Huh, There’s a Secret Soft-Serve Joint Behind Tokyo Lamington?

There’s no danger of Min Chai freezing his eyeballs at Newtown’s Everyday Creamery.

Its arrival in late November marks his first time filling ice-cream cones since he ran N2 Extreme Gelato, which opened in Chinatown circa 2012 and expanded to Newtown and Melbourne. The shopfronts were closed by 2018, with a few occasional events until 2022.

N2 Extreme Gelato lived up to its name: staff would blast flavours with liquid nitrogen to achieve a uniquely creamy consistency. Everyone had to wear goggles, because if the gas hit your eyeballs, it could be devastating. “It would blind you, basically,” Chai says. “So we had a lot of safety precautions.”

The gelateria attracted four-hour queues and amassed a cult following for its extravagant flavours; the signature Ferrero Rocher-inspired scoop came punctured with a syringe of chocolate ganache, while a boozy Young Henrys collaboration was topped with prawn crackers. Staff wore lab coats and theatrically tinkered with scientific flasks while finishing off creations with blasts of gas. “I think at one stage we were one of the biggest users of liquid nitrogen in hospitality,” he says. “We were going through thousands and thousands of litres.”

Everyday Creamery is the opposite: a stripped-back soft-serve kiosk out the back of the adored Tokyo Lamington, the Australia Street joint Chai runs with Eddie Stewart. Everyday Creamery has the low-key charm of a hidden gem you’d encounter in a quiet corner of Japan. Situated in a Newtown laneway, it’s so unassuming I walked right past its entrance the first time I tried to find it.

“Eddie and I were just chatting and saying what we crave is something simple,” he says. That approach reflects the menu, too. “I just want vanilla, I just want chocolate.”

It’s a switch from N2, where he offered elaborate scoops like five-spice vanilla and crème brûlée. Chai began that business in his twenties; now he’s 40 and his palate has changed. Instead of balsamic strawberry, back-to-basics strawberry will do.

Some Everyday Creamery flavours have a distant link back to N2 Extreme Gelato – the chocolate soft serve evokes the sour cream chocolate he used to scoop – but he’s fine-tuned the sugar levels. “We tone it right back … it’s way less sweet than any other gelato or ice-cream out there. Again, that reflects my aging body,” he says, laughing.

That doesn’t mean Everyday Creamery is joyless or boring. It’s classic fun – schoolkids have even tried crawling through the window to lick the soft-serve machines. Cue childhood flashbacks when you order the soft-serve sundaes, tributes to the ones at McDonald’s (BYO French fries to dip).

Of course, given it’s 2025, matcha is splashed across the menu: you can order “matcha-gatos” where soft serve is caffeinated with hand-whisked green tea originating from Japan’s Kagoshima region. Standard affogatos are also available, spiked with espresso shots of Ona’s Maple blend. You can customise your order (my pick is matcha soft serve rippled with strawberry sauce) or get blended swirls, like a cone topped with vanilla-chocolate tones.

The plant-filled back lane space is a serene refuge to savour a swirl or two, wind chimes tinkling as afternoon sunshine switches to sunset mode. When a final soft-serve machine arrives later this summer, the menu will expand. “We want to get a mango and coconut, or mango and sticky rice situation going,” says Chai.

In the meantime, there are plenty of cones and matcha-gato combinations to reward your visit. Just don’t crawl through the window to lick the machines.

Everyday Creamery
Weeks Lane, Newtown
Behind Tokyo Lamington, Newtown 

Hours:
Daily 3pm–9pm

everydaycreamery.com
@everday.creamery