Film and TV industry worker has been operating successful gourmet ice cream cart side hustle in Toronto

Little carts selling ice cream bars and popsicles are a familiar sight in the summer, but there’s one that’s been roaming around Toronto that’s not like the others.

Smilk Bars is the brainchild of Miles Caswell, and the name of the project was actually inspired by his high school nickname.

“It started out as Milk when I was younger but somewhere along the line the ‘S’ was added and it stuck,” Caswell tells YourCityWithIN.com. “I had workshopped other names before realizing my old nickname was the perfect match.”

Caswell has always had entrepreneurial ambitions, “but none of my zany ideas stuck until this one came along.” It took a pandemic to make one of those ideas a reality.

He had been working in the TV and film industry for about five years when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and when he couldn’t go to work he started getting into seriously making ice cream, having experimented with it here and there at home prior to that.

Once he was able to travel again, he found himself drawn to Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna where the world’s top gelato makers study. After the course, though, he still wasn’t serving his gelato professionally, continuing with his film and TV work. It was only when he encountered ice cream bar molds and started making bars that things really clicked.

“There is something about the form factor of bars that I find particularly satisfying to make,” says Caswell. “Not only is there the creative process of formulating an ice cream flavour, but also the flavour of the chocolate dip on the outside.”

He’s come up with some very gourmet flavours for Smilk Bars that go way beyond the average chocolate-dipped ice cream bar, or even the ice cream truck’s Spongebob pops or the grocery store’s fancy Magnum bars. Hit up the Smilk cart, and you’ll find bars in flavours like Turkish Coffee, Malteaser, strawberry sorbet, blue Ramune, rosemary honey and spiced treacle.

At this point, Caswell is also no stranger to collabs, developing ice cream bars like a mole and dark chocolate ice cream with a dark chocolate and cacao nib shell for a pop-up with Latin American food concept Xolo.

“In my first year I went from making samples in a tiny machine at home to distribute to friends and family to renting space in a commercial kitchen and attending various events and markets,” says Caswell. “In my second year I’ve upgraded to a specialty ice cream machine and I’ve seen a big increase in bookings for private events and brand collaborations mostly.”

Smilk Bars sold out for the very first time last year at Geary Art Crawl, and it seems like it’s becoming a trend with Caswell experiencing a few other sell out days since.

“I sold out early in the day, restocked, came back and sold out a second time,” he says of Geary Art Crawl.

The best way to get your hands on some of these coveted frozen treats is to follow Smilk Bars on Instagram, where Caswell posts about the events and markets where he frequently pops up throughout the summer. On many Sundays you can find him at wine bar Paris Paris’ garden party, Garden Garden.

Caswell still works in the TV and film industry alongside all this, which is primarily what he does once ice cream season ends and the colder months begin. Still, it’s possible to get your hands on his bars even during the winter, with Smilk releasing special boxes for the holidays with flavours like candy cane and chocolate orange. This year he’s planning on doing the same but with more holidays like Halloween and Valentine’s, with thematic flavours for each.

“I have been considering many options of what the future of Smilk Bars looks like. Currently I am hoping to start a wholesale program so stores can carry Smilk Bars and I can do some larger scale collaborations with other local businesses in Toronto,” says Caswell.

“Who knows, maybe there will be Smilk Bars in New York, London, Milan one day.”