(Tikka Masala pizza is one of the signature Indian-inspired pies distinguishing Cool Flames Café)
By Marisa Marsey
Give me a Cool! Give me a Flames! Give me a Café! What have you got? A friendly, family-owned spot, opened last spring in Norfolk’s Best Square, sporting a curious name. But check it out, and you’ll see that the moniker Cool Flames Café is a shout-out to its triptych of a menu.
First comes the cool, depicted in blue letters, for homemade ice cream and milkshakes, not to mention a chill vibe. Flames, in red, refers to the boldly-flavored pizza and wings. Finally, café, in yellow, nods to bubble teas (boba) and coffees. It’s a place teeming with delicious, fun food and drink, and an exuberant spirit to support its motto painted on the wall in cursive: “Bringing community together.”
Make that communities. One Friday afternoon, over the course of an hour, I encountered Hispanics, Indians, Ukrainians, Navy vets, fashion models and preschoolers in a beautiful array of colors – black, white, brown, cinnamon, mocha – as if complementing the spectrum of thirty-some ice cream flavors.
And, oh, what flavors they be! The usual suspects line up – Vanilla, Chocolate, Cookie Dough, Mint and more – joined by Indian-pitched flavors such as Kesar Badam, saffron and almonds, and Paan, a kind of “kitchen sink” of peppery betel leaf sprinkled throughout with dried papaya, maraschino cherries and candied fennel seed (the same seeds found in bowls as you exit Indian restaurants to freshen breath and aid digestion for a most pleasing effect).
The common denominator, be they familiar or far-flung, is their intensity and fresh ingredients: pecans are roasted in-house for Butter Pecan, just-brewed espresso enunciates the coffee essence of Tiramisu, real bananas punctuate Banana Pudding, and cardamom-scented Gulab Jamun bursts with chopped syrup-soaked, fried dough balls.
Non-dairy options include Rose and Mango, both oat-based, and Vanilla can be had sugar-free. A lot of time and thought is devoted to creating new flavors (Dubai Pistachio Crunch is in the works), and CFC takes requests. A customer suggestion yielded Lemon, a sophisticated rendering with all the sunny zip of fresh citrus minus cloying sweetness.
February features Red Velvet, but a 4-year-old customer named Ezra stuck with his go-to. “It’s Cookie Monster, that’s why it’s blue,” he said authoritatively, digging merrily into two scoops at a booth. “But you never know what I’m going to eat with the toppings.” Gummy bears, M&Ms and mini marshmallows won out today.
Dorissa Adams, a customer solutions specialist, stopped by for her usual, a loaded sundae called Nutty Stack Attack, a tower of Chocolate ice cream (she customizes with the coconut milk-based version), Reese’s Pieces, peanut butter chips, Nutella, peanut butter sauce and crushed peanuts. She took first-timer Divine Perry, an AT&T rep she had just met in line, under her wing, highlighting flavors.
“It’s hard to pick,” said Divine after sampling several. “All of them are number one at this point.” She likened each to the sensory jolt portrayed in 5Gum commercials. “That’s the experience, it just opens up.”
Pizza stimulates with robust tastes while fusing continents and cultures, too. You got your cheese, pepperoni and veggie but the standouts are tingly Tikka Masala (a ginger punch here, a cilantro kick there for a knockout of a dish), Achari (tangy with pickling spices), Butter Chicken (creamy) and Vindaloo Inferno (curry-ish). Indian-inspired pies come in choice of chicken or paneer, and all may be ordered with a crust that’s regular, thin or gluten-free cauliflower.
Of all CFC’s treats, Falooda, a complex, layered beverage of Vanilla ice cream, soft rice noodles, almonds, pistachios, rose syrup and basil seeds (similar to chia seeds), may be the most emblematic of the subcontinent.
The South Asian influence suits this location, a bustling plaza where neighbors include Tamarind, beloved for its chaat (Indian street food), and Royal Bazaar Indian Asian Market. CFC’s mission is to make everyone – native or newcomer – feel at home by offering something familiar as well as the opportunity to try something different.
Wings in varieties like Jamaican jerk and Korean barbecue continue that intentional kumbaya-ness, as does Taiwan-born boba, crafted meticulously. Just watch the concentration as the Cool Flames Boba, capped like a crème brûlée, gets torched before your eyes (the flame explains its status as a signature item).
The crunchy, burnt caramel crisps floating within the liquid add another textural dimension alongside the squooshy tapioca pearls. It’s remarkably balanced; no excruciating sweetness.
Seals just waiting to be poked by jumbo straws affirm, “You are the Best” and “Believe in Yourself.” Bubble tea therapy! Hot boba milk tea soothes on a cold winter’s day, and CFC is so bright and cheery, it’s an ideal antidote to seasonal affective disorder.
You can’t help but smile when you enter a world of strawberry-tinted checkerboard flooring, polka dots in colors that pop and dashing stripes straight from a barbershop quartet’s costumes. So this is what it’s like to live inside a celebration cake (oh yes, that’s an ice cream flavor here, too).
No wonder customers from Red Mill and Hilltop in Virginia Beach, even other states, dream of having a CFC in their ‘hood. But it’s singular. CFC is not out to conquer the universe, just unite it. And that’s something to cheer about.
415 N. Military Highway (Best Square), Ste. 26, Norfolk. 757-937-9506. Open Sun.-Thurs. from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. coolflamescafe.com