Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream is a hot startup. The Brooklyn company, known as a purveyor of made-from-scratch and vegan ice cream, just closed a minority investment from Strand Equity. The infusion of capital is expected to help Van Leeuwen open more scoop shops across N.Y.C., namely Manhattan's Soho neighborhood, Brooklyn's Prospect Park, and Silver Lake in New York's Wyoming County.
The company will soon have a total of 16 stores since it first launched in 2010. But the idea first came to fruition long before that, according to co-founder Ben Van Leeuwen. "It all began in 2002," he told me. "I took a summer job driving a Good Humor ice cream truck."
Van Leeuwen explained that he found the job to be a thrill. Industrial-produced products, however, were not as exciting. After studying business at Skidmore College, he teamed up with fellow co-founder — and former spouse — Laura O’Neill, as well as his brother Peter Van Leeuwen, to start an ice cream business. "They both said yes. We had never made ice cream before, but knew we wanted to make a product using only exceptional ingredients and no unnecessary ones, hence the sourcing that now defines our brand began," Van Leeuwen said. "We found pistachios from Brontë Cicely, Askinosie chocolate, Michel Cluizel chocolate and whole Tahitian vanilla beans cured in the sun from Papua New Guinea."
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