Ice cream parlour Chin Chin and Mello, dubbed the world’s first dedicated marshmallow dessert bar, will open within the Covent Garden venue’s Cucumber Alley on 11 September.
Known for its innovative ice cream methods and viral hot chocolates, Chin Chin has built a cult following at its Camden and Soho sites. At Seven Dials Market, it will serve a greatest hits menu including its burnt butter caramel; banana bread toast and honey butter, and exclusive new creation the Block of Butter ice cream - a nostalgic throwback reimagined as crisp honey toast and strawberry jam encased in a gold-wrapped slab of honey butter ice cream (pictured).
Mello, meanwhile, is a brand-new concept from Chin Chin and brings the team’s inventive mindset to the world of marshmallow. After years of perfecting its signature marshmallow crème, the team decided it deserved a home of its own and have created a concept where the confection takes centre stage.
Mello’s menu will include a rotating list of desserts such as baked Alaska lemon meringue bombs; and tubes of marshmallow crème to take home, and drinks such as a hazelnut s’mores hot chocolate and takes on matcha including the London Fog - a mix of hojicha, earl grey, spirulina and a swirl of whipped Mello crème.
Chin Chin was founded by Ahrash Akbari-Kalhur, a former lawyer who retrained as a pastry chef, and his wife Nyisha Weber in Camden in 2010. It has made a name for itself by bringing desserts made using techniques associated with high-end restaurants, including using liquid nitrogen, to a wider audience.