Follow the bananas painted along the sidewalk to find Peel, a friendly, sunshine-hued storefront in downtown Miami Shores serving the city’s most popular ice cream.
That this soft serve is entirely vegan, wholesome and prepared using rejected bananas does not detract from its deliciousness. Actually, those are the proverbial cherries—or mango, local honey and housemade granola—on top of this super-sweet, sustainable business.
Founded by Valeria Alvarez in 2019, the Peel concept began as a stand at the Legion Park Farmers Market before evolving into a food truck and then the colorful brick-and-mortar shop it’s called home since July 2023.
The idea for Peel came to Alvarez on a trip to Indonesia where a fateful smoothie bowl set the wheels in motion for her future product: a simple, two-ingredient soft serve base made by blending ripened bananas with coconut milk.
“Bananas are a unique fruit in that they have lots of natural sugar and fiber that are great for making ice cream creamy and delicious,” says Alvarez. “The process is very simple.” And yet, no one else in Miami was doing it.
Depending on the serving size, each Peel bowl contains anywhere from 1.5 to two bananas. The shop typically goes through 500 pounds—or 1,500 bananas—each week.
Sourced from suppliers in Allapattah, these aren’t just any bananas. Known as “banano #2,” the fruits that go into Peel’s ice cream are slightly brown and therefore can’t be sold in grocery stores. In other words, Peel is heroically rescuing 13 tons of bananas from the landfill each year.
“These perfectly edible bananas are ideal for making soft serve,” says Alvarez. “The riper the bananas, the better!”
Aside from the bananas and coconut milk that go into Peel’s sweet and creamy base, Alvarez likes to work with Florida-grown ingredients to create unique seasonal flavors. During the winter, they do a black sapote flavor made with fruits from Homestead. Of course, mango will soon make its annual appearance on the menu as Miami’s trees begin to ripen.
Peel also partners with like-minded brands to add more ingredients to their base—everything from coffee to matcha, blue spirulina and hibiscus flavors have been crowd favorites, Alvarez says. For toppings, choose from a rainbow of fresh fruits, housemade candied walnuts and peanut butter, raw honey, bee pollen and lots more.
“We get a lot of parents who bring their kids to Peel after school because it's a much healthier alternative to traditional ice cream and kids love it,” Alvarez says. But Peel’s loyal customers can also feel good about reducing food waste and giving back to the planet.
After the banana’s been peeled, the ice cream blended, the toppings lovingly arranged and the last sticky drips licked from the side of the bright yellow paper Peel cup, discarded peels get collected by a local composting company to be used as fertilizer for farms nearby.
Outside of Miami Shores, catch Peel Mobile (the adorable 1988 Italian Ape Piaggio food truck) this summer in the Design District starting in May.