The Museum of Ice Cream's sprinkle pit Photo courtesy Museum of Ice Cream, via Wikimedia Commons
A man has filed a lawsuit against the Museum of Ice Cream—the millennial-pink, dessert-themed “experium” that promises to help visitors “reimagine the way [they] experience ice cream”—alleging that he fractured his ankle after jumping into the oft-Instagrammed sprinkle pool at its New York City location.
The plaintiff, Jeremy Schorr, was visiting the immersive attraction's Manhattan location with his daughter on 31 March 2023, when he allegedly suffered “severe and permanent personal injuries”. The lawsuit, filed on 7 August and first reported by Artnet News, claims that the museum “failed to warn… visitors that it is unsafe to jump or plunge into the sprinkle pool, while actively encouraging them to do so through its advertising, marketing and promotional materials”.
Since its opening in 2019, the Museum of Ice Cream’s 25,000 sq. ft space in Soho has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, delighting influencers and children alike with its playground-adjacent attractions, milkshake lounge and plastic sprinkle ball pit. Founded in 2016 by the entrepreneur Maryellis Bunn—once described as the “Millennial Walt Disney” by New York Magazine—the live entertainment juggernaut and social media playscape operates under the mantra “anything is possible”. While it is not actually a museum in the traditional sense and provides only one scoop of ice cream with each ticket (which range from $39 to $50), the Museum of Ice Cream has become a fixture, maintaining locations in New York, Austin, Chicago, Miami, Singapore and, soon, Boston.
Schorr’s lawsuit, in which he is represented by the Staten Island-based personal injury firm Perrone, takes umbrage with the alleged lack of sprinkles available in the pool, adding the the pit wasn’t deep enough to withstand the leaps seemingly encourage by the the museum’s website. The Museum of Ice Cream's social media posts ask readers, “have you taken the plunge yet?”, a dangerous expectation for engagement, according to Schorr and his lawyers.
The case itemises other allegedly injurious incidents at the Museum of Ice Cream, including a TikTok video from 12 August 2023 in which a young woman jumped into the sprinkle pool and sprained her leg “pretty badly”. The establishment compensated her with a free ticket and a gift bag.
Schorr claims his sprinkle pit injuries have caused him “mental anguish and distress”, required surgery and kept him out of work. He is seeking unspecified damages from the Museum of Ice Cream, emphasising that further medical intervention may be required in the future. His lawsuit claims that the company is “placing its own financial interest over the safety of the general public”.
A spokesperson for the Museum of Ice Cream declined to comment on the lawsuit.
This isn’t the first time the Museum of Ice Cream has endured reputational freezerburn. A report by Forbes in 2020 detailed accusations of bullying, verbal harrassment and below-board accounting, claims that were all virulently denied by Museum of Ice Cream's management. One former employee said at the time: “It was this pink, Kombucha-on-tap, millennial shitshow nightmare.”
