Ice cream shop with monthly subscription service opens in South End

Urban Sweets is a new ice cream shop that also offers a monthly subscription service that delivers four pints of ice cream to your home each month for $312 (plus shipping) a year.

Why it matters: This is a pandemic success story—in part, crowd-funded by fans of the ice cream cart turned shop.

• Urban Sweets started off as a cart and has been rolling around the city since August 2021.You may have spotted it at the Bayhaven Food Festival, Bop Around the Block, Charlotte SHOUT! and the South End Farmer’s Market.

“We’re all about fun and everything is about joy,” owner Kristen Stewart tells me.

Details: Urban Sweets will have indoor and outdoor seating at its 222 West Blvd. location.

• They’ll serve coffee (from Enderly Coffee Co.), ice cream, milkshakes, sundaes and hand-painted chocolates. 
• It’ll be open Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 8pm.

The ice cream: “We proudly offer over 25 rotating ice cream favorites, including vegan and gluten-free,” Stewart says. Each is named after Charlotte neighborhoods and staples — like the Dilworth Delight (chocolate cookie wafers with vanilla) and the Uptown Choco Brown (mix of three types of cocoas). 

• It’s made with a high content of butterfat, Steward says, which is “great if you want really delicious ice cream,” but not so great if you’re on a diet.

Take a look inside: 

Go deeper:9 places in Charlotte to get snowcones, popsicles and more frozen treats

Editor’s note: This story was originally written in June 2022 and updated November 2022 to reflect the opening.