Cold treat, hot market: Skid grad does it with ice cream
Turns out that ice cream is recession-proof. Who knew? Ben Van Leeuwen '07, for one. With brother Pete and wife Laura O'Neill, he started Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream in spring 2008, kicking it off in Recession Central?New York City?but he soon had customers lining up and raves pouring in from the Wall Street Journal to yelp.com.
Why all the buzz? Van Leeuwen's isn't just any ice cream. It's made with all-natural, top-quality ingredients and a whopping 19 percent butterfat?out-butterfatting even Ben and Jerry's. And it's sold out of old-fashioned trucks sporting an elegant Van Leeuwen logo.
Fresh out of Skidmore (when he worked for Saratoga artisan baker Michael London), Van Leeuwen recalled his youthful summers selling ice cream out of Good Humor trucks and then turbocharged that concept. Team Van Leeuwen refurbished three old postal-service trucks with 1948 bumpers and chrome, and found a dairy in rural upstate New York that uses only hormone- and antibiotic-free milk and cream, egg yolks, and cane sugar. Flavorings include Italian pistachios, red currants, and vanilla beans from Papua New Guinea "aged four months in vodka and oak barrels, then ground into a paste," says Van Leeuwen, for whom food done well is "a form of experiential art."
As one of the first in the city's new dessert-truck craze, Van Leeuwen's has made its mark. The New York Times declared his espresso sundae (with Michel Cluizel cocoa nibs and dark fudge sauce) "this summer's must-have dessert." Gourmet.com loved the biodegradable cups, napkins, and spoons and the carbon offsets that Van Leeuwen buys to neutralize his trucks' environmental impact, to say nothing of the 1 percent of profits donated to protect the Congo's mountain gorillas. Restaurantgirl.com reported happily, "Even when the Van Leeuwen truck goes into hibernation, you'll be able to find their ginger, red currant and peppermint & chip ice cream in the [New York City] supermarket." And a yelp.com post said simply, "Ice cream trux make me v v happy." Recently the Van Leeuwen fleet added a pastry chef and two trucks equipped with handmade espresso machines from the Netherlands, to sell coffees and ultra-fresh pastry year round. Sweet.
