Study Hall offers a rotating lineup of Dole Whip flavors. (Photo by Jay Paul)
A sweet treat with a devoted following and its own Disney guide, the Dole Whip is the “perfect ice cream product,” according to Study Hall co-owners Alex Zavaleta and Meryl Hillerson.
Born in Northern California, Hillerson says she has fond memories of going to the Disneyland theme park and ordering a Dole Whip, a nondairy, fruit-flavored, low-fat soft serve. “We’re huge fans,” says Zavaleta, who first teamed with Hillerson while they were living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The pair opened Study Hall, a spot strictly for soft serve, in spring 2021 on Forest Hill Avenue in Richmond’s South Side. While their first ice cream venture, the now-shuttered Charm School Social Club on Broad Street, focused on myriad scoop flavors, Study Hall is all about “quality over quantity,” Zavaleta says.
Part of ensuring that experience is rotating in the Dole Whip as soon as the weather warms. “The last two years, when we break out of our limited off-season menu and the first hot spell hits, we’ll have pineapple Dole Whip,” Hillerson says.
There are exceptions, of course — the joy of soft serve knows no bounds. This past December, Study Hall hosted a “Summer in Winter” week, with pineapple and watermelon Dole Whips and Dole Whip floats, topped with maraschino cherries and precious umbrellas, making a cold-weather appearance.
But this doesn’t mean the team can whip up a Dole Whip on the fly. “We’ve had people come up to us and show us a picture they saw on Instagram and say, ‘We want this,’” Hillerson says.
Zavaleta adds that if Study Hall were, in fact, located inside Epcot, they’d aim to have Dole Whip on tap year-round, “but Forest Hill really wants the chocolate and vanilla,” he says.
Like a trip to Mickey’s wonderland, Dole Whip at Study Hall is a special occasion. First introduced to parkgoers in 1984 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, the treat has certainly become popularized by the Disney brand — “Dole Whip” and “Disney Dole Whip” are often used interchangeably. But Disney does not own exclusive rights to the product.
In fact, businesses ranging from mom-and-pop ice cream shops to behemoths such as Sweet Frog have served Dole Whip. All that’s required is a solid soft serve machine and the fruit-based mix, which must be ordered directly from the lone source: Dole Soft Serve.
“One of the reasons we love working with Dole Whip is that, in terms of the machine, we don’t have to change too many settings,” Hillerson says. Unlike traditional dairy products, which can be ruined if the temperature is off or if the machine spins too fast, Dole Whip is “very forgiving.”
“It’s structurally engineered to be perfect in soft serve machines,” Zavaleta says. “The staff loves it.”
The people love it, too. “It’s probably one of our most asked-for flavors,” Hillerson says.
Keep an eye out for those delightful, brightly colored yellow swirls and tiny umbrellas this summer at Study Hall, plus pops of pinks, greens, oranges and reds. “It depends on what we can get from Dole,” Zavaleta says of their flavor selection. “We’ve had watermelon, lime, orange, raspberry and strawberry. And I recently heard a rumor about a cherry flavor.”
Check Study Hall’s website for the most up-to-date hours and soft serve selections.
