An ice cream brand that started selling from a truck in Brooklyn 15 years ago and now has more than 50 scoop shops in seven states will open its most important location.
Van Leeuwen, whose outlandish flavours such as Marionberry Cheesecake and Malted Cookie Dough shake cost $12 a pint, has signed a lease for a 600sq ft space at 2 Times Square and will open there later this year.
Van Leeuwen caught on with serious foodies nationwide because of the quality of its ingredients and processes. Where the majority of ice cream brands use stabilizers like guar and xanthan gum, Van Leeuwen only uses organic egg yolks.
The brand, founded by brothers Pete and Ben Van Leeuwen and partner Laura O’Neill, sources ingredients worldwide: Michel Cluizel chocolate from Normandy, fresh berries from Oregon, and pistachios grown on the slopes of a volcano in Sicily, for instance.
It uses made-from-scratch dairy bases as well as vegan bases. And while other quality ice cream makers such as Ben & Jerry’s mix batches in 1,000-gallon blending tanks, Van Leeuwen makes all of its ice creams in five-gallon batches.
