The Good Table | written by: Pamela Dey Vossler
From left: Ben Van Leeuwen, Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O’Neill at one of their expanding number of scoop shop locations / / Photos courtesy Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
“A life without anything good is bad.”
It’s the first thing to know about Van Leeuwen Ice Cream and the scoop shop of the same name that opened this past April in Darien Commons at 102 Heights Road.
It’s the company’s driving mantra and the source of the grit and authenticity that keeps this line of artisan ice cream feeling local even as the business explodes nationally.
It shapes every decision made by brothers and Fairfield County natives Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and their partner Laura O’Neill who co-founded the company 15 years ago out of a post office van they turned into an ice cream truck they could drive around New York City peddling cones.
…and it always has, starting with Ben’s entry-level media planning job in NYC right after college that left him feeling empty, sad and brainstorming with Pete and Laura about selling crazy good ice cream out of a truck.
One of the first Van Leeuwen scoop trucks in Brooklyn
It manifested in an obsession, right from the beginning, with creating the most delicious mix of eggs, fresh milk, and cream and sugar for the ice cream base and sourcing ridiculously good ingredients for flavors despite those who said they didn’t need to take it that far. It led to customizing the base formulation to what is best for each flavor.
“A lot of ice cream companies design one or two mixes that will work with any flavor. Not at Van Leeuwen,” explained Ben. “Almost everything is formulated specifically for each flavor,” he continued. “Maybe we want a little less egg for one flavor, a little more cream for another, or slightly less sugar. It’s about balancing those,” he said.
Oh yeah, about those eggs: Ben, Pete, and Laura learned just how key they are to the lush yumminess that differentiates their ice cream with the first batch they made in the Brooklyn apartment they shared, back when all this was coming together. That’s why Van Leeuwen ice cream is between five and eight percent egg yolks. Most other premium brands are about one percent.
“We use a lot of cream and a lot of eggs which are the richest, most luxurious ingredients,” said Ben. No gums, no stabilizers. Just pure, delicious, mostly organic ingredients.
…and if meat and dairy are not your jam, Van Leeuwen has you covered with a line of tasty vegan choices too—not just a nod to them but a full, head-bobbing selection ranging from chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter brownie honeycomb to strawberry shortcake and churros and fudge, and more. Because customers wanted it.
This sort of obsession with taste, quality, and service is what makes the product distinct, artisanal and feeling local …as does the slow, determined ramp-up that landed Laura, Ben, and Pete atop this moon shot with 54 scoop shops nationwide (and growing) and an ever-expanding retail distribution that includes Whole Foods and a string of other grocery chains and independent grocers (including Darien’s own Palmer’s Market).
With the most delicious mix of eggs, fresh milk and cream and sugar for the base and ridiculously good ingredients for flavors, no wonder people can’t get enough of Van Leeuwen ice cream
It most certainly did not happen overnight nor without some pretty wrenching tests of the certainty that led them to dump all their time, savings, and credibility with friends, family, and even a former professor (the only investors who saw what they saw) into a gut feeling that the world wanted what they had in mind.
Inspired by three summers spent hawking Good Humor ice cream from trucks in their Greenwich, CT hometown, their family of foodies and a dad with the sort of joie de vivre you get when your parents escape the Nazis via the Dutch Underground and you are a kind of miracle child, Ben and Pete, with Laura, built the business scoop by scoop. They raised $60k in increments of $1,000 to $5,000 (hard), found a small plant in upstate New York to make their ice cream (harder) and hit the streets to sell after nearly a year of ramp-up (hardest …the first seven hours were crickets, until finding a corner in SoHo where locals couldn’t get enough of the stuff). One truck became two then a fleet during those first 10 years as they expanded into brick-and-mortar locations, and eventually left street vending behind. They ploughed every dime back into the business even as they sold a minority stake in the company to raise the capital needed to take the next steps.
With majority ownership of the still privately-held company, Ben, Pete, and Laura continue to run the place with a culture of kindness and passion for food that is true to its roots, true to their “good then, good now, good always” values.
“It’s probably no coincidence that we started out as a scoop truck in NYC, because we didn’t stay put. We kept going then and we keep going now; innovating, creating, never settling,” said Ben.
In many ways, Ben, Pete, and Laura and the 1,000 people they now employ are still on that first truck, working just as hard to deliver a best-quality cone, customer by customer.
We’re just glad the truck stopped in Darien.
As Ben has said, “Ice cream is not a utility purchase; it’s an enjoyment, happiness purchase.”
Though Van Leeuwen works hard to earn its keep making people happy, in the end, it’s simple. After all, what could be greater in summer (or any time really) than a well-placed scoop of really good ice cream.
