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Leah’s Grape Cobbler is one of five collaborative flavors available this month at Ruby Scoops.
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Rabia Kamara, owner of Ruby Scoops
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Ruby Scoops is located at 120 Brookland Park Blvd.
Inside Brookland Park Boulevard ice cream shop Ruby Scoops, mini clipboards dangle behind the display case, listing current flavors. Through the end of February, patrons will find five limited-time offerings: High on the Hog, Bissap Sorbet, Lillie Pearl Banana Pudding, Leah’s Grape Cobbler and Black Folk Chocolate.
Owner Rabia Kamara, winner in 2021 of the Food Network ice cream competition “Ben & Jerry’s Clash of the Cones,” is using her North Side small-batch ice cream parlor as a sweet platform for storytelling. In celebration of Black History Month, Kamara has collaborated with local Black chefs on a series of scoops that are unique, and delicious, expressions of their identities.
“We like to honor Black history every day, … but it’s fun to be like, here’s a bunch of people that are currently, presently making history, and here are all the ways that it is kind of tied back to our Blackness, historically and generationally speaking,” Kamara says.
Operating one of the few Black-owned ice cream shops in the city, Kamara say of the cool treat’s origins, “The reason we know modern ice cream like we do is because of several Black men that were able to revolutionize things that made ice cream possible, between vanilla and the ice cream scoop and modern ice cream freezing.”
Ice cream wouldn’t exist without Black entrepreneurs such as Augustus Jackson, a Philadelphian and White House chef who is credited with inventing a modern method of manufacturing ice cream, adding salt to the ice during the freezing process. Or Alfred Cralle, who was born in Lunenberg County and patented the first ice cream scoop. Historically, the Black community was limited to which ice cream flavors they could eat, and during the Jim Crow era, Black people were denied vanilla because it was considered too pure. None of this history has gone unnoticed by Kamara.
“That was kind of emotional,” she says of the collaboration, “just to realize, you know, 50 years ago, none of us would have been able to do any of this, realistically, so being able to showcase flavors that are important to them and important to our culture, and be in a position where people are interested and want to know more and want to try them, when that wouldn’t have been the case some decades ago, it’s incredible.”
For the series, Kamara called on Emmanuel “Manny” Baiden of Manny Eats, Leah Branch of The Roosevelt, Mike Lindsey of Lindsey Food Group, Paul and Nikki Polk of Charlotte’s Southern Deli & Tapas, and Charles Robinson Jr. of Black Folk Food. She posed the question, What is the ice cream that represents you?
For Baiden, the answer was bissap. A deep-hued drink made from hibiscus flowers, the beverage transports him to his youth in West Africa. Baiden recalls visiting Accra, Ghana’s Kaneshie Market with his mother, and the refreshing reward he would get each time he joined her.
“There’s truly nothing like sipping on an ice-cold bottle of bissap on a scorching 90-degree day in Ghana,” he says.
A reflection of that memory, the Bissap Sorbet at Ruby Scoops is laden with warm spices, ginger, lime and mint, punctuated with passion fruit for extra oomph. While bissap is personal to Baiden, its reach extends far beyond Ghana. The ingredient, also known as sobolo, sorrel or Flor de Jamaica, is ubiquitous throughout Africa, the Caribbean and various Hispanic cultures.
“Highlighting hibiscus, a plant that traveled continents during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, is important during Black History Month,” Baiden says. “Its journey across Africa, Europe and the Americas symbolizes the connection of African cultures and their diaspora. Moments like these are truly special to me.”
Kamara adds, “Every Black person has had some sort of version of hibiscus in their life that they’ve drank, no matter what continent you grew up on.”
Another element of Black history is found in the flavor High on the Hog, an unctuous, bacon fat caramel ice cream studded with bits of crisp candied bacon. Inspired by the Million Dollar BLT sandwich at Charlotte’s, the flavor, chosen with intention by the Polks, draws from the pig’s polarizing history in the Black community.
“We also like to highlight the hog on our menu even though it has a complicated history with the descendants of African slaves in this country, i.e., the feeding of salt pork and lesser, cheaper cuts of the meats, but the hog was also very cheap to raise and cook post slavery,” Paul Polk explains via email. “Black folk thrived post slavery selling BBQ using the knowledge for open fire pit cooking they had brought from Africa and perfected during slavery. The gathering of cooking the hog was a time for community and celebration (it has even been debated that Nat Turner’s Rebellion was planned during a whole hog BBQ).”
Branch, executive chef of The Roosevelt, took a more sentimental route when conducting R&D for her featured flavor. With Kamara, the Chesterfield native developed a complex, sugar cookie dough ice cream featuring ripples of grape jam and chunks of black pepper-oregano shortbread.
“It reminds me of hanging out in my grandma’s backyard as a child, snacking on grapes, and the smell of her garden,” Branch says of Leah’s Grape Cobbler. “The hint of oregano and black pepper in the ice cream Rabia made brings up those same nostalgic feelings.”
Charles Robinson Jr. is the founder of Black Folk Food and a purveyor of seasoning blends, and his creation, Black Folk Chocolate, is described as a peek into your grandmother’s spice cabinet, boasting hints of brown sugar, salt, spice and smoke, all accented with a swirl of guava.
For restaurateur Mike Lindsey, choosing banana pudding for his flavor was a no-brainer. The dessert inspired by his grandmother is a mainstay at nearly all of his many restaurants. Putting a vegan spin on the Southern classic, Lindsey and Kamara crafted a banana pudding ice cream with flecks of candied walnuts, cookie chunks and a swirl of banana sauce.
The chefs share that the collaborative endeavor, honoring Black history through food, was a rewarding experience.
“We’re all cooking but doing different things, but we all still have this Blackness in common, and you can kind of see how it lives in everyone and comes out in different ways,” Kamara says. “There’s been something really great about being a Black food business owner in a city where there is so much historical Blackness, and a lot of folks are starting to focus on that in their cuisine. Having the creativity and will to be like, ‘This is the food that I make, it’s Black AF, and I stand by it and you’re going to enjoy it, because you’ve been enjoying it for centuries not realizing how rooted it is in our history.’”
