New ice cream and coffee shop opening in historic Riverside aims to be the cat's meow

Aiming to be "the cat's meow," a new family-owned ice cream and coffee shop is preparing to open in historic Riverside.

Screaming Cat Ice Cream & Coffee will offer at least two dozen flavors of super-premium ice cream along with freshly roasted coffee and espresso at 2700 Park St. at King Street on the ground floor of the historic Whiteway Corner building.

Founders and co-owners Isaac and Elenis Camargo hope to open the ice cream and coffee shop by early September, Elenis Camargo told the Times-Union.

The husband-and-wife entrepreneurs also founded and co-own Thirdstone Properties , a real estate investment and property management company on the second floor of the building that dates back to 1927.

Screaming Cat Ice Cream and Coffee will join the restaurant-centric neighborhood already home to Pie95 Pizza , Lola's Burrito & Burger Joint , Cool Moose Cafe , Don Eduardo Cocina Mexicana , Pattaya Thai on King , Primi Piatti , and Sumo Sushi.

Elenis Camargo said opening a coffee and dessert business was one of the couple's goals. Screaming Cat will fill a niche and complement the neighborhood, she said.

"When that location opened up on the Whiteway Corner, we were thinking that's such a great spot for something like this. There are so many restaurants nearby … but there's not really a dessert place here on this corner," she said.

Undergoing renovations and upgrades, the roughly 1,150-square-foot storefront previously housed Bryant's Bloomers Lingerie . The family-owned women's lingerie boutique had helped thousands of breast cancer patients during its 43 years in business before closing on Feb. 13, 2021.

Next, the space served as a vintage clothing store before recently becoming available. The Camargos jumped at the opportunity to establish the ice cream and coffee shop in the elongated yellow brick building.

Screaming Cat ice cream flavors, from Blue Moon to Fat Elvis

Screaming Cat will serve ice cream crafted by Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream Co. of Madison, Wis., offered in cones ― including waffle cones made fresh at the shop ― as well as cups. Milkshakes and sundaes also will be featured, Elenis Camargo said.

Making 100 different flavors, Chocolate Shoppe, which opened in 1962, was named the "Best Ice Cream in Wisconsin" in June by Reader's Digest , reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel .

Isaac Camargo traveled to Madison to preview the Chocolate Shoppe flavors. Unique and popular Chocolate Shoppe flavors that Elenis Camargo said they expect to offer at Screaming Cat include:

• Kitty Kitty Bang Bang: A cheesecake ice cream with a sweet raspberry ripple, Oreo cookies and soft chocolate chunks
• Blue Moon: A blue-colored ice cream that tastes like the milk on the bottom of a bowl of Fruit Loops
• Fat Elvis: A banana ice cream with a peanut butter ripple and chocolate chips
• Exhausted Parent: An espresso ice cream spiked with bourbon with a swirl of bittersweet chocolate chunks
• Zanzibar Chocolate: A chocolate ice cream made with three kinds of cocoa for a deep, rich fudge brownie-like taste
• Heaps of Love: Vanilla ice cream with Oreos, brownies, cookie dough, pecans, caramel, and a chocolate ripple

They also will have specialty and seasonal flavors. In addition, some non-dairy, oat milk-based ice cream options will be offered, she said.

"Eventually, we will be adding cookies for cookie ice cream sandwiches," she said.

Screaming Cat will offer coffee from Jacksonville-based Pura Bean Coffee Company . The shop initially will have five specialty blends along with espresso. The main focus will be flavored iced coffees along with cold brew. They also will offer Red Bull-infused drinks. Ultimately, they will add smoothies, she said.

How the Screaming Cat Ice Cream and Coffee name came to be

Onyx, the couple's beloved 14-year-old cat, was instrumental in naming the ice cream and coffee shop.

Full disclosure: although a vocal kitty, Onyx ― taken in as a stray kitten by the couple ― does not look anything like the cartoon-like screaming feline depicted on the Screaming Cat logo, they said.

The couple were tasing ice cream samples from Chocolate Shoppe at the kitchen table while thinking of possible names for the ice cream shop. As she 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 a 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," Elenis Camargo said.

Screaming Cat Ice Cream & Coffee will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Once they settle in, the shop expects to expand its hours for "the morning coffee" crowd, she 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.

If you're a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest dining coverage .

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: New ice cream and coffee shop opening in historic Riverside aims to be the cat's meow