June 12, 2008
Gourmet Ice Cream Trucks Rolling into NYC Soon!
Photo courtesy Ashley Fischer.
As DUMBO NYC pointed out today, it’s that time of year when the city is crawling with ice cream trucks. The only problem is – other than the maddening repetition of hit jingles like “Pop Goes the Weasel” – these Kool Man and Mister Softee purveyors don’t sell ice cream; it’s all synthetic soft serve or pre-packaged frozen products that ought to be shut down by Children's Services. Even the aesthetically appealing retro Good Humor man is peddling sub par processed treats. What’s an ice cream snob to do?
Help is on the way in a week or so when New Yorkers will start seeing two vintage Chevrolet step vans dishing out scoops of Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream. The gourmet ice cream is made using “hormone free” dairy, and contains no stabilizers, preservatives, corn syrup or unnatural emulsifiers. Even the cones are organic, and if you want it sans cone your eco-friendly ice cream man will serve it in cups produced from Bagasse, a chemical-free fiber made from sugar cane, with spoons made from cornhusks. (It's unclear how eco-friendly the truck's carbon emissions are.)
Flavors include Sicilian Pistachio, Piedmont Hazelnut and Hudson Valley Red Currant – if you check out their website you’ll find plenty of details about their meticulously sourced, sustainable ingredients. We’ll let you know when the first trucks hit town, but look for one near Bowling Green by the end of the month – and not a moment too soon!
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Let the "hipster" Jokes begin...
;)
While I think it's over the top, Why not? If there is a market for it, More power to Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream.
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Also, the trucks run on discarded banana peels.
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This post should really be called: Gourmet Ice Cream Trucks Rolling into Predominatly White Neighborhoods Soon!
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"Oh hey, can I get an ice-cream sandwich?"
"That'll be $8 please."
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from a marketing standpoint this is dumb just because that truck looks like it's selling flowers not ice cream.
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But all that bad stuff is what makes ice cream tasty!
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that's not a hipster in the photo, that's worse than a hipster. He's got to be worth at least 20 million.
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I like the idea, but think about all the gas that this thing is burning to keep its schmancy ice cream cold.
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Why hasn't there ever been a Ben & Jerry's truck? Knowing their environmental ethic, it could have solar panels on the roof to power super-insulated freezers, and run its engine on used vegetable oil, or maybe a hybrid biodiesel/electric drivetrain.
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Natural ice cream sounds great.
I hate the taste of cheap ice cream. You can actually taste the fat and chemicals.
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The Ben and Jerry's truck broke down on it's way down from Vermont. It seems they ran dry on vegetable oil early and were forced to use pancake syrup. While the motor died, it did spawn a new flavor: "Flapjacked Up".
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Definitely looks like a flower truck
where the bells?
wheres the big fiberglass ice cream cone on the roof?
IDGITS don't deserve a dime
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"Do you have change for a hundred?
"Great, thanks."
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Oh goodie. I can't wait to sample these wacky, wonderful confections as I take baby Skyler out for a stroll along the promenade! Organic locavore lovers unite!
Seriously what is this fucking city coming to.
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Not a bad idea. Park one of these near the park at Columbus Circle or by the zoo and you'll make a killing. Is it true the trucks take credit cards?
I used to be a Good Humor man back in the day and drove one of those cute old-fashioned trucks. The markup on a typical item like a chocolate eclair was 200%.
And djwerdna, ice cream trucks I've seen don't use any gas to keep the ice cream cold. The freezers get plugged in overnight and then just stay cold throughout the day until they get plugged in again the next night. Trucks that make soft-serve onboard are probably different, but that truck in the pic looks like your typical modern Good Humor box truck and could probably work all day in one spot with the engine off.
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Thank goodness. I was hoping for a way to feel superior about my whiteness and wealth, but ice cream trucks, thusfar, had provided no avenues. Now I can show those commoners what I'm made of by the $27 ice cream cone I'm licking. Thank goodness...I just wish they'd wash all the poor unwashed people away so we could finally turn this whole city into one big Upper East Side.
Blow me. This crap won't fly in Brooklyn, where real people live.
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This is heresy to anyone who had the good humor truck come through their neighborhood as a kid.
Seriously, fuck you.
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I can't look at refridgerated trucks anymore. They all make me think of Dexter and I'm afraid a head will come flying out.
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jesus christ, i know the comments sections on here hardly present a fair cross-section of the local population, but just the same, i am absolutely fucking astounded at the wholesale idiocy. where are these inflated figures coming from? $8? $27? realize , first, that the joke isn't funny to begin with, and that second, you people are just rewording the same damn idea. i mean, why not just make some stodgy ass quip about bottled spring water while we're at it. right? right? i mean, come on, water in a bottle for more money than i spend on a 12 pack of c-town brand cola for my fat ass in a week? come on! the truck has pictures of an ice cream cones on it! open your damn eyes! flower trucks generally don't feature pictures of ice cream on their exteriors! and when is the last time the neighborhood door-to-door flower vendor came around? what twisted world are people conjuring? cars that run on banana peels? and the ben and jerry's truck stalled in vermont? what do you say, they tried refueling it with pancake syrup? you larrikins! oh thee hilarity! oh ha ha ha the sparkling wit! listen, the fucking cups are essentially made out of sugar. whoever doesn't see the splendor in that has no damn right to hold court on what does or doesn't fly in the arena of ice cream treats. you're gonna ruin everybody's summer.
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Haha... Matt the Hoople FTW!
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That's it, I'm reporting Mott the Hoople as offensive.
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Note to all you bitter hipster critics:
Turn Morrissey's Suedehead off and listen up. Your holier than thou attitudes are ugly. So are your Cheap Monday jeans that you squeeze your peg legs into. We're talking about ice cream here, supposedly good ice cream that only uses good ingredients. Doesn't seem like such an awful thing to me. As for being $27!?? I think it was more like $3.50 when I tried it at the David Byrne installation. And as for you "in Brooklyn, where the real people live" I bet anything, you mean "williamsburg" and that you are from Cincinatti, and you moved here to become an indie rock star. So go book your cute little band at Matchless or I'll see you in the brunch line at Enids, maybe after that we can go for a nice kickball game and beer out of styrafoam cups. OR, option B, move back to Cincinatti, I'm sure you won't encounter any gourmet ice cream trucks there.
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Take another look at the truck picture Hoople... you need thicker glasses that cone looks like flowers in a vase
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"I think it was more like $3.50 when i tried it at the David Byrne installation."
What part of the above line isn't completely, hilariously self-divulgent?
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You outta quit wasting your time blogging all day and become a detective.
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this truck was on 14th street on Saturday. I hadn't seen this story then..but i bought a pint of ginger ice cream to go w/ a peach cobbler i was making and it was delicious! And the guy working the truck was very friendly and even gave me a free sample to try to see if I would like it.
this town if full of people selling over-priced crap to tourists and yuppies. At least this is over-priced, yummy, delicious ice cream. I am for it.