There’s definitely a movement to “creating” desserts at the table with the likes of liquid nitrogen and the iCream store in the Wicker Park area of Chicago is now making big business of it. It’s pretty easy to spot with a big sign that almost looks like a big “Information” sign outside. You can definitely tell it’s an ice cream store on a warm day with plenty of people hanging around enjoying big cups of it.
iCream is unique in that it creates ice cream just in time using liquid nitrogen. This gives them a huge edge over other ice cream stores since they can create a huge variety of ice cream flavours and mix-ins to suit whatever you like. In fact, that’s exactly how it works. You pick a base (yogurt, sorbet, ice cream), a flavour from their large list, a colour and then any mixins that you would like. They have a huge variety of flavours and their concoctions are meticulously measured (as you can see from the large number of syringe like devices below).
The actual mixing process is very clever with four industrial mixers (KitchenAid brand of course!) outfitted with a tube fed from the large tank ready to inject liquid nitrogen at the push of a button. The carefully measured solution is dumped into each mixing bowl, where the mixing blades churn it to the right consistency and with the push of a button, the liquid nitrogen is dispensed. The boiling gas rolls out spectacularly and the mixture is scooped out when it’s at the right consistency.
Amazingly people try to put things together that just don’t work and I overheard the the person taking someone’s order recommending them to avoid a certain combination which I’m glad that they did. My combination of a green lime flavoured ice cream topped with pineapple went down a treat!
Name: iCream
Found at: 1537 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL, 60622
Website: http://www.icreamcafe.com/
