Best Station Concept: Kreme Kreamery, FLIK Lifestyles

Kreme Kreamery takes advantage of ice cream’s popularity among seniors and weds it to several broader cultural trends: the use of premium products and healthful ingredients such as organics, and the delivery of customization. The mobile cold steel organic ice cream concept is designed especially for senior centers where it can serve either as a regular café station or part of a station rotation, or as a mobile catering unit for special events.

It “creates tons of fun and excitement for our residents as they are given the opportunity to create their own icy treat blend on our signature cold steel flat top,” says Juan Melgarejo, director of creative development for FLIK Lifestyles. “Kreme Kreamery is designed as a mobile concept that delivers the fun and excitement of creating your own blended organic ice cream to any location in [a] community while making a conscious effort to be both flavorful and healthier with fresh ingredients.”

Kreme Kreamery comes in short and long cart versions differing primarily in where the ingredients are placed—either next to or behind the cold steel surface. It has its own logo for personnel uniforms and specialty implements like the spades used to extract and mix the ice cream.

The ice cream itself is exclusively provided by the Blue Marble Organic Ice Cream Co. of Brooklyn and the core of the concept is the customization in which a customer can select a base ice cream—vanilla bean, chocolate, strawberry or coffee—add ingredients like roasted peaches, grilled pineapple, fresh berries, toasted coconut, macerated cherries, fresh mint, dark chocolate chunks and Nutella and finish off with choices like whipped cream, dark chocolate ganache, homemade granola, candied nuts, butterscotch and caramel agave.

There are also standard signature blends, served with optional waffle cones, that can range from Going Nuts (organic peanut butter, peanuts, chocolate chunks and caramel sauce) and Cool As Mint (vanilla ice cream, fresh mint, chocolate chunks and candied pecans) to Berry Me (strawberry ice cream, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, oatmeal cookie dough and fresh whipped cream) and Coffee Crunch (coffee ice cream, dark chocolate ganache and toasted quinoa chocolate bark).

Also available are signature ice cream sandwiches such as Bye Bye Brownie (FLIK’s signature brownie layered with chocolate ice cream and soaked cherries and rolled in quinoa chocolate bark), Oats ‘n Crunch (a low-fat oatmeal cookie layered with toffee ice cream and rolled in housemade granola) and The FLIK (the signature FLIK cookie stacked with layers of classic vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate bark shavings).

The concept was implemented at several FLIK Lifestyles Life Plan communities in the Northeast in 2017, “with resounding fanfare,” Melgarejo says. It is used mostly for special occasions as well as on a rotating schedule that allows it to travel throughout all dining rooms in participating communities.

“When our clients decide to invest in this innovative concept, they understand they are investing in creating a WOW for their residents while establishing a unique selling proposition for their community,” Melgarejo adds.

The idea for the concept came out of the overwhelming popularity of ice cream in senior communities and a desire to want to create a unique ad chef-centric way of presenting an old favorite, he adds.

“There is nothing else like it in the marketplace today!”