IN PINECREST: Brittany Anderson creates a flavor that includes gummy bears at Chill-N ice cream owned by Chuck Woodard. Chill-N, also shown below. makes flavored-to-order ice cream in minutes using a liquid nitrogen process. C.W. Griffin / Miami Herald Staff
BY SIOBHAN MORRISSEY
From its menu board that looks like the toBreaking Bad — with its reliance on the scientific shorthand of the periodic table of chemical elements — to its menu that includes only-in-Miami favorites dulce de leche and coffee made with real Cuban coffee, as well as the old standards vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, Chill-N seamlessly (the N is for “nitrogen” and “newfangled”_ melds the old with the new.
Although chefs have been using liquid nitrogen for years to enhance the dining experience, there remains a sense of alchemy when the folks at Chill-N create a dish of ice cream on the spot in a puff of smoke. Actually, it’s more like fog, as little sprays of liquid nitrogen — with a cool temperature of -320 degrees Fahrenheit — fast-freeze each bowl of basic liquid ice cream mix that has been individually flavored. The result is a rich ice cream that has the taste and consistency of gelato.
“Nitrogen will bring them in the door, but consistently good ice cream will keep them coming back,” says Chuck Woodard, who along with Danny Golik, opened Chill-N in Pinecrest’s Village Plaza two years ago. At the time, Woodard was a 20-year-old entrepreneurial wunderkind and a sophomore at the University of Miami, where he participated in UM's Launch Pad entrepreneurship program. Both he and Golik are alumni of the Westminster Christian School, and Woodard graduated from UM earlier this month.
While relying on a technique popularized in the 21st century, Woodard is not above borrowing what works for the more established ice cream shops.
“We started with vanilla and Googled the most popular ice cream flavors,” he admits. Aside from vanilla, there are 10 standard flavors to choose from and special holiday flavors such as pumpkin for Halloween and red velvet cake for Christmas.
In keeping with America’s tastes, Chill-N sells more vanilla than any other flavor. Nutella, a hazelnut-flavored chocolate sauce popular in Europe, is a close second. Patrick Silva, a 12-year-old who lives part time in Miami, explains why he likes Nutella with bananas and marshmallows: “It’s the perfect flavor in every spoonful.”
Chill-N
**Founded:**October 2012
Founders: Chuck Woodard and Danny Golik
Employees: 15
Annual revenues: $500,000
Most popular flavors: vanilla and Nutella
Daily customers: 300-400
**Hours:**Monday-Thursday: 2-10 p.m.; Friday: 2-11 p.m.; Saturday: noon-11 p.m.; Sunday: noon-10 p.m.
Contact:786-732-6988, www.chillnicecream.com
Locations: 17831 Biscayne Blvd., Aventura (which opened this year), and 8271 SW 124th St., Pinecrest (the flagship shop)
Also: “I get requests daily to franchise and once or twice a week to go international,” says Woodard, who is currently researching the best business model for franchising.
Read more about South Florida ice cream businesses here.
Happy Memorial Day, everyone!
Posted May 26, 2014