Van Leeuwen: An Ice Cream For All Seasons

Perhaps you might be familiar with Van Leeuwen because of their ubiquitous trucks at music festivals and on Bedford Avenue during the summer. Perhaps you didn’t know, however, that they have a permanent location in Greenpoint, very close to the Nassau G stop and Bedford L stop. Maybe you also knew even less that this location is open until 11pm. For sure, though, there’s no way you could ever have guessed that they serve both coffee and pastries aside from ice cream at this location and that they sell hand-packed pints of their phenomenal ice cream.

I know ice cream is more of a summer-type thing but with, this cozy location with their coffee and hand-packed pints makes it much more feasible, to paraphrase Mr. Burns, to enjoy this so-called “iced cream” during the colder months. Perhaps what also makes this ice cream so damn intoxicating is that, according to them, they only use ingredients from local cows, chickens, and sugar cane (the latter is probably not local, to be fair) to create their custard base, and do not use any preservatives or unnatural emulsifiers. You can read more on their website about how they put together each and every flavor. Inside tip: their chocolate is simply the best I’ve ever tasted anywhere in my life.

Oh, and a quick note about their coffee– they carry Intellegentsia and even have Affogatos, which are espressos with a big scoop of vanilla. It’s like an adult root beer float, essentially. Drool.

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
632 Manhattan Avenue (between Leonard and Manhattan)
Brooklyn 11222 [Greenpoint]

Photo courtesy of NYU News.