Ice Creamery Dishing Up Cool Treats
By Pat Forrest
Summer’s here, and it has been bringing some hot temperatures our way. If you’re looking for ways to stay cool as the mercury rises, there’s a new business in town that is serving up just what you may be looking for.
Ice Creamery specializes in rolled ice cream, also known as stir-fried, live, or cold stone ice cream, a popular dessert that originated in southeast Asia. Making rolled ice cream starts with pouring a liquid ice cream base onto a cold metal surface. The mixture is stirred and chopped, and as it begins to freeze, it’s spread into a thin layer. Once fully frozen, the mixture is scraped into small rolls and put in a cup, ready for additional flavourings.
The list of those flavour options is a long one at Ice Creamery, and co-owner Nikhil Shastri says that the flavours were dreamed up by him and his friends, with a couple of suggestions by his mother. There’s Bananas Foster, Nutella-banana fusion, Nutella strawberry, peanut pretzel, Very Berry, Reese’s dream, and many more, including his mum’s contributions: saffron/rose pistachio and gulab jamun (a take on a popular Indian dessert). Customers can watch their treat being created in Shastri’s customized trailer.
Shastri came to Canada as an international student in 2022. Although he started his Canadian journey in Toronto, he decided to move north with his mother after graduation in search of a slower pace and less traffic. An enterpriser with many ideas in the pipeline, he’s also an electrician working on getting his licence. Ice Creamery is his first foray into entrepreneurship, in partnership with childhood friends Jaimin and Nishan, and it has been very well received throughout Northwestern Ontario.
“It’s crazy how many followers we have on Facebook and how many people show up when we post that we are coming to town. It has really taken off,” he says. He adds that both he and his mother love Northwestern Ontario. “We both love the people, the proximity to nature, and the lifestyle. My dream is to eventually have Ice Creamery trailers across the north,” he says. 
Besides the rolled ice cream, Ice Creamery offers dozens of other cool treats including cones, lemonades, non-alcoholic mojitos, milkshakes, smoothies, and decadent croffles (a croissant/waffle hybrid) with fillings such as triple chocolate (whipping cream, white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and chocolate syrup) and fruity (whipping cream, chocolate, banana and strawberry) to name just a few.
There are two Ice Creamery trailers: one in Dryden and one travelling between Sioux Lookout, Fort Frances, and Atikokan for the rest of the summer. Around mid-September, look for an Ice Creamery trailer in Thunder Bay.
Follow Ice Creamery on Instagram @ice_creamery_canada to keep up with their plans.
