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Amid the dimly lit tables at T\u00e1ma in Chicago slips a puzzling contradiction: a savory ice cream that is neither dinner nor dessert but is completely, confoundingly delicious.<\/p>\n
T\u00e1ma\u2019s head chef, Avgeria Stapaki, serves her salty manchego ice cream, funked up by the addition of shaved truffles, over a warm bubble of the restaurant\u2019s signature focaccia. The whole dish is stabbed through the middle with a bread knife as if Stapaki were worried it might scamper off the plate. And in a way, it does, as the ice cream melts like butter over the steaming yeasty bread.<\/p>\n
T\u00e1ma\u2019s funky, cheesy delight is one of many ice creams across the country that are making the leap from sweet to savory. Some are salty, some just a tinge sugary; many blur the line between the two, while others are leaving the dessert menu behind altogether.<\/p>\n
In Chicago, there\u2019s a caviar, cucumber, and hazelnut milkshake on the menu at dinner-party-meets-fine-dining restaurant Class Act. At La Licor Panamericana, chef Juan Jim\u00e9nez is perfecting an earthy chileatole-verde-inspired ice cream, a blend of roasted poblanos, corn, and epazote. In Manhattan, a celery root ice cream floats in a briny celeriac soda at Smithereens, and at Echelon in Ann Arbor, Michigan, savory corn ice cream gets topped with a glistening dollop of caviar.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve likely seen a savory-sweet scoop on your socials too. Content creator Laila Mirza of @lailas_pantry says food influencers are cashing in on the shock factor of novel flavors. \u201cWe\u2019re consuming so much content, so only things that make you go, \u2018WTF is that?\u2019 will make you stop and watch,\u201d Mirza says. Her recent caprese-inspired basil ice cream with tomato chutney and balsamic vinegar swirl garnered thousands of views, outperforming the next four videos she posted. Plus, it whipped up the morbid curiosity she was hoping for. \u201chelpp im all for diverse flavours but this js did not sit right w me\ud83d\ude2d but would love to try thiss,\u201d reads one comment.<\/p>\n
Meijie Liao, who posts recipes as @daywithmei on Instagram, says ice cream is the perfect canvas for shock factor\u2014familiar enough for audiences to recognize the format even if the flavors are unfamiliar. \u201cIce cream is universal enough that we can push the envelope a little bit on the flavor itself, but not so much that we\u2019re serving people like a frozen hunk of cheese.\u201d Dessert-saturated social media has played a role too, she says. It\u2019s exposed audiences to desserts from other cultures, and that\u2019s made them more receptive to unfamiliar flavors. Liao often draws on savory flavors from her Chinese background when creating recipes like her bamboo toasted rice ice cream.<\/p>\n
On some dessert menus, corn gets recontextualized to play on memory. Garrett Schlichte, a writer and chef at Campette Roadhouse in Phillipsville, California, added grilled corn and brown butter ice cream to the menu. Topped with a salty Corn Nut brittle and served in a corn-cob-shaped ceramic tray, the dessert feels like eating roasted corn at the county fair\u2014total kitsch. The charred kernels add smokiness to the dish, which is flecked through with bits of burnt corn that resemble vanilla bean.<\/p>\n
It strikes a fun balance between high and low, Schlichte says. \u201cIt\u2019s this custard-based, velvety, hours-long ice cream process, with corn nuts that I literally bought at the gas station down the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very much a french fries in your Frosty at Wendy\u2019s kind of kid,\u201d Schlichte says, adding that savory ice cream\u2019s popularity is tapping into a similar nostalgia. As the future feels uncertain, people want something simultaneously new and comforting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n