If anyone could pull off opening an ice cream shop in the dead of an icy Minnesotan winter, it’s Sameh Wadi.

Chef and owner of award-winning Mediterranean restaurant, Saffron, and globally inspired food-truck-turned-brick-and-mortar, World Street Kitchen, it felt natural for Wadi to expand his culinary empire into the ice cream category. Not to mention it had always been a childhood dream.

The catch? The ice cream-obsessed chef is lactose intolerant.

But Wadi’s dietary restrictions spurred the desire to host a vegan, dairy-free frozen treat in a shop of his own.

“I’m personally most excited about the vegan ice creams,” Wadi tells the Star Tribune. “I’m lactose-intolerant, although that doesn’t stop me from eating ice cream. But with these vegan ice creams, I’ll be able to overindulge and not hate myself the next day.”

Situated adjacent to World Street Kitchen (2743 Lyndale Ave. S.), Milkjam Creamery is far from your local Dairy Queen. Each of the 16 rotating flavors offered are crafted in-house, using the ingredients like fresh vanilla bean and all-natural pistachio.

One can choose to enjoy their frozen flavor of choice on top of a sugar cone, in a sundae or float, or even sandwiched between two halves of a locally made donut.

Scooping flavors like “Indian Elvis” – curry peanut butter banana – or Black Fig & Mezcal, this new creamery is one you’ll want to check out. Even in the dead of an icy Minnesotan winter.