By William Jacko
Special to The Laker/Lutz News
When Joe Schembri was growing up, his family did not take vacations. Instead, they went to the ice cream shop twice a week — faithfully.
Ice cream became a passion for Schembri, and he dreamed of owning an ice cream shop himself one day. That dream became a reality this past May when he opened Ice Dreammm Shop in Lutz, which specializes in homemade, micro-batch ice cream
“I love ice cream,” Schembri said. “It started out as family time for me, and I wanted to recreate that experience for others, but also improve upon it. I wanted to have TV, music, the chalkboard table, and games kids play, like Chutes and Ladders, Yahtze and Dominoes. I wanted a place where kids and parents could enjoy their ice cream together in a fun, family environment.”
Schembri regularly dreams up exotic homemade ice cream creations that defy imagination, such as Peanut Butter Oreo, Chocolate Bacon Toffee and Sweet Potato Casserole. He also has everyday standards, including Creamy Vanilla, Mint to Dream and Strawberry Shortcake. Even lactose-intolerant customers can indulge in Schembri’s line of creamy coconut-based nondairy ice cream, with three options offered daily.
To keep the menu fresh, Schembri retains his most popular flavors as staples, rotating the rest to make room for new arrivals. The flavors may change, but the quality remains.
“We make the ice cream every single day in small batches, and all the dairy we use is from local dairies, either a sweet cream dairy or a chocolate dairy—from chocolate cows,” Schembri added jokingly. “The dairy that we get is the core base of all our flavors. Our ice cream is all natural and has no artificial food coloring.”
Ice Dreammm Shop carries 15 flavors daily that can be added to floats, sundaes, brownie sandwiches, ice cream sodas and malts, handspun milkshakes and cold brew coffee. There are also ice cream pies, with the piecrusts composed of Oreo or graham cracker, topped with a drizzle or a crumble. Brownies, waffle cones and whipped cream are also made daily.
Unsure of what to order? Try an ice cream flight — which gives you a sample of four different flavors at once — or just skip to the shop’s bestseller, Cookies and Dream.
Schembri finds creative ways to bring out the child in adult lovers of ice cream. To promote his line of adult-only alcoholic ice cream, he sports a T-shirt with the saying, “I make boozy ice cream. What’s your super power?”
“We have Rum Haven all the time,” he said, “and then we rotate one or two every week — this week we have Fire Ball Apple Pie. We put the Fireball Cinnamon Whisky right into the machine when we make the ice cream. You can definitely taste it, but we’re going for the taste, not the effect.”
Ice cream is also sold by the pint and quart. Catering is available for festivals, parties and community and corporate events. The Hemp and Coffee Exchange, a local roaster out of Zephyrhills that roasts its coffee with hemp seed, supplies the shop’s coffee.
“I try to keep my partners local so we can support each other,” Schembri said. “When you shop local, helping a mother, a father, a family to live their dream, and by shopping there you can learn the stories behind their dreams.”
It’s not too late to order your custom ice cream pie for your holiday dinners. Ice Dreammm Shop requires a 24-hour notice for its pies, because every one is made fresh and to order.
“This is our busiest time of the year, so please place your pie orders soon,” said Schembri “Our pies are a great addition to pumpkin pie on your dessert table.”
Published 12/19/18
