I love when a place says exactly what it is. For Lisbonata, it’s in the name. Portuguese egg tarts, a contemporary take that includes a very good iteration of the classic as well as untraditional flavors like ube, tiramisu and pistachio cream. Or at least that’s how it started. Once a Fort Greene farmers market stand, Lisbonata became a permanent pick-up window on St Johns Place and the iykyk place to get your pastéis de nata fix. But this summer, it became a sensation unavoidable on your Instagram feed. A blessing (we were blessed with some of the best soft serve in the city) and a curse (suddenly Manhattanites were looking lost in Crown Heights).

I don’t think they were prepared for just how much buzz their soft serve program would bring, given they had to invest in more machines as lines grew longer and longer. Rather than dreaming a few signature flavors, they drop 3 new flavors every week, each one an artful culinary creation complete with some nata pastry for garnish. They really didn’t need to go this hard: Corn and blackberry. Tomato and olive oil. Hojicha and sour cherry. Jasmine, roasted plum, and ginger. An umami savory-sweet soy sauce soft serve with fresh melon. A love-it-or-hate-it dill pickle creation. Flavors inspired by the seasons and the community (seriously, they take pitches if you are inspired).

It’s a small window with big ambitions. Fresh batches of natas come out all day, restocked about as fast as they sell, with the week’s flavors posted in the window. There’s coffee and matcha too, including some specialty seasonal concoctions that emulate the experimental streak of the soft serve. Come on a weekday and you might be able to feel like a local, snagging one of the precious few tables out front. On a weekend, expect a line down the block. If this keeps up, I’m expecting an announcement for an East Village location by next summer. Maybe that’s what will finally bring relief to this block of Crown Heights.