That's right, Miami. Sweet Melody's Coral Gables location is turning into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory to celebrate its 8th anniversary in February.
Much like the name of the ice cream shop itself, the idea for the giveaway comes from a shared memory with owner Michel Romeu's now 11-year-old daughter, Melody. While on a family vacation last December, Romeu mentioned he never watched the original Willy Wonka movie before, which led to a movie night with his daughter.
"I thought this golden ticket thing was brilliant," explains Romeu. "I'm also a massive fan of The Office, and there's an episode where Michael Scott does it. So, I told her, 'Melody, wouldn't it be cool if we did this with the ice cream? We can hide the golden tickets.'"
On Saturday, February 3, Sweet Melody officially turns eight, so Romeu has decided to celebrate the anniversary for the entire month. Throughout February, Romeu will be hiding five golden tickets in random pints of ice cream at their Coral Gables location. Although all of the golden tickets have prizes, only one lucky winner will receive one year of free ice cream.
To Romeu, this is more than a fun event — it also serves as a thank you to the community that has supported his business for the past eight years.
Whether it be those who tasted his treats back in 2016 when he first started making ice cream from his kitchen or those who joined him along his journey at the shop's first ventanita, he is grateful. Romeu attributes his success to hard work and perseverance, which come from the motivation of happy customers.
"I purchased a small ice cream maker in 2014, and it sat on a box for two years," says Romeu about why he first started making ice cream. "I don't know what possessed me to take it out of the box, clean it, and start using it, but it snowballed quickly. Every day, I wondered, 'What flavor am I making today?' In the beginning, it's just friends and family buying, and the products aren't very good. But you just keep at it, and every order I got made me super excited."
Romeu says he was operating on blind faith, and looking back on his journey, he believes there must have been something pushing him to continue.
"I found this quote by Richard Branson," he says, 'If you were given a good opportunity, say, "Yes," and then figure out how to do it later.' And, so, I always lived by that whether that was smart or stupid, the jury's still out."
Buy the Sweet Melody ice cream in the store and take advantage of the "buy three, get one free" deal for pints.
Sweet Melody photo
His daughter has been next to him every step of the way and has witnessed all the highs and lows of the business. Now, the shop serves as a love letter to his daughter, and Romeu hopes that as she grows up, she will see her name spread around Miami as a legacy she helped build.
"In the early days, it was very cool for me to see some of the best restaurants in town have Sweet Melody on their menu," he says. "For them, they're carrying the ice cream, but for me, I snuck my daughter's name into some big fancy menus. It was really special for me."
The shop, which has three locations, including in Kendall and South Beach at Alton Food Hall, now carries six signature flavors: "Tahitian Vanilla Bean," "Pure Chocolate," "Kooki Monster," "Bo & Jo's Guava Cream Cheese," "Abuela's Flan," and "Hella Nutella."
However, to keep the menu current, the shop also creates six new weekly flavors and three new monthly flavors, and guests can always find three dairy-free options and vegan flavors on the menu.
The idea for the giveaway comes from a shared memory with Owner Michel Romeu's daughter, Melody.
Sweet Melody photo
"The biggest factor is, can we get kids eating a better product?" he asks. "We're going to put the best ingredients we can in there. Ice cream isn't meant to be your every meal. If you do something really good, you get ice cream as a reward. If you're having a bad day, maybe ice cream lifts your spirits. We're in the business that we sell a lot more than ice cream, we try to sell happiness."
Romeu emphasizes that happiness would not be sold at Sweet Melody if it weren't for his employees.
"If I can mention one thing, I would like to shout out the staff," says Romeu. "They work really hard and the community loves them. This business is very personal to me, so for them to take care of it the way they do...it means a lot."
Sweet Melody. 3814 SW Eighth St., Coral Gables; sweetmelodyicecream.com.
