Creator Dylan Lemay Who Throws Ice Cream on TikTok Opens His Own Shop Where Fans Can Catch a Scoop
Regina Kemple
Dylan Lemay grew up on ice cream.
The 25-year-old YouTube and TikTok star admits his parents let him eat ice cream every night before bed as a kid. At the age of 15, he began working at a Cold Stone shop in his home state of Michigan, where he would later go viral on social media for tossing ice cream in the air. Now, his latest ice cream venture is opening up his own New York City-based shop, Catch'n Ice Cream, based off his fun tricks and love of the sweet dessert.
"I tried to take everything I learned over the last 10 years from working with ice cream and then also take everything I learned from content and just smash it in this giant ball — no pun intended — and then use that just to really not only connect with my audience, but to connect with everyone," he tells PEOPLE.
Ice cream looks a bit different at Catch'n. Soft serve is frozen into ball-shaped molds covered in toppings like Fruity Pebbles and Oreos and then tossed in the air for customers to catch themselves. Transcending a traditional ice cream shop, the Bleecker Street joint is also where guests can seek out entertainment.
"There's just something special about ice cream and really trying to connect with people through videos and through ice cream, and Catch'n is the physical manifestation of that," he says of his social media background. "I'm using all those things that I've learned over the years and bringing that to real life here."
He adds that the playful twist on a dessert spot incorporates face-to-face connection in the hopes of "bringing back the smile to the customer experience."
From tossing scoops of ice cream into cups to twirling it around his back, Lemay learned his tricks from his years working at Cold Stone throughout high school and college. He always felt it was a fun way to interact with customers — and eventually, his 11.2 million TikTok followers and nearly 4 million YouTube subscribers.
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Over the last 10 years, the YouTuber has learned that the "biggest thing it takes to toss and catch ice cream is just courage."
"There's a fear about it. And my goal is to take that fear away. It creates an intimate moment where everyone connects together, everyone's cheering each other on," he says of catching the frozen scoops from the air. "There's a special moment where everyone's just like, 'I don't think we can do this.' And then it happens and everyone just cheers. It brings everyone together."
