Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Shop pairs gelato, premium liquors
Quore Gelato in Hollywood pairs Italian ice cream with ultra-premium liquors
Creamy gelato blended with Cognac and coffee liqueurs, Don Julio tequila and Glenmorangie single-malt Scotch whisky brings sweet treats for the 21-and-older set at Quore Gelato, a boozy new scoop shop opening in late March in Hollywood.
Owner Kwon Jin Lee — “Danny” to his friends — will debut the 1,200-square-foot Quore this month at 777 N. Ocean Drive, on the ground floor of the Costa Hollywood Beach Resort. Lee says the shop, which serves 20 gelato flavors, awaits a final city inspection this week ahead of its opening.
It’s also the first outpost after Lee’s flagship Quore opened last November on the second floor of Aventura Mall, with a third Wynwood location to follow this summer.
Yes, Quore’s spiked gelato can be buzzy, depending on the customer. Any one scoop (rang
ing from $9-$29 for half-pint and pint sizes) packs about 5% alcohol-by-volume — as much as a can of Funky Buddha Floridian Hefeweizen.
None of his flavors exceed 5%, Lee says, a deliberate choice that lets him sell gelato with a beer and wine license instead of a more-expensive liquor license. He also plans to sell high-end wines and champagnes by the glass and bottle, he says.
While Lee is aware of boozy ice cream and the South Florida shops that make it — Aubi & Ramsa and other exotic-treat purveyors come to mind — he found little competition for alcohol-infused gelato.
“I had this idea that the world of premium gelato and premium liquors had never been combined,” says Lee, a Korea-born entrepreneur who spent much of his adulthood in Argentina. “It’s like drinking wine and you have to pick the best grade, and with gelato the flavor of premium spirits is stronger.”
Quore’s gelato contains only 5% milk fat compared to ice cream, which typically tops 20%, adds Armando Lozano, Quore’s chief operating officer. That makes gelato ideal for high-end liquor blends.
“Because gelato has less fat the flavors will be more pronounced,” Lozano says. “When you use premium Champagne and whiskey, there’s an aftertaste at the end of the bite that will give you the tone of the liquor much better than if you used a well drink like Jack Daniel’s.”
After a career spent opening restaurants and nightclubs in Argentina, Lee decided to tour Italy in 2018, visiting gelato shops all over the peninsula. He traveled and designed recipes with ice-cream consultant Malcolm Stogo, best known for inventing the cookies-and-cream flavor in the 1970s.
Along with gluten- and kosher-free flavors, there will be vegan “gelatos” and seasonal fusions, such as strawberry sorbet and Grey Goose vodka, that appear on occasion. But Quore’s popular flavors so far include Salted Caramel & Whisky with Macallan 12-Year single-malt Scotch; Ricotta Fig and Cognac with Hennessy Cognac; Dulce de Leche & Tequila with Don Julio Reposado; and Blackberry and Cabernet Sauvignon with Terraza Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
Teetotaling sweet tooths who prefer “virgin” desserts to their boozy counterparts can order Quore’s so-called “bambini” line of nonalcoholic gelatos, a kids’ menu touting chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream and “sky cream,” or blue vanilla with marshmallows.
Quore Gelato will debut its second location at 777 N. Ocean Drive, Unit 701, inside Costa Hollywood Beach Resort. Quore’s flagship at 19501 Biscayne Blvd., Second Floor, Aventura, is also open. Hours will be 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday. Go to QuoreGelato.com.