Food focus: Yumi Ice Cream Parlour, Hyson Green
From above comes a splash of modern – the black-and-white room is lit by cloud-like, swirled light fixtures.
Behind the counter lie all the tools you could ever hope to use on ice cream: there's the bulky milkshake-maker, with the whirring pole that drops into the ice cream; there are the sprinkles, and the other frosty condiments; there's even the ice cream "spaghetti-maker", which takes the cold stuff and churns it out in strands.
And in front of all this, in the big glass counter, are tubs and tubs of the main event.
There's pistachio, tiramisu, rose faluda (basically, Turkish delight-flavoured), English trifle (with cake in!), butterscotch, shaki kulfi, pan masala, good old vanilla... in all, 45 flavours, rotating in and out of the 24 spots in the counter.
The British approach to ice cream has come a long way since "We have all the flavours" meant "We have vanilla, chocolate and strawberry".
But in recent years, Nottingham hasn't really had a proper ice cream parlour.
Oh, there are places where you can get an ice cream cone.
But the authentic parlour– those retro leather seats, that whirring milkshake-maker, those acres of flavours under the glass – hasn't really existed in Nottingham.
Until now.
Mohammed Abbas, Yumi's owner, first got an idea that maybe Nottingham was ready for an ice cream parlour when he went to the city to get the building's use changed. (His family owns it; his father had previously run a clothing shop there.)
He sat through the planning meeting until finally his building came up.
Then he watched as, without debate, hands shot up in favour.
"It was a 15-second decision," he said. "It went through and one of the councillors said, There's not an ice cream parlour in Nottingham."
Since then, he's found that the city's elected leaders aren't the only Notts residents crying out for a double-scoop of butterscotch. The place has been open for less than a month, but it's already found some regular customers.
For Mohammed, a 21-year-old businessman just entering his final year at Nottingham Trent University, that's good news, after an immense undertaking.
"I didn't know how to scoop until day one," he said with a laugh.
"I was still painting until just before the Lord Mayor arrived to officially open it!"
(The Lord Mayor, incidentally, was a fan, ordering the knickerbocker glory, bubblegum ice cream and the always-popular banana split.)
Yumi has diversified. It does coffees, freshly-baked cakes, fruit smoothies and orange juice, squeezed from a somewhat intimidating-looking manual metal contraption on the counter.
"We're saving electricity and using our muscles to make fresh juice," Mohammed said.
As winter rolls around, he also plans to serve panini and soups.
But ice cream remains the star.
That means proper old-fashioned glasses for the knickerbocker glory and thick, gloopy milkshakes that get whirred up as the customer waits. Shakes with candy bars blended in have proved extremely popular.
"The most popular must be the Ferrero Rocher milkshakes," Mohammed said. "Also, the Kit Kat. People seem to really like the chunky milkshakes."
They also seem to really like a selection of ice cream flavours and styles that range from traditional Italian to rich and chunky American to cool Asian kulfi. That's not by accident.
Before he opened the shop, Mohammed spent months researching.
He handed out questionnaires in the clothing shop, asking customers what kind of ice cream they liked. And he got feedback on the neighbourhood, some of which irked him.
More than once, he heard that Hyson Green wasn't the sort of area where a business like this would thrive.
"Negatives were coming out quite a lot," he said.
That just made him more determined.
"I didn't want to do anything boring," he said. "I wanted to take away that negativeness and bring a different vibe."
Mohammed Abbas at Yumi
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