About two months ago, Deepak Suresh, the founder of ice cream brand Amadora, was watching a cricket match with his four-and-a-half-year-old son. They were both engrossed in the game, not really talking. The son was savouring a post-dinner chocolate brownie chocobar. When he was about halfway through it, he looked at Deepak with wide eyes and said, “This is just too yummy.” The impromptu compliment made Deepak’s eyes moist. It, more than anything else, validated his 11 years of selling ice cream.
The eleventh year of Amadora is significant for Deepak in other ways, too, because it also marks the artisanal ice cream brand’s foray into cities outside its birthplace, Chennai. Earlier this month, it opened a parlour in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout. It also has a kiosk in UB City Mall. Two more parlours, in Whitefield and Bellandur, are slated to launch in December and January 2024. Deepak also has plans to take the brand to Mumbai next year.
Deepak is not bothered much about the competition in Bengaluru, which has legacy brands such as Corner House and Lakeview Milkbar. “When it comes to ice creams, the more the merrier. The competition will only result in improvement in the quality of the product,” he reckons.
The compact, cosy parlour at HSR Layout, with its soothing pastel interiors and neon signboards, creates an inviting oasis for ice cream-craving souls. The line-up of flavours includes Frozen Hot Chocolate, Five Bean Vanilla, Mami’s Filter Coffee, Trifle Pudding, Mint Chocolate Chip, and some whimsical ones including Toast Flavour, Miso Caramel, Chilli Cheese Toast, and White Lotus Finale (Deepak’s tribute to one of his favourite TV shows, The White Lotus).
Deepak Suresh, the founder of Amadora | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Amadora’s quirkily named sundaes offer a delightful mix of flavours and textures. Some signature creations include the Hail Mary, combining Five Bean Vanilla and Belgian Chocolate ice cream with underbaked bits and hot fudge. East and West present Filter Coffee ice cream on a brownie, drizzled with hot fudge. Everything But The Girl features caramelised white chocolate, frozen chocolate ice cream, French almonds, and hot fudge. You can also go for Green Monster with mint chocolate chip ice cream and brownie bits.
In addition to the sundaes, Amadora also offers ice cream cakes, ice cream sandwiches, and chocobars.
Chocobars, for reasons unknown, are not commonplace in ice cream parlours that call themselves gourmet. Deepak, however, is a fan of ice cream sticks — they are a part of his nostalgia. “My earliest ice-cream memory is having a stick called Raspberry Duet from Hotel Dasaprakash (a landmark popular when Chennai was Madras). Inside, it had vanilla ice cream, and they had a fake raspberry ice coating on the outside. It was incredibly tasty,” recalls Deepak, “I am still trying to recreate that nostalgic taste.”
“There was also a Buhari’s cart that used to go around Chennai, and they had their own ice cream. I remember biting into it during the hot summers. Ice cream has always been close to my heart and my family’s because Chennai is so hot. It’s the perfect way to cool down,” he adds.
Ice cream is an essential part of Deepak’s life. It is the reason for his marriage. After graduating in the US in engineering, he had returned to Chennai to start Amodara in 2012. “I didn’t really have much of a social life then. That’s when I met my wife at the store (in 2014). She used to come to the store all the time. She had also recently moved back from the US, so we connected over that. We got to know each other better, fell in love, and got married,” he recalls, before quipping, “I lost a good paying customer but found a wife.”
The best thing about being an ice cream guy, he says, is the human interaction. “Everyone who comes to the parlour has a different story, and it’s fascinating to become a part of all those stories. When you go out for dinner and have a bad meal, I can turn your night around and make it better. That’s why we’re in the ice cream business.”
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