Ca Lem

Ca Lem is a specialist who built technical skill from zero, on the record, and now uses that skill to run flavours (Vietnamese coffee-and-condensed-milk, cereal-milk) no chain would attempt, all built around a single soft-serve machine she had to learn to calibrate herself.

What to order
A Froot-Loops-and-milk soft serve invented by owner Stephanie Le, made by steeping the cereal in milk overnight (La Presse, 2019) — flag to editor that this was a rotating flavour reported once and may not be a current standing item

What we know

Founder Stephanie Le, a marketing graduate with no ice-cream background, hired a chef to help develop the soft-serve base, then built her own bolder flavours once she understood the machine (La Presse, 2019)
Vietnamese-origin flavours as a house signature (Ca Lem means 'ice cream' in Vietnamese per multiple sources), alongside playful Americana: a Froot-Loops-and-milk-inspired soft serve made by steeping cereal in milk overnight, compared by La Presse to Momofuku Milk Bar's cereal-milk ice cream (La Presse, 2019)
Stephanie Le on reading her customers: '« J'ai compris que c'est ce que la clientèle voulait, des saveurs différentes, auxquelles on ne s'attend pas. »' (La Presse, 2019)
Now operates from a compact original NDG corner shop plus additional Montreal counters (Old Port, Lachine Canal, seasonal Atwater Market kiosk) and one off-island location in Laval, which is out of GelatoSpots' Montreal boundary
Opened 2016 per La Presse's 2025 roundup

Status: open
Address: 6926, rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC H4B 1P9 (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce)
Maker: Stephanie Le, founder (a marketing graduate with no prior ice-cream background who hired a chef to help develop the base recipe)
Opened: 2016
Website: calemmontreal.ca/
Last checked: 2026-08-21

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