CHICAGO — Red and white pinstripes line the walls, as multicolored balloons hover above the group of magicians, contortionists and jugglers hard at work. Sticky fingers and faces wander about with sugar-fueled smiles, parents in tow.
While you might assume that you’ve stumbled into the circus, you’d only be about half-right. In reality, you’ve happened upon Sideshow Gelato — a new Lincoln Square gelato shop with a niche twist. Each of the “scoopers” are young performers honing their sideshow acts. While serving gelato, they sharpen their juggling, magic and performance skills before customers.
Behind the counter, you might find Dylan Snow — a close-up magician who left his electrician apprenticeship to pursue a performance career. Maybe you’ll run into Elise Eshu, a juggler who started training in a youth circus at the age of 11. Or perhaps you’ll meet Raven See. After obtaining a master’s degree in literature and poetry, intent on becoming a professor, they decided to take a leap of faith and pursue a two-year professional degree in circus arts.
“I was making the most money that I’d ever made, but I didn’t like my life,” they said. “Basically at 34, I ran away and joined the circus.”
For those craving a health-conscious sweet treat, the gelato is made in-house, without mixes or powdered bases. At least half the selections are vegan, and prepared with an oat milk base. The flavors are on constant rotation, as they hope to keep their audience on their toes.
Among the current offerings since the June 1 opening, the Prince Randian is a house favorite, named for the longtime Coney Island performer born without arms or legs, who would dazzle the audience by rolling and lighting a cigarette. The sweet treat is prepared with alcohol-free bourbon essence and a tobacco-flavored herbal tea blend with candied orange peels. Another beloved offering named for magician and gelateria-investor Penn Jillette— of Penn & Teller fame — is made of dark chocolate with blueberry jam and lots of cayenne pepper.
The Lincoln Square gelato shop is the brainchild of Chicagoan Jay Bliznick, who credits his inspiration with simply being “nuts.”
“Nobody in their right mind would come up with something like this,” he said.
The path to becoming founder of this offbeat gelateria was not a straightforward one. Bliznick originally arrived in Chicago in 1990 as a student at Columbia College, intent on becoming a filmmaker.
By 1994, he had founded the still-running Chicago Underground Film Festival, serving as a leading coordinator of the event for eight years. After his stint in the film scene, concluding with an unceremonious tenure as a movie theater manager, Bliznick decided to pivot.
“I was just kind of like, what am I doing? This isn’t me.” As he approached his 40th birthday, Bliznick found himself starting over with a hopeful move toward the dining industry, attending culinary school at Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute at Kennedy-King College.
“It was kind of rough going in the industry because restaurants are mainly, you know, younger people in their 20s and 30s in the back of the kitchen,” he said. “And then here’s this 40-year-old guy — who’s got some talent — walking into their restaurant and asking them for a job. They were looking at me like I came in with a walker.”
Eventually, he worked his way up the ladder — landing a job as the executive chef at the Del Rio, an approximately 100-year-old Italian restaurant in Highwood, a North Shore suburb.
For his 50th birthday, he rented an Italian villa outside of Florence, where he and his granddaughter fell hard for local gelaterias.
“Between the two of us, we ate our weight in gelato,” he said, “and I realized that there was something really kind of special about this that was not your standard ice cream.”
After his trip to Italy, Bliznick emerged with a deeper connection to his granddaughter and a new dream. He went on to train with an Italian gelato master before finally taking the leap during the pandemic to explore the possibility of opening his own gelateria.
The grandson of a concert violinist and the son of a stand-up comic and ventriloquist, Bliznick has long had the love of show business coursing through his veins, he said. This history combined with his passion for sideshows and his film background made integrating the restaurant’s theme a seamless transition.
Bliznick acknowledges that his shop may not be for everyone. “Some people aren’t gonna want to see somebody put a power drill up their nose, or swallow a sword. That’s fine. It’s not for everybody,” he said.
But those who do stop by, may find themselves having an educational experience, as well as a flavorful one. In a room adjacent to the gelato scoops lives the Museum of the Transmundane. There, visitors can learn about everything from the world’s smallest woolly mammoth to the world’s tallest man.
“I’ve become more in tune with the idea that any business, to truly be successful, you don’t only invest in your business, you don’t only invest in your employees; you also have to invest in the customer and your community,” Bliznick said.
The altruistic elements of the shop aren’t just talk. Not only does Sideshow Gelato provide space for young performers to hone their skills before going on to “bigger and better things,” as Bliznick says, but it will selecta different charity each month to receives all proceeds from the tiniest gelato offering — “the World’s Smallest Cone.”
Which is one curiosity fans are sure to get behind.
