Instead of being blended in, the deposits of alcohol come in small, whimsical bursts that evoke rum-filled chocolates.