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"On Fairmount, right next to the bagel store, the original Kem Coba — founded in 2010 by Ngoc Phan and Vincent Beck — has become arguably Montreal’s most iconic ice creamery over seven seasons. Phan, an ITHQ-trained pastry chef who cut her teeth at the now-defunct Gascogne, and Beck, a pastry chef-turned-interior designer from France who has since returned to desserts, are behind its extremely photogenic soft-serve cones (often offered as two-tone swirls) and by-the-scoop flavours ranging from salted butter to adventurous fruits such as soursop, pandan, lychee, and hibiscus; the shop is known for drawing extensive (but fast-moving) line-ups — so much so that an anonymous Twitter account was created to track wait times — and it reopens for the season on April 27." - Tim Forster