The Brussels ice cream shop that won the prize for Belgium's best ice cream in 2025, Pepe's, is opening a new location in the municipality of Ixelles.
With two popular ice cream shops in Brussels – one in Etterbeek and one in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert – ice cream maker José Romero is now expanding to Ixelles. On Wednesday, he is opening a third Brussels location on the bustling Rue du Bailli.
Ice cream was not always his passion. After his secondary school economics degree, Romero changed paths, he told The Brussels Times.
He quickly joined the Brussels hospitality sector, where he started working in fast food restaurants before landing a job as a pizza restaurant manager. There, he said, he learned his first lesson in the business: managing a store.
Roméro later joined an ice-cream parlour in Brussels, where he became accustomed to the craft of ice-cream making. Although he was essentially just feeding a machine ingredients, the now-renowned gelatier said that this is where he became familiar with flavours and perfumes that tickled the customer's taste buds.
To perfect his skills in ice-cream making, Roméro started taking courses in chocolate-making, pastry and professional gelato making. He eventually had the opportunity to be the manager of the parlour. "Honestly, it was great, but I needed to do my own thing," he said.
His second lesson in the business was "handling money, the sinews of war," he joked, and for that, his degree came in handy. But also being aware earlier in life of the unpredictability of "living on the edge, doing what you are passionate about."
Venturesome and passionate, he first opened a parlour in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Pepe's Glacier, and gradually started expanding his business ventures, opening another one in Etterbeek. With one store nestled in southern France, and the new parlour in Rue du Bailli, he will be running four businesses.
Roméro's first ice-cream making machine, he tells The Brussels Times, makes an excruciating noise, but he can not get rid of it. It holds a special place in his heart. Credit: The Brussels Times/Anas El Baye
For that occasion, Roméro invited The Brussels Times to the pre-opening of his new project. Upon arriving, he was battering his caramel to perfection and didn't hesitate to offer us a taste.
"I do not want to become a huge ice-cream selling brand; my goal is to stay as artisanal as possible," he said.
"For example, we're working with a shop owner nearby who makes his own mozzarella. He will show us how he makes it, and I will use his mozzarella to create an ice cream. That is what gives meaning to my work."
Roméro's fascination with the stories behind every scoop of ice cream he makes is what landed him the best artisanal ice-cream maker in Belgium in 2025.
"Comme une ruche"
Waking up rather early, like every morning, he had the idea of mixing beeswax into gelato. "I started by infusing the wax in the milk for hours at 65 degrees until it absorbed all the aromas," he explained.
He then added flavours and perfume that he thought could go together: Almond, pollen nougatine and yuzu coulis. "Because, why not?"
All ice cream ingredients in Pepe's are made in-house. Credit: The Brussels/ Anas El Baye.
It was the genesis of the best ice cream in Belgium last year, "Comme une ruche" ("Like a beehive")
"The aim of these flavour combinations was to recreate the aromatic sensations a bee might experience when returning to its hive," Roméro said. And it worked.
Rue du Bailli
Setting up the shop required a significant financial investment, even though his first ice-cream machine followed him and "everything was purchased from scratch".
Much of the equipment had to be bought new, including high-end gelato machines, counters imported from Italy, and the full installation of electrical and water systems. "Some of the machinery alone costs tens of thousands of euros, with one machine priced at €45,000."
