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

