Here’s why this popular ice cream shop in Palmetto Bay is suddenly closing
It’s a tearful ending for the Sweet Melody Ice Cream shop in Palmetto Bay.
After being open less than a year, the decadent ice cream shop of locally made, high-quality ice cream will close Sept. 30 after a dispute between the lease holders. Taking its place in the property located at 17389 S. Dixie Highway is a new ice cream shop, Cry Baby ice cream, that subtly hints at the soured relationship between the partnership that brought this location to south Miami-Dade.
“I can’t really say too much except that this is for the best,” Sweet Melody owner Mike Romeu said. “It feels like this is going to lead to better things even if it seems terrible now.”
Romeu had partnered with John Falco of the next-door Maxwell Bros. bar and pizza shop (and a co-founder of Lincoln’s Beard Brewing near West Miami) after the two first teamed successfully in west Kendall. There Romeau opened Miami’s first ice cream ventanita in a strip mall next to Falco’s Strange Beast brewery and pizza shop.
Sweet Melody’s Palmetto Bay scoop shop opened in December of 2020, but by early 2021, the two sides were trading social media barbs that led to “legal issues,” Romeu said. The two had teamed up after a dispute between Sweet Melody and Mojo Donuts cost the ice cream shop a spot at both doughnut shop locations.
Romeu’s Sweet Melody will continue in west Kendall (15224 SW 72nd St.), plus, he has partnered with REEF Neighborhood Kitchens to make his ice cream available via delivery apps in Brickell and Miami Beach by the end of the month, he said.
The new Cry Baby ice cream will be an extension of the funky vibe at next door at Maxwell Bros. to which it is connected by double doors inside, Falco said. It has hired ice cream maker and pastry chef Stephanie Diaz to create specific desserts, such as ice cream bars and sandwiches, all with a vintage Las Vegas vibe, Falco said.
“I like bars, I like edgy, so we’re going to brand it like a bar,” Falco said.
The shop shares in the bar’s liquor license and that will allow it to sell boozy ice cream creations and stay open late, complementing the bar. And it will partner with local chocolate and coffee roasters like Little Havana’s Exquisito Chocolates and Per’La coffee roasters, Falco said.
“We’re going to have a smooth transition between Cry Baby and Maxwell Bros,” Falco said.
This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 1:19 PM.
