Yala Greek Ice Cream. 3143 N St., NW.
For Chrys Kefalas, the Greek isle of Rhodes tastes like tangy ice cream swirled with tart wild cherries.
The vanilla and Greek yogurt base reminds him of his annual journeys to the island the place his papou (Greek for grandpa) lived earlier than he immigrated to the US. On Sunday, Kefalas will unveil his favourite Mediterranean taste, which he calls Yia Mas, on the opening of Yala Greek Ice Cream in Georgetown.
Yala (which suggests “let’s go” in Arabic and performs on the Greek phrase for “milk”) was impressed by his papou. “He’s proudly American, he’s additionally proudly Greek,” says Kefalas, who grew up round eating places owned by members of his prolonged household. “Convey that each one collectively: nostalgic ice cream parlor meets the Greek village of his coronary heart.”
The flavors at Yala mirror Kefalas’s heritage. Mornings with Thea, a Greek yogurt-vanilla ice cream swirled with orange preserves, reminds him of breakfast together with his grandfather’s sister in Karpathos. Yiayia’s Karamela introduces hints of sea salt to a burnt caramel ice cream that’s impressed by his grandmother’s favourite sweet. American Dream emulates topping-obsessed US ice cream parlors, with chocolate cookie crunch, chocolate chips, and a chocolate ribbon swirled right into a chocolate base.
Kefalas honed his ice cream craft below the watchful eye of the ice cream maker from his favourite parlor in Rhodes. These periods came about in a shared kitchen at 3 AM, earlier than Kefalas needed to begin his day job on the Nationwide Affiliation of Producers. However whereas his approach displays Greek custom, his merchandise give him an edge. “We go wherever the components are the very best,” he says. He sources vanilla from Tonga, chocolate from Belgium, and cherry and orange preserves from Greece. He makes use of spinach powder to paint Mint Chip Mou—a contemporary base swirled with wealthy chocolate.
Not all of Yala’s components are imported. Kefalas will get milk from South Mountain Creamery, a household farm in Maryland. He goes to Basic Bakery, a neighborhood family-owned enterprise, for a Center Jap phyllo dough pastry referred to as kataifi, which he mixes right into a vanilla base with walnuts, cinnamon, and honey.
“A chef of like 35 years described it to me that American ice cream could be very candy, gelato could be very heavy, Greek ice cream is good,” Kefalas says. It’s each creamy and lightweight, so “you get indulgence, however you don’t need to really feel horrible about consuming it,” he says. Add-ons will stay easy: waffle cones and a chocolate drizzle that hardens right into a shell.
Ice cream received Kefalas via legislation college (he later ran an unsuccessful Republican major marketing campaign for one in all Maryland’s senate seats) however coming into the restaurant trade has been a longtime dream— and it’s about greater than a candy deal with. He describes Yala as the primary conventional Greek scoop store to enter the US, and he feels stress to make his papou proud. “He didn’t return to Greece very a lot as a result of he worked so onerous right here to construct a life for us, however he had the best pleasure in seeing his grandchildren return and rediscover the place he was from,” Kefalas says.
He remembers how his papou would greet patrons at household institutions with a smile. After Kefalas got here out and championed marriage equality, his grandfather continued to respect him. “If we will make folks really feel like they belong—that they’re accepted, they’re welcome, and that they’ll really feel heat, hospitality, that might be nice,” Kefalas says.
The parlor will meld American and Mediterranean types in its design by DC artist Maggie O’Neill, who additionally organized Brasserie Liberté and the Willard Resort. Kefalas says it should supply a style of the Mediterranean with a blue and white colour palette and hospitality that his employees received accustomed to in Could on a bunch journey to Greece.
This Sunday, Nationwide Ice Cream Day, the store will serve its first buyer: Asher, a trusted ice cream critic and the son of a pal of Kefalas. After that, Kefalas says, “Greek summer season is in Georgetown.”
