Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is made with the best ingredients, local and organic too when feasible. Can you guess where it was parked ?
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NYCandre 60 months ago | reply
If you are an ice cream afficionado, here are more details.
From www.gourmet.com/restaurants/2008/07/firsttaste_icecream
First Taste: Van Leeuwen Ice Cream by Alan Brown
The lines in front of the Van Leeuwen Ice Cream truck on University Place the other night were so long that you’d think they were giving out free ice cream. Though it only hit the streets a week ago—spending afternoons in SoHo and evenings near Union Square—Ben Van Leeuwen’s charmingly revamped old postal service truck (refitted with a 1948 grill and chrome bumpers) already has a devoted following.
Van Leeuwen, a 24-year-old former Good Humor truck driver, makes his delicious, rich (18 percent butterfat) ice cream from local, hormone- and antibiotic-free milk and cream (no stabilizers or preservatives), plus other ingredients he culls from around the globe. The superb chocolate is Michel Cluizel; the equally addictive vanilla is made not with extract but with Tahitian beans that a Vancouver company ages in vodka in oak barrels, then grinds. Try a scoop in a float made with Virgil’s Root Beer or Mexican Coke (both sweetened with cane sugar instead of corn syrup, which Van Leeuwen eschews). The nuts in the pistachio ice cream come from a slow-food farm in Sicily; the ones in the hazelnut variety are from Piedmont. All the toppings—caramel and hot-fudge sauces, fresh whipped cream—are homemade and organic.
While Van Leeuwen’s insistence on the best ingredients means the carbon footprint of each scoop isn’t small, he is as fervent about the environment as he is about his ice cream. The biodegradable cups, napkins, spoons, and straws are made from sugar cane and corn husks. One percent of his profits go to protecting the Congo Mountain Gorilla, and he’s even buying carbon offsets to make up for the fuel he burns (about 12 miles a day, he says). Ice cream on a summer night in New York never tasted so good.
Small serving $3.50; medium $5.25; large $6.75. Truck locations: Corner of Greene St. and Prince St., 1-7 P.M.; University Pl. between 10th St. and 11th St., 8-10:30 P.M. A second truck is being added this week; check the website for times and locations.
Arciteka 60 months ago | reply
It's good stuff. pricey but good. I have no idea where this is though! :)
fuzzywomack 60 months ago | reply
not park & 24th is it?
rbs10025 60 months ago | reply
That median in the middle of the avenue says Broadway in the UWS, and the white building in the background looks like something in the mid 70s. Was this taken in front of Citarella?
NYCandre 60 months ago | reply
fuzzywomack - nope ..
rbs10025 - your zip code says .. you know your area well ... ! let's say you win .. Bonus point: not exactly in front of Citarella, so where?
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Seen on your photo stream. (?)
romasteel 60 months ago | reply
Ive seen this van on Greene St in Soho... but thats not where this shot is...hmmm..
Arciteka 60 months ago | reply
He must get around, I got some ice cream here from University and W. 12th St
rbs10025 60 months ago | reply
If not Citarella, then the Fairway market next door.
This spot is in the 10024, but I've been up and down this stretch of Broadway so much in the last 15 years, I suppose it doesn't matter. What tipped me off was the "Coming Soon... a bank branch for another bank chain" sign on that white building. Oddly enough, that sign caught me eye when I was riding the bus home from the movies a couple weeks ago. It was somewhere between 74th and 79th, and where else would a gourmet ice cream truck park in that neighborhood?
PS: Don't forget to tag this pic per GWNYC rules.
NYCandre 60 months ago | reply
@rbs10025 - Well done ! indeed smack right in front of Fairways.
@romasteel, Arciteka, indeed there are 2 other permanent spots - this might be the upcoming 3rd "branch", or just a teaser - apparently it takes a lot of paperwork to get a permit.
whatisee 60 months ago | reply
he moves the truck around, but it is good ice cream. not cheap, but very good.
mimpy 60 months ago | reply
I may have to fly to NYC to get some of this ice cream.
Jean on The Road 59 months ago | reply
I'm thinking like mimpy. On the other hand it might be cheaper and an easier carbon offset to have you FedEx some on dry ice. Opps, I don't think the Dept of Homeland Insecurity allows shipping with dry ice these days, so just may have to make that trip.