By Elizabeth Yellen
Special to Inside
The ice cream connoisseur seeking to satisfy a craving for something a cut above supermarket offerings has typically found North Side options limited. But not anymore. On July 6 Andrew Bian opened Ice Dreams, a gourmet ice cream shop that promises a fresh, homemade, premium product. Ice Dreams, located at 2865 N. Clark St., serves 18 flavors of Italian-style gelato daily as well as at least as many varieties of American ice cream.
Owner Bian, 23, is actually a partner in an investment company called One World Investments, which consists of him and three childhood friends. Each partner has his niche, Bian explains, and restaurants are his.
Although Ice Dreams marks Bian's first independent foray into the restaurant business, he is no stranger to the world of foodservice: His family owns a Chinese restaurant—The Mongolian House, which has four locations—and he has worked for Lettuce Entertain You. He has put in time as a server at Wildfire; a manger at Panera; and a server and member of the kitchen staff at Stir Crazy.
It is these stints that form Bian's business training, and he appreciates the insight he has gained over the years. He says that from the family business he learned "the compassion side" of business and how to love his job. While working for a corporation he gained people and organizational skills and learned how to run a business systematically.
Bian says that inspiration for this venture sprang from conversations with a friend about Italian-style gelato. Because the food had always interested him, he "kind of went with it." But opening the store was not merely a whim: He sees a niche for himself in the local market. "I feel that gelato is something that's so old that no one really does it," he says. He therefore aims to revive the product while positively impacting the neighborhood. He is committed to providing superior ice cream and believes that once Chicagoans develop a palate for quality, "they don't like to lower their standards for more of a manufactured product."
While Ice Dreams' prices might be higher than some customers expect, Bian sees himself as offering "something top-end but affordable," a quality culinary experience that still costs less than an elaborate meal. The fact that business so far has been what Bian calls "pretty good" attests to his belief that local demand for good ice cream is strong. He would ultimately like to open a North Side business that sells only gelato.
Gelato, Bian explains, is distinctive in that it has less air than its American counterpart. One reason he likes the product is that it is a flexible medium. He puts a lot of effort into his creations, and he has already demonstrated his inventiveness in such flavors as apple pie, orange honey cream and S'mores. These flavors result from his taking "something people see as a common-day dessert" and adapting it to an ice cream. He reports that these varieties have been well received, and that patrons also like more classic flavors such as pistachio.
Because he himself is "not a very big person on store-bought ice cream," Bian personally stands behind his homemade gelato and shuns the store-bought products that some vendors sell. To this end, he goes to market at 7 a.m. every day to buy the ingredients for the gelato, which he concocts in the store's top-of-the-line machine. The task is not quite as imposing as it may seem: The machine makes 41-75 liters an hour, so it takes five to six hours to mix the 180 liters Bian prepares daily. He stops production around 3 p.m.
Comparing his job to that of a baker, Bian says that "it's an all-day deal just to get everything ready." He notes that at the end of the day he has little gelato left over from the 10 liters he makes of each flavor, but on one recent evening he did sell out a couple of hours before closing.
As for the American-style ice cream, Bian is also committed to providing a superior product, but he outsources the production of the base. The necessity to pasteurize the base, which has high milk content, motivated this business decision. Once he receives the base, Bian makes the ice cream and sells it only the following day because it requires time to harden. One store trademark is the "Dream Pass," which consists of a patron's choice of ice cream combined with a topping that is mixed in.
One gap a customer might notice in the Ice Dreams menu is frozen yogurt. This omission is a deliberate choice and underscores Bian's dedication to his vision. He says that he has tried to avoid yogurt because "it isn't an image I want to project." Referring to soft yogurt, he says that it is a pre-made mix, or "more of a fast-food kind of ice cream."
Bian's youth has visibly influenced his attitude and decisions. His concerted effort to be flexible marks his practices. He says that he has tried to make the store inviting so that people will eat on-site, and he enjoys working with younger staff members (he employs a dozen people) because "they bring excitement to the business."
He also retains a piece of wisdom culled from his years of experience: The restaurant industry "is always a learning process." He says one must constantly adapt, or else a "false sense of security" will set in and lead to conceit.
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