Each cup consists of five ice cream coils and the customer’s desired toppings. Customers are free to add any toppings they want to their Thai inspired, rolled ice cream. Credit: Tia Williams | Lantern Reporter
A new ice cream shop just rolled into town.
The Short North grocery story, Oats & Barley, has bought Simply Rolled ice cream, a pop-up shop that serves Thai-inspired rolled ice cream.
“Simply Rolled started doing pop-ups in November, but there was such a high demand,” said Steve Agganis, co-owner of Oats & Barley. “People kept asking when we were going to come back.”
Simply Rolled achieves its rolled spirals of ice cream by pouring cream — flavored with either vanilla or green tea — onto a flat, freezing metal surface.
Next, they use two spatulas to work the liquid as it freezes into a flat, pizza-like shape. They then use the spatulas to roll the ice cream into five coils before placing them upright in a cup and adding the requested toppings. All of this is done in front of the customer.
Zak Nur, an employee at Oats & Barley and a third-year in marketing, said while it tastes just as good as other ice cream, people come for the show.
“I think people like it more than anything because of the experience. Somebody’s making ice cream right in front of you,” Nur said. “There’s nothing else like it.”
Simply Rolled was originally founded by Zack Sanders and his wife, who visited Thailand on their honeymoon, Agganis said.
“They saw the ice cream being made there and did all the research on how to create it, and then we bought him out,” he said. “He’s still an investor. He basically handles product development for us.”
Simply Rolled ice cream is currently open from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, inside Oats & Barley’s cafe section. However, Agganis said he hopes the ice cream will be offered every day later this spring.
“We’re actually going to build out of the corner of Oats & Barley and devote that to Simply Rolled,” Agganis said. “The point of us doing just weekends to start was to make sure we had enough people trained, and so that we could play around with the product menu.”
Agganis said the two most popular flavors are Buckeye Madness — which has peanut butter cups, peanut butter sauce and hot fudge — and matcha berry — which consists of green tea ice cream with blueberries, strawberries and sweet condensed milk rolled into it.
“It’s really cool. It’s a little creamier than other ice creams and, because of the way it’s created, you can pick any toppings to mix in,” Agganis said. “You can really create any combinations of flavors.”
Simply Rolled is currently located on 970 N. High St and each cup of ice cream costs $7.
