Our story
Charles Perry grew up here. The property is already purchased. The website is here so neighbors, partners, and supporters can see the vision while the space is still being built.
The founder
Charles grew up in the community where this project is taking shape. He is well known on these blocks, and he has spent many years working with young people and high-risk individuals. He describes that work as “violence education.” It has been about 18 years.
He also has a church connection in the community and a culinary arts education. Over time, visiting neighborhoods outside Chicago, he kept noticing the same thing: a simple ice cream shop could turn into a place where families gathered, children played, and neighbors actually talked.
That observation became a question. What if food could be the invitation, but community could be the purpose? This property is his answer — still in development, and already pointed in that direction.
Why ice cream?
Chicago summers make people look for something cold and easy to share. Soft-serve cones, shakes, and desserts are a reason to linger. The real value is what can happen around those cups: a conversation, a hello, a few extra minutes on the block.
Why soup?
Depending on ice cream alone would leave half the year quiet. Charles’s culinary work with soups makes warm comfort food a natural counterpart. Ice cream when it’s warm. Soup when it’s cold. Community every month of the year.
What's ahead
These are planned pieces of the property — named clearly as vision, because the build-out is not finished.
Weekly community discussions with a dessert in hand. The business hosts the table. The neighborhood brings the topics.
Green space behind the building where people can gather without needing a special occasion.
Future outdoor community movie events — a reason to come back after dark in the warmer months.
Seasonal performances using the planned stage. Music as another way to get neighbors in the same place.
Planned recreational green space, including a smaller football field — about 50 yards — for play and pickup games.
A creative room where young people can write, film, record, and produce their own episodes.
Family legacy
Charles is building this with his five children in mind. The goal is not simply for them to work a counter. It is meant to open doors to creativity, entrepreneurship, responsibility, community connection, and, one day, ownership.
Their names and ages stay off this page until the family decides otherwise. The point is the invitation: grow up around something that belongs to your neighborhood.
Long-term vision
Charles sees this concept growing beyond a single location. He has watched other Chicago communities carry heavy challenges, and he hopes spaces like this could eventually serve neighborhoods across the city.
That is a vision, not an announced expansion. There is one property right now. It is being built with care so the first room is worth gathering in.
Follow the Journey