In the heart of the Marais, behind a facade as understated as a well kept secret, a new kind of ice cream shop is quietly rewriting the rules of frozen desserts. It is called FUMO, and it does not want you to think of ice cream as an afterthought, something scooped hastily at the end of a meal. Here, ice cream is the meal, the moment, the main event.
The story begins with an unlikely pairing. Mélanie Rozencwajg spent her career immersed in data science and behavioral analytics, far from the world of pastry kitchens. Her path toward FUMO started with a small, personal epiphany: one afternoon, she drizzled olive oil and a pinch of spice over a bowl of ice cream and tasted something she had never experienced before, a version of ice cream that felt savoury, complex, and entirely grown up. That single bite became the seed of an idea. To bring it to life, she turned to Tessa Ponzo, the acclaimed pastry chef of the restaurant Irwin and winner of the Michelin Guide’s 2026 Passion Dessert Award, whose instinct for texture and temperature makes her the perfect creative partner for a project built on contrast.
Every creation at FUMO starts with an artisanal base crafted by Terre Adélice, a beloved ice cream maker from the Ardèche known for its commitment to organic, honest ingredients. From there, the kitchen builds outward, layering in unexpected seasonings that read more like a chef’s pantry than a dessert menu: cold pressed Nyons olive oil, smoked salt, Malabar black pepper, wasabi seeds, Espelette pepper, toasted sesame, nigella seeds, sumac, roasted fennel, fragrant rosemary, and deeply caramelised burnt rice. The effect is ice cream that behaves like a savoury dish, with briny edges, smoky depth, and floral top notes that unfold slowly on the palate rather than melting into simple sweetness.
Four signature creations anchor the menu, each tuned to a different register of flavour. Soft opens gently, a fig leaf ice cream finished with Nyons olive oil, nigella seeds, a whisper of wasabi, and roasted sesame for crunch. Smoke leans into richness, an olive oil ice cream deepened with smoked salt and cracked Malabar pepper. Spice brings warmth and perfume through a cardamom base lifted with olive oil and Espelette pepper. And Edge, the boldest of the four, is not really ice cream at all in the classic sense, but a briny pickle sorbet scattered with crushed wasabi peas and sumac, sharp, savoury, and unapologetically strange in the best way. As summer unfolds, the menu keeps moving, recently welcoming a rosemary sorbet with roasted fennel and Guérande sea salt, alongside that burnt rice creation, toasty and caramelised like the crust at the bottom of a well cooked pot.
To enjoy FUMO the way it is meant to be enjoyed, pair each creation with its matching kombucha from ArchiPel, a fellow artisan of fermentation and flavour. Soft finds its match in a Blackcurrant Leaf Kombucha, Smoke in a rounded Rosat Kombucha, Spice in a lively Brut, and Edge in a Fig Leaf Kombucha that echoes the sorbet’s brightness. The pairings are not an afterthought either, they are designed to open a genuine conversation between glass and bowl, each sip drawing out a different layer of the ice cream beneath it.
For anyone visiting, the best way in is to go all in. The full tasting, all four signature creations served alongside their kombucha pairings, comes to 24 euros, while a sampler of the four ice creams alone runs 18 euros. Individual scoops start at 7.50 euros, and single pairings begin at 13.50 euros, making it easy to wander in for a quick, curious taste or settle in for a full sensory tour.
The setting matches the ambition. Wood, stone, and brushed steel come together in a calm, grey toned room that feels closer to a small contemporary gallery than a traditional glacier, tucked along rue Charlot across from the well known bar Little Red Door. FUMO is conceived as a living project rather than a fixed menu, with each future season bringing a new collaborator, a different chef, a different beverage maker, to keep reshaping what ice cream can be. For dessert lovers craving something beyond the familiar scoop, FUMO is open now through September 20, 2026, Wednesday through Sunday, from 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM, at 59 rue Charlot in the Marais.
