When Sophie Evanoff, owner of Vanille Chicago in Harper Court, launched the store’s new offering of Vanille Dips at the end of July, she knew she had a great product, but didn’t realize the level of excitement it would bring.
Vanille Dips is a line of frozen vanilla custard cones hand-dipped in a variety of European chocolates and topped with a selection of Vanille-curated tasty treats, including signature Vanille macarons on several of the cones. Non-dairy frozen soft serve is available, as well as gluten-free cones. So far they have sold over 1,500 cones – that’s a lot of frozen custard!
A search on social media shows lots of photos and enthusiastic posts and comments, including:
“The new cool treats are amazing and gluten free! I love you @vanillechicago”
“Walking around Hyde Park and noticed @vanillechicago has #vanilledips! The girls absolutely loved them. So much to explore in my neighborhood!”
“I had the Cookies and Cream one yesterday and it was AMAZINGGGGGGG!!!!”
“I loved my fruity pebbles cone! The guys did a great job.”
“Sophie, you’re creating something magical and you’re creating so many memories especially for the kids that visit your shops.”
“We are excited to be the first in Chicago to offer frozen custard, cones, and couverture chocolate in this way,” Sophie commented. “Couverture” is the French word for “cover,” and refers to the high-quality chocolate used to cover truffles, bonbons, and with Vanille Dips – frozen vanilla custard.
The Vanille Dips menu includes classic dipped cones in eight types of chocolate, including Ruby chocolate, now recognized as the fourth chocolate after dark, milk, and white chocolate. Ruby chocolate, recently introduced to the world by Callebaut, is manufactured from the Ruby cocoa bean and has a fruity, berry taste.
Customers can go as plain or fancy as they want by choosing frozen custard only, dipped in chocolate only (with 8 different flavors), or the “Ooh La La” menu with 11 different options including Tropical Vanille, Kid at Heart, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Turtle Brownie, Pebbles, Sophia, Cookies & Cream, Cotton Candy, Snack Attack, Nuts About Ruby, and S’mores.
“Our goal was to use interesting, high-end ingredients in an unexpected and fun way. We want kids to discover quality dipped cones and hope adults will rediscover their childhood through dessert with Vanille Dips.”
The Vanille Dips menu is currently available at Vanille’s Hyde Park and Lakeview East locations. The Hyde Park store is located in Harper Court at 5229 S. Harper Court, and is open Monday- Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
