64 | MAY 26 • 2022
I
n fall of 2017, Jill Kasle’s husband, Matt,
was diagnosed with cancer. Four months
later, Jill was diagnosed with cancer as
well. With four young kids just starting
out in elementary school, the situation was
extraordinarily challenging for the couple.
“We tried to keep things really positive
and optimistic,
” says Jill Kasle, who is the
founder and owner of gourmet ice cream
bar on wheels Bombshell Treat Bar, which
makes Instagram-worthy ice cream pops
dipped in various flavors of Belgian choc-
olate.
At the time, Kasle’s gourmet ice cream
bar business was nonexistent. Instead, she
worked in corporate America, doing event
planning for auto companies.
While going to culinary school had
always been a dream for the now 48-year-
old Birmingham resident, she just “didn’t
have the guts to do it,
” she explains.
Therefore, event planning was the next best
thing, where food would always be a part of
the picture.
Yet the dual diagnosis for both Jill and
Matt changed everything. “While we were
both being treated, I felt the need to focus
on creating something that would involve
the kids and get them excited,
” Kasle
explains. “Something that took me away
from all the negatives that surrounded our
health situation.
”
A SWEET SURPRISE IN MONTREAL
During downtime, Kasle researched differ-
ent food concepts. She was drawn to the
culinary scene in Montreal, Canada, and
decided to plan a trip with her family. As a
self-proclaimed “choco-holic,
” Kasle, who
needs to have dessert every day, asked her
husband to find a unique dessert joint in
the city that they could visit during their
trip.
Matt discovered a tiny ice cream shop on
a cobblestone street that was glowing tur-
quoise. There was a long line out the door.
Once they got inside, Kasle was “blown
away” by what she saw: the shop offered
vanilla soft-serve that could be dipped in
more than 30 flavors of Belgian chocolate,
which then hardened into a magic shell.
“It would become like a candy bar,
” Kasle
recalls. “I was buzzing with excitement, and
I walked out and said, ‘I have to do this.
’”
At the time, Kasle didn’t know much
about chocolate, other than her love for the
flavor profile. Yet the idea stuck with her,
and she began to develop a business plan to
open a gourmet ice cream bar inspired by
the tiny storefront in Montreal. “I pitched it
to a couple of people, and I was told not to
do it,
” Kasle explains, “that I wouldn’t make
any money.
”
Discouraged for several months, one day
Kasle woke up with a different mindset: She
was going to bring her idea to life. “When
you come from being sick, it’s so important
to be around positive energy,
” she says. “I
wanted to give something to someone that
makes them smile. I just felt I had to block
out the negative and try.
”
FROM SOFT-SERVE TO POPSICLES
Through a contact in the restaurant indus-
DINING
It’s ‘The Bomb’
Showstopper gourmet ice cream bars have
one goal: to make people smile.
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JILL KASLE