Van Leeuwen Ice Cream

Now that the weather’s getting nicer, the ice cream trucks are coming out of hibernation, although some Mister Softee trucks were still trolling the streets in the dead of winter (by the way, has anyone gotten soft serve from the Big Gay ice cream truck?) One of the trucks I’ve been meaning to check out is the Van Leeuwen Ice Cream truck; an ice cream truck that might distinguish themselves from the crowd because they specialize in local, fresh, and simple ingredients. When they first opened, they were always parked in Soho by the Apple store, but on the day I was in the mood for ice cream, they were right by the Highline:

The truck was going head to head with Mister Softee (soft serve that will always hold a special place in my heart) and I was really contemplating which one I should get (or if I should just get both) but decided to get Van Leeuwen because I wasn’t sure when I’d see the truck again. The line was kind of ridiculous; we had to wait almost 30 minutes because the majority of people didn’t know what they wanted to order and insisted on getting multiple samples. When we finally got to the front of the line, I ordered two scoops – vanilla and strawberry in a cup with a cone on top:

The vanilla was creamy, but fell apart really easily and was almost a bit icy. The strawberry was also very creamy but icy and I would’ve preferred more strawberries mixed in with the ice cream. The prices are a little steep (2 scoops for $7.50), but they use cups and napkins are made from renewable resources and Van Leeuwen donates one percent of their proceeds to an organization that protects wildlife in the Congo. If you can’t find their ice cream truck around NYC, you can head to Whole Foods because they sell their ice cream in pints (I think it’s about $7/pint). The Van Leeuwen truck was a nice treat, but in the future, I’m going to stick to Mister Softee trucks on the street and Haagan-Daz vanilla ice cream at home.