Nico's Ice Cream — Restaurant in Portland

Hi - I see the previous review about last Friday night and the family getting turned away. It was the first beautiful 70 degree Friday night and I was there with our friends as we had just eaten at Hat Yai next door. We were the second to last customers of the day, and the customers after us, who arrived right when we did at 8:30pm, were not given a card like you had mentioned. Instead, they were told to tell every person that Nico's was closed. That alone, was super awkward to watch as the customer was put in a really odd position every time they had to tell kids and families that although the sign is on and there are still 30 mins to close, they are closed. The employee should have turned off the light at that time or locked the door.

We, and customers behind us, were served by 8:40, and for the next 20 mins we sat outside and ate our ice cream (you can check security cams if you want) and watched as, no exaggeration, probably 45 people were turned away. The OPEN sign still on, and it was still not even 8:45pm.

This was our group of 6's first time at Nicos, and all of us now laugh about how painful that was to watch, especially as she sat on her phone behind the register while people were leaving disappointed. I just want to call out what a poor experience it was for so many people, which is tough because the ice cream itself was...

I love the ice cream here but I’ve had some serious lackluster experiences here that make me hesitant to come back. On one occasion last summer I waited more than an hour for my ice cream. I ordered relatively quick, then proceeded to wait .. and wait. Because there’s only one machine, it creates a serious bottleneck. I didn’t think I ever wanted to come back.

Some time and space passed and now that the weather is warmer I was particularly enticed by tropical Thursday. I went 2 weeks ago and they were appropriately staffed and I didn’t have too long of a wait and that ice cream was delicious!! So I went back the next Thursday and what a nightmare. One person working (sounds like a no show, so very much not the workers fault) but she was there on one machine and the wait was not worth it. The ice cream didn’t come out as good because she was just trying to not drown in orders. Oh, and their credit card machine was down so she was manually punching in numbers.

There is also a very strict no dog policy. Look, I get it! But not even emotional support dogs. I’ve been kicked out 2x now for carrying my 9lb dog in a bag. I’m happy to follow rules but it just seems like priorities are out of sorts when yall are doing ice cream orders one by one...

We visited Nico’s Ice Cream on a warm summer evening and were impressed by the incredible service from their sole employee that night. Despite the long line and an entire little league team coming in, she managed the cash register and served up ice cream with a positive attitude and remarkable efficiency. The ice cream was delicious. However, it's disheartening to see a business place such a burden on one person. This is capitalism at its worst. One wonders how she will even manage a bathroom break. I would have been falling apart at the seams if I were in her position. From start to finish, it took us 40 minutes to have an ice cream in hand — and while customer experience is an important factor, the employee experience is my concern here. I hope Nico’s will start treating their employees better. They deserve it! Update: I came back about a month later and was happy to see that two employees were on staff, and that the line was only a few people long. However, it still took us 40 minutes to get ice cream somehow—the math isn’t mathing here. Having just one ice cream machine doesn’t seem to be incredibly efficient, and the employees still looked incredibly strapped as they fluttered between the one machine and the...