Yala Greek Ice Cream

The shop at 3143 N Street NW opened on July 20, 2025, National Ice Cream Day, and describes itself as America’s first authentic Greek ice cream shop. The claim is specific and verifiable in the sense that no equivalent business preceded it in the American market. What Yala brought to Georgetown’s N Street is a frozen dessert tradition from the Greek islands, produced through a different method than American ice cream and resulting in a texture that is denser, smoother, and less air-incorporated than what most American ice cream shops offer.

Chrys Kefalas is the founder and CEO, and his path to opening an ice cream shop on a Georgetown residential block is not a straight line. He worked as a speechwriter for Attorney General Eric Holder and as counsel to Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich, and he ran for the United States Senate in Maryland. He has worked at the National Association of Manufacturers. Before any of that, he spent his childhood and early teen years working in his grandfather’s restaurant, Illona’s, in Baltimore, and in his godfather’s restaurant, Costas’ Inn, a Maryland seafood institution. The restaurant instinct was always there. A few years before opening Yala, while visiting the Greek island where his family originates, he met the owner of his favorite ice cream shop and came home with a conviction that the product should exist in the United States.

Salah Czapary, the co-founder and Director of Experience and Operations, came from a different kind of public service: years as an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department’s community engagement division, then a run for DC Council. Steve Shyn, the third co-founder, serves as COO. Between them, the founding team brought a combination of political experience, community relationships, and operational discipline to a business that is ultimately about ice cream, but is also, the founders have made clear, about cultural identity and neighborhood presence.

The flavor list is built around Greek references both obvious and specific. Papou’s Promise is vanilla, named for the grandfather figure. Pistachio Odyssey and Choco-Yala are the crowd-accessible options. Yia Mas, a Greek yogurt and cherry combination, represents the sour-cream-inflected dairy tradition of Greek frozen dessert. Yasou Dubai is an ode to Dubai chocolate, a recent viral flavor translated into the Greek ice cream format. Kataifi incorporates filo, walnuts, cinnamon, and honey. Mornings with Thea uses orange preserves in a way that tastes like a Mediterranean breakfast. The Washington Blade covered the opening as an act of scooping heritage, a description that reflects how seriously the founders take the cultural dimension of what they are making.

The shop is open daily, with afternoon hours on weekdays starting at 1pm and extended weekend hours through 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The N Street address puts it a short walk from the Georgetown University campus and the busier blocks of Wisconsin Avenue. For visitors who want something other than the Georgetown Cupcake or Baked and Wired stops on the neighborhood dessert circuit, Yala is the newest and most specific option on the block.