Cincinnati craft ice cream shop and bakery Hello Honey is adding another location to its rapidly expanding dessert empire.
Located at 118 N. Fort Thomas Ave., Fort Thomas, Hello Honey is slated to open its doors "ASAP in July," says co-owner Brian Nicely in an email. The Northern Kentucky storefront will be the brand's third location overall.
Nicely and his wife Nitima started serving their homemade, small-batch desserts on Vine Street downtown in 2012. In early 2022, they opened a second location in East Walnut Hills, and closed the flagship Hello Honey to relocate to a larger spot at 725 Race St.
While the new downtown location has yet to open its doors — Nicely says the build-out there has been "chaotic," but they are shooting to open before the end of summer — the Fort Thomas spot will be an additional stop for those seeking to soothe ice cream cravings.
"Our new Kentucky location will be serving our small-batch ice cream, fresh-made waffle cones, torched marshmallows and roll cakes," Nicely says.
Hello Honey is known for its creative dessert flavor combos, made with fresh ingredients and free from artificial flavors and coloring. Roll cakes, which are also available at the East Walnut Hills location, come in options ranging from goat cheese cherry and orange cardamom to hazelnut chocolate.
Current ice cream options — which can change seasonally and week-to-week — include banana honeycomb, brown butter caramel, charcoal black sesame, peanut butter brittle chip and Thai tea. There are also vegan flavors, like strawberry rosewater.
"We are always playing with the flavors and having fun with them," Nicely says.
While neither Nicely or Nitima went to culinary school — they started Hello Honey "armed with little more than a countertop ice cream maker and sheer determination," Nicely says — Nitima is the driving force behind their stand-out offerings.
"She is so creative and fearless in everything she does," Nicely says. "All of these recipes are her own and she is always fine-tuning them and helping them evolve."
If you've never paid a visit to Hello Honey before, it's imperative you top your ice cream with one of their homemade, vegetarian marshmallows (yes, standard marshmallows are made with gelatin and therefore not vegetarian-friendly). They're "torched to order," as Nicely says, directly on top of your dessert.
Hello Honey's East Walnut Hills shop is located at 1530 Madison Road. The Fort Thomas location will be located at 118 N. Fort Thomas Ave., and the downtown Cincinnati location will be located at 725 Race St.
Follow instagram.com/hellohoneyicecream for updates, and get more info or place an order at hellohoneyicecream.square.site.
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