- Screaming Cat Ice Cream & Coffee, a new shop in Jacksonville's historic Riverside neighborhood, offers 24 flavors of super-premium ice cream and coffee.
- Owners Isaac and Elenis Camargo chose the unique concept to fill a neighborhood need for a dessert place.
- The shop features ice cream from Wisconsin's Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream Co., including unique Midwestern flavors.
- The shop's name was inspired by the couple's cat, Onyx.
A Jacksonville husband and wife are offering what they believe is a "purr-fect" restaurant concept they hope will be the "cat's meow" in historic Riverside.
features 24 flavors of super-premium ice cream as well as freshly roasted coffee and espresso at 2700 Park St. at King Street on the ground floor of the historicWhiteway Corner building.
The newly opened ice cream and coffee shop from Isaac and Elenis Camargo is intended to fill a niche as well as complement the neighborhood restaurant enclave already home toPie95 Pizza,,Cool Moose Cafe,Don Eduardo Cocina Mexicana,Pattaya Thai on King,Primi Piatti, and Sumo Sushi.
The Camargos told the Times-Union that opening the restaurant was a longtime goal.
The location in Riverside solidified their decision to focus on a unique concept offering both ice cream and coffee, they said.
"There are so many restaurants here, just not a dessert place," Isaac Carmago said. "We also wanted to do something unique. It's more than just an ice cream shop with coffee or a coffee shop with ice cream. We wanted to create something different."
"We also wanted to create a fun environment where everyone who comes in just has a good time. It's a happy place, Elenis Camargo said.
The walkability of the neighborhood was another factor, they said.
Screaming Cat is the couple's first restaurant, but it's not their first business. The couple also founded and co-ownThirdstone Properties, a real estate investment and property management company in the nearly century-old Whiteway Corner building.
Serving scoops of Super Man, Blue Moon, Zanzibar Chocolate, and more
Screaming Cat serves ice cream crafted byChocolate Shoppe Ice Cream Co.of Madison, Wis., offered in sugar cones and waffle cones or a dish.
"We're also going to do cake cones," he said of the light, golden-brown, wafer-style cones distinguished by a crispy texture.
In addition, they'll soon be making the waffle cones in-house. Vegan and gluten-free waffle cones are available. Other menu favorites, including milkshakes and sundaes, are also featured.
As they prepared to launch the business, Isaac Camargo traveled to Madison to scout out the Chocolate Shoppe and preview its flavors. Many of the ice cream flavors are unique in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida, he said.
"So, this flavor, Blue Moon, is a Midwestern flavor, and it's very similar to Fruit Loops cereal. So a lot of these flavors are Midwestern flavors, so we're excited because we get to bring them down here to the South and introduce them," Isaac Camargo said.
The couple said early favorites include:
- Blue Moon: A blue-colored ice cream that tastes like the milk on the bottom of a bowl of Fruit Loops
- Super Man: Cherry, Blue Moon, and Vanilla ice creams "combine forces to bring you one super scoop"
- Zanzibar Chocolate: An all-natural, award-winning chocolate ice cream made with three kinds of cocoa for a deep, rich fudge brownie-like taste
Screaming Cat also offers classic ice cream flavors and several oat-based ice cream flavors and Italian ices, Elenis Camargo said.
"For either a sugar cone, cake cone, or what we call a dishwhich is in one of the cups, it's $5.25 a scoop. Or if you want a double, it's $7.25," he said of the 3-ounce scoops of ice cream.
Chocolate Shoppe, founded in 1962, lists at least 101 different super-premium ice cream flavors and 13 vegan flavors on its website. It is a three-time winner of the prestigious Grand Master Ice Cream Maker award from the North American Ice Cream Association, according to the company and association websites.
The Riverside shop serves coffee from Jacksonville-basedPura Bean Coffee Company.
How the Screaming Cat ice cream shop got its name
Onyx, the couple's beloved 17-year-old cat, played an instrumental role in the business.
Although he's not physically present at the shop, paintings portraying the regalness of the very vocal Camargo kitty hang in a place of honor on one wall.
And for the record, Onyx ― taken in as a stray kitten by the couple ― does not look anything like the cartoon-like screaming feline caricature in the Screaming Cat logo.
The couple had been tasting ice cream samples from Chocolate Shoppe at their kitchen table while thinking of possible names for the ice cream shop. As Elenis Camargo got up from her chair, Onyx chimed in with his opinion.
"Onyx jumped up on the chair when Isaac was putting the ice cream away and Onyx screamed as he usually does. Isaac said, 'Shush, screaming cat,' and he made kind of joke that we should name the shop Screaming Cat Ice Cream and Coffee. And I was like, actually, that's perfect. It sounds very cool and perfect," she previously told the Times-Union.
Screaming Cat, which has 18 seats but plans to add a few more outside on the King Street side, is currently open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. However, they expect to extend their evening hours in a few weeks, the couple said.
Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at tstepzinski@jacksonville.com.
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