Tacos Filled With Rolled Ice Cream Are Headed to the Mission

Ice cream trends are emerging at a rapid pace, from doughnuts stuffed with the sweet stuff to cotton candy-topped cones. Now comes Roll Up Creamery Café, a shop serving Thai-style rolled ice cream and soft serve, slated to open this summer.

For the uninitiated, rolled ice cream is made by pouring the ice cream base onto a chilled metal “grill,” which is frozen and then scraped into rolls with a metal tool similar to a paint scraper. The result are tight rolls of ice cream, usually arranged in a cup.

Owner Barry Lee says he decided to open his own shop after trying other rolled ice cream shops in the Bay Area (most of which are in the South Bay). Lee plans to serve rolled ice cream three ways: in a cup, in a waffle taco that’s made in-house, and in a donut from a local bakery, which is to be eaten hot dog style. “The menu is going to be around 10 to 12 flavors of rolled ice cream to give people more options,” Lee told Eater SF. “I didn’t want to just make the ice cream and because I like the idea of tacos and donuts, I decided to put ice cream in them.”

Roll Up

Rolled Up

Roll Up has ten flavors on its menu ready to go for its imminent opening, including items called 6 God (salted caramel with Oreo and Kinder chocolate), Purple Rain (ube and peanuts), Sunburnt Monkey (banana and nutella), and Thai Chee (Thai tea and lychee). Each flavor of ice cream will be made with mix-ins to add texture.

Kerry Lee

For those with a hunger for frozen dairy and no time for rolled ice cream (it takes five minutes to make), two soft serve flavors will be on hand. To start, Roll Up will have two flavors: ube and fior di latte. Lee and his partner plan to rotate the flavors out after a few months to give some variety. “Our soft serve base is from a farm up north and it’s made from buffalo milk, so it’s more creamy than most soft serve. It has 9% in fat, where other places have 6%, so ours is creamier and milkier than most,” Lee explained. Toppings include crushed Jolly Ranchers, Froot Loops, Fruity Pebbles, strawberries, and roasted marshmallows.

Roll Up is offering a buy one, get one free soft serve promotion on opening day for those who follow their Instagram account. Once Lee gets the OK from city inspectors, he plans to open immeidately. Stay tuned for an opening date.

• 17 Essential Ice Cream Shops in San Francisco [ESF]
• Rolled Up Creamery Café [Instagram]