Cooling down with Mr. Cool

This parlor on 8th street is putting a unique spin on a popular trend, including boba in their rolled ice cream

BY PENELOPE ACEVEDO, STAFF WRITER

Bubbles burst with flavor at Mr. Cool’s rolled ice cream shop. With an array of flavors to choose from, Mr. Cool Ice Cream offers customers a unique selection of two of the world’s favorite sweets: ice cream and boba tea.

With a vibrant interior— located on 10562 Southwest 8th Street — the restaurant proudly greets all lovers of ice cream. Polaroid pictures of customers with their ice cream dominate one wall, while another showcases the Mr. Cool logo, a polar bear wearing sunglasses and with a cup of rolled ice cream in hand.

The restaurant was established after the owner and his friends took a ‘life-changing’ trip to Thailand in the summer of 2015. This trip motivated them to start their own business making rolled ice cream after seeing the country’s delightful cuisine.

The star of the menu is the rolled ice cream. Part of the experience of going to Mr. Cool Ice Cream is watching the employees skillfully make the rolled ice before the customers’ eyes.

The process for rolling the ice cream is as follows: first, they combine flavored milk and pour it onto a round ice pan. The ice pan is chilled, which quickly starts to turn the liquid mixture into ice cream. Other ingredients like nuts and candy are added, then the “ice cream chef” chops and mixes the ingredients until they are creamy. Finally, the mixture is spread thin and rolled into cylinders using a spatula.

The rolled ice cream flavors include sweet cream, vanilla, chocolate, coffee and mango. With that, customers can choose one of the several mixers of their choice, with flavors ranging from cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies, to caramel and lychee fruit.

“I always have a hard time deciding what to choose,” freshman Angelina Milan said. “There are lots of options and I love the menu.”

In addition, Mr. Cool offers multiple tea flavors that include Thai Tea Milk, Almond Milk and Taro Milk. Prices for the teas range ‘DIY’ ice cream from $4.25 to $4.75 and extra toppings — Mr. Cool not only offers rolled ice such as tapioca, strawberry boba and mango cream they also offer a section of the menu boba — can be added for $0.50 each.

“High school students’ top favorite ice cream [flavors] at Mr. Cool are Oreo Secret, Strawberry Lady and the 'DIY' ice cream.

Mr. Cool not only offers rolled ice cream they also offer a section of the menu called “Kitchen Food,” which includes sixpiece Seafood Gyoza (Dumplings) for $6.95, Shrimp Shumai for $6.95, Seafood Spring Rolls for $6.25 and Sweet Potato and Net Spring Rolls for $5.95.

With their proximity to the school and other high schools in Miami, Mr. Cool Ice Cream gets many teenage customers. Besides having a wide range of food, Mr. Cool Ice Cream is a great place to interact and make friends with people since the store is open all week.

“About two dozen high school students come to Mr. Cool in one day. This number increases during the summer and special events in the area,” Xiao said.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no available seating inside. Nonetheless, the store offers “to go” packaging and still encourages customers to write on postage notes to fill their wall with drawings, memes and motivational phrases.

“I would definitely recommend Mr. Cool Ice Cream to my friends and family. My favorite part of the store is all the options from bubble tea to ice cream and more,” Milan said. “Currently my favorite drink is the lychee fruit with black tea boba [with] the cup of Oreos secret rolled ice cream. But I think that ‘DIY’ is the best rolled ice cream if it’s your first time going to Mr. Cool because you can choose whatever flavor and topping you would like.”

With an appealing aroma, vibrant decorations and friendly staff, a visit to Mr. Cool Ice Cream can favorably overload the sense. Customers should come with a big appetite as the large portions are sure to satisfy.

Penelope Acevedo/highlights