
Photo by Erin Dickson
The ice cream is made by pouring fresh cream onto a freezing surface, scraping it together, adding toppings and then rolling it into its iconic shape.
A new ice cream shop has recently reopened in Vestavia Hills.
While still a current student at UAB studying business management, Ahmed Smadi, the owner of Roll Up Ice Cream, initially decided he wanted to open up his own business at just 19 years old.
“Around 10 months ago, I was working as a pizza boy in my dad’s cafe and just thinking of business ideas to start generating a profit while I am still in school,” Smadi said. “I saw rolled ice cream on social media and it clicked.”
He immediately started researching machines, recipes and anything else he needed to get his business up and running.
“There is not really an ice cream shop in Vestavia besides Brusters, so I thought this was a perfect business plan,” he added.
Smadi is completely self-taught and makes each batch of ice cream from scratch every morning. He said he has made more than 1,000 batches of ice creams at least so far.
Rolled ice cream is made through a process of pouring fresh cream onto an extremely cold stainless steel plate. When the liquid cream is subjected to the -20 degree temperature, it solidifies, starts clumping up almost immediately and is scraped into a pile. From there, different flavors can be added. It is then flattened out into a creamy paste and rolled into the iconic tubular shape.
Smadi originally had his shop open in a corner of the Everyday Package Store & Cafe but has since moved it into its own building behind the store, at 3015 Columbiana Road. After being open at the previous location for two weeks, Smadi’s machine broke, causing him to close for a month. He said in the two weeks he was in business at the original location, there were “lines out the door.”

Photo by Erin Dickson
Ahmed Smadi, a student at UAB and the owner of Roll Up Ice Cream, first had the idea to open a rolled ice cream shop in Vestavia Hills when he was 19 years old.
“I was in the corner of a grocery store, did good business and now I am in the largest ice cream shop in Birmingham, I think,” Smadi said.
Now that the word of Roll Up’s new location is starting to spread, he is expecting to have more customers than ever. He said he has already gotten compliments on the new space.
“People are loving it. They think the woodwork is pretty, it is cool on a hot summer day and the outdoor patio is gorgeous,” he said.
Smadi said balancing school and work is challenging because he knows he can not do both full-time. Right now, he is planning on taking four classes this semester and wants to take online classes in the future.
When the idea for Roll Up was first getting started, Smadi said that there were not any other rolled ice cream places in town. Even though several have opened in the past couple of months, he said he is not worried about losing customers.
“What makes us different is all of our ice cream tastes different,” he said. “I just try to make sure that I am giving a good quality product to Vestavia families.”
Roll Up has plans to incorporate more items onto the menu in the future, including scooped ice cream and milkshakes.
Smadi said he would not be able to operate his business without the help of the Vestavia community.
“We are like ants, we all work together,” he said. “I could not do it without Vestavia.”