Sweet Melody Brings Weekly Ice Cream Pop-Up to Mojo Donuts & Fried Chicken

With more than 200 rotating flavors of rainbow-sprinkled, chocolate-glazed, and guava-stuffed doughnuts, it seems Mojo Donuts & Fried Chicken couldn't get any sweeter.

But it is. Through a partnership with Sweet Melody, the Southwest Miami-Dade doughnut shop will offer a selection of whimsical ice creams every weekend.

Mike Romeu, who is behind the artisanal ice-cream concept, will be onsite scooping some of his best-selling flavors, such as blue vanilla and chocolate chip, guava and cream cheese, and pecan and bourbon, along with an all-new glazed-doughnut flavor made with Mojo's signature dough recipe.

Customers can top purchased doughnuts with scoops of ice cream or opt for a solo serving of varieties such as Nutella hazelnut or cafe con leche with chocolate-covered espresso beans ($3 per scoop and $10 per pint).

"What we do complements each other," he says. "It's natural to make a doughnut into a sundae and throw on some toppings. In the future, we want to experiment with pressing doughnuts inside a waffle maker too."

Because Sweet Melody operates without a storefront, Romeu depends on places like Mojo Donuts, as well as restaurants and cafés such as No Name Chinese, Ghee Indian Kitchen, Pinch Kitchen, Caffe Vialetto, and R House to serve his creations.

"Pop-ups like this give my customers somewhere to go," he says. "They serve as a springboard for Sweet Melody to one day grow into its own place."

Sweet Melody also appears at Lincoln's Beard Brewing Co. every last Sunday of the month for Global Gluttony, a themed event that highlights a specific country and offers fare by Dade County Food Group and dessert by Romeu.

"If it wasn't for places like Mojo or Lincoln's Beard, I don't know where I'd be right now," he says. "They believe in my product, and that's superexciting. It's only up from here."

Romeu has also partnered with Courtney's Cookies to create vegan ice-cream sandwiches, which are available beginning Monday, October 9, for delivery across Miami-Dade.

Involved with each batch from start to finish, Romeu crafts everything from the cream to its infusions by hand, keeping in line with Sweet Melody's artisanal concept.

Romeu's young daughter Melody was the inspiration to transform his admiration for food into a full-time gig. A Miami native, he's worked in the food-and-beverage industry his entire career but decided about a year and half ago to go rogue, following his dream of creating and ultimately selling unusual ice-cream flavor pairings on a grand scale.

Sweet Melody and Mojo Donuts Collab. 8870 Bird Rd., #13, Miami; 305-223-6656. Pop-up runs Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. until sold out. Sweet Melody is also available for delivery and catering; sweetmelody.com.