Bronzeville’s Nitro Nostalgia Serves Up Ice Cream And A Blast From The Past

Daughter-and-father duo Kamillah and Garland Lucas opened the shop earlier this month, offering ice cream flavors named after classic songs. There are also old-school board games for customers to enjoy.

Nitro Nostalgia owners Garland (l) and Kamillah Lucas opened their ice cream parlor and gaming lounge in early December.

BRONZEVILLE — A new cafe is serving up nitrogen ice cream with a side of nostalgia in Bronzeville.

Co-owners Kamillah and Garland Lucas opened Nitro Nostalgia, 4254 S. Cottage Grove Ave., earlier this month. It’s been a three-year labor of love for the father and daughter team who wanted to create a space where neighbors could enjoy delicious, made-to-order nitrogen ice cream while playing a board game or two.

The younger Lucas worked as a medical assistant before making the pivot to entrepreneurship with her father, she told Block Club in a recent interview.

“He’s had the entrepreneurial bug for maybe the past five years now. He decided to retire early. And we actually have a boating business too, where he charters his boat, so that was kind of the first start,” Kamillah Lucas said. “My stepmom is in real estate, so she’s got her own thing going on. They’ve been urging me.”

Nitro Nostalgia, Bronzeville’s newest dessert destination, opened in early December. Pictured is the Papa Don’t Peach, a confection with peach cobbler, graham crackers, cinnamon and whipped cream.

When Garland Lucas pitched the concept of an ice cream parlor, Kamillah Lucas said it was something she could see herself doing. 

The University of Missouri alum still has ambitions of attending med school to become a doctor, but for now, she said she’s relishing the experience of running day-to-day operations while working with her father. 

“I said ‘I’m gonna handle the product side and the people and the employees, and you handle the infrastructure.’ We’ve been a team ever since then,” Kamillah Lucas said.

In creating the menu, Kamillah Lucas experimented with different flavor profiles, resulting in offerings like Express Yourself — made with espresso, chocolate drizzle and whipped cream — and Strawberry Letter 43, consisting of strawberry, pound cake, graham crackers and whipped cream. Each treat at Nitro Nostalgia is named for a classic song.

Prices start at $12 for a regular portion and $21 for a pint. The desserts also come in milkshake form, with offerings like Brownie Nights, which comes with chocolate chips, brownies and chocolate drizzle, or Papa Don’t Peach, a confection made with peach cobbler, graham crackers, cinnamon and whipped cream. A regular size shake is $14.

There’s also a spiked milkshake option for those who like a little buzz with their sugar high: a shot of house brand liquor (including bourbon, vodka and Peppermint Schnapps) is $4 while premium spirits cost a buck more.

For those who like savory with their sweets, Nitro Nostalgia offers empanadas from Cafe Tola for $7.

“We try to make our flavors familiar to our customers. With the name being Nitro Nostalgia, we were thinking about what flavors make people feel like a kid again, or bring back that Christmas time or that Thanksgiving feeling. So, not surprisingly, our most popular menu item is Happy Feelin’, which has an apple pie flavor,” said Kamillah Lucas.

After placing their order at Nitro Nostalgia, customers can head to the bookshelf in the shop, where they’ll find a collection of old-school board games like Sorry and Monopoly, along with chess and checker boards.

Nitro Nostalgia owner Kamillah Lucas and her staff prepare each frozen treat with liquid nitrogen to achieve the perfect level of creaminess.  Jamie Nesbitt Golden / Block Club Chicago

Creating a community space in Bronzeville was top of mind for Kamillah Lucas, who said neighbors shouldn’t have to trek Downtown or to the North Side for entertainment. Nitro Nostalgia just hosted its first holiday-themed event where families took pictures with Santa and danced to old-school tunes played by a live DJ.

The Lucases plan to expand the event calendar to include Sunday football watch parties and other gatherings, and Kamillah aims to hire locally to add to her current staff of two.

Kamillah Lucas also envisions opening more locations in under-resourced neighborhoods in the coming years, but for now she’s happy to see the fruits of her labor realized, she said.

What would she tell her younger self?

“‘The world is your oyster,’ she said. “We don’t hear that enough and we don’t always understand that as children who grow up in neighborhoods that don’t have all the resources, the world never seems like it’s on our side.”

Nitro Nostalgia is open 3-8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and noon- 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday.