Ice Cream Without Borders
Global-inspired ice cream and coffee shop opens at Block 59
By Peter Gianopulos
Be forewarned: These are not ice creams for the faint of palate. Every month, the new Dumont Creamery & Café (448 S. Route 59, at Block 59) in Naperville cracks open its voluminous recipe book, reviews its 250 different selections, and picks just 24 for its menu board at any given time.
Two dozen varieties might not sound particularly expansive, until you realize the Wonka-esque flavors they’re scooping. For every vanilla and chocolate staple, there are exotic flavors you may never have even known existed. Consider Dumont’s Hokey Pokey ice cream, inspired by the honeycomb-toffee candy beloved by New Zealanders. Or a scoop of Kheer, swirled with cardamom and saffron, that tastes like the Indian-style pudding.
There is also a refreshing mint-basil sorbet; scoops that taste like Belgian Biscoff cookies; and (for a limited time this October) an ice cream called Circus Animal Cookie Cake Batter, which comes studded with cracker bits and colorful sprinkles.
See the pattern here? These aren’t flavors so much as creamy re-creations of some of the world’s most beloved desserts, all made with such a high butterfat content that they make ordinary ice creams taste like they were churned with skim milk.
Sai Uppalapati and Vamsi Manne, the owners of the Naperville location, aren’t only responsible for bringing the chain to Illinois, they also know its founders. In 2017, Uppalapati joined a small band of lucky taste-testers on the sweetest research trip ever. For weeks, the group ate their way across Europe and parts of Asia, sampling as many restaurant desserts as their belt lines would allow. They sent detailed reports back to India, where Dumont’s founders spent two years turning their notes into ice cream recipes.
When the brand expanded to the United States, additional hot and cold luxuries were added to its menu, including milk tea slushies, fruity boba teas, and most intriguingly, shade-grown Karafa coffee drinks: rarities that Uppalapati and Manne say Americans can only sample by visiting Dumont cafés.
Karafa’s AAA-grade shade grown beans, which represent the top 2 percent of their production, are grown under leafy forest canopies, which yield silky, astringent-free flavors that bloom with fruit notes. “We wanted,” Uppalapati says, “to ensure there was something for every age group and every member of the family—grandparents, parents, teenagers, young children.”
And if you’re struggling to choose between a warm cup of joe and a cool scoop of premium ice cream, Manne recommends one of Dumont’s affogatos: Italian-style espresso made with shade-grown coffee that’s poured over a scoops of ice cream inspired by European and Asian desserts. Or to put it one way, it’s a true melting pot of flavors.
Photos: Dumont Creamery & Café; Jen Banowetz (Scoops)
