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Top Five: Cool Ice Cream Trucks to Beat the Summer Heat
Jun 30, 2011
As summer officially gets underway, we look at a cool trend within the food truck phenomenon--ice cream trucks. These five Character Approved trucks serve up treats that go way beyond the Mister Softee of our childhood summer days. Let us know if there are any ice cream trucks on your list this season in the comments!
[Images: The Greene Grape, Michael Edwards/Inc., Coolhaus, DineDelish, Carpe Durham, Eat Me Daily]
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- Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream was founded by brothers Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O'Neill in 2008. Starting with a refurbished 1948 postal truck bought on eBay, they now serve grateful New Yorkers their creamy, premium ice creams made with carefully sourced, eco-friendly ingredients from a fleet of five trucks and three bricks-and-mortar locations.
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- Portland, Oregon's ice cream cart Salt & Straw may be named for old-fashioned methods of making ice cream, but their flavors are anything but traditional. Founder Kim Malek and her team dish up adventurous treats such as honey balsamic strawberry with cracked pepper, brown ale with bacon, and lemon basil sorbet, all made from seasonal, sustainable ingredients. They'll be opening a "farm-to-cone scoop shop" later this summer.
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- Founders Natasha Case and Freya Estreller began Coolhaus Ice Cream Sandwiches as an architecture thesis project. The name is a mash-up of the German modernist design movement Bauhaus and starchitect Rem Koolhaas, and flavor combinations of cookies and ice creams are named for other architects and architectural movements.
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- You can also design your own ice cream sandwich at Coolhaus, choosing your ice cream and cookie flavors from an inventive array. And even the wrappers are edible--they're made from potato starch! The Los Angeles-based Coolhaus has since opened outposts in Austin, Texas and New York City.
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- Want to beat the heat in Durham, North Carolina? Track down The Parlour, a white mini bus converted to an ice cream truck by husband-and-wife team Vanessa and Yoni Mazuz. Rotating flavors range from vanilla and strawberry to mango lassi, Vietnamese coffee and salted butter caramel. And they always have a sorbet and a vegan option. Though they've started with a bus, the couple plans to open a storefront (are we noticing a trend here?).
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- The Big Gay Ice Cream truck opened in Brooklyn, appropriately enough, on Brooklyn Pride Day in 2009. And while owners Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff do serve traditional soft-serve ice cream, they top it imaginatively, with everything from wasabi pea dust to Trix cereal, olive oil, and cayenne pepper (adding a perfect kick to the chocolate ice cream).
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- When not serving up treats from the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, co-owner Quint is a classically trained bassoonist who has also worked on movie and television soundtracks and records. And yes, he and Petroff are opening a bricks-and-mortar shop this summer.
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