Nitrogenie at Ala Moana closes shop after a year

Nitrogenie, the shop that created ice cream to order using liquid nitrogen, closed its Ala Moana Center store Sunday after just over a year in business.

The Australian-based Nitrogenie franchise opened its only U.S. location in the Ewa Wing of the mall on Nov. 12, 2015, under the same parent company that opened Magnolia Bakery & Cafe, also in the Ewa Wing. Magnolia closed last month.

Nitrogenie co-founder, general manager and executive chef Todd Farr could not be reached for comment, but Alicia Brandt, vice president of Oahu Auctions, said her company had been retained to liquidate Nitrogenie’s equipment via an online auction, now underway.

The auction will run through 6 p.m. Jan. 24, with winning bidders to pick up their purchases the next day. The company also handled the recent liquidations of inventory and equipment at Magnolia Bakery.

“I just learned last night from the manager that ran both (Nitrogenie and Magnolia) that Nitrogenie was very profitable, but because Magnolia was doing so poorly … it pulled Nitrogenie down,” Brandt said.

Farr told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in 2015 that all the shop’s ice cream base, rich with high-fat-percentage cream and milk, was imported from Australia.

At that time Sean Donahue, regional manager for the brand, said the company was planning to expand “aggressively” and to add about 300 to 400 jobs in Hawaii.