It may sound odd for an ice cream shop to open in the dead of winter. But of course, the dead of winter in Fort Worth may be sunny and 85 degrees.
Regardless of the time of year, Fort Worth should welcome the arrival of Van Leeuwen, a gourmet ice cream parlor recently opened in the city’s WestBend development. It’s a chain, but the ice cream is different from most — thicker, richer, sweeter — and it comes in unusual flavors, including several vegan options.
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream started in 2008 in New York, where the Brooklyn-based founders – brothers Ben Van and Pete Van Leeuwen and their partner, Laura O’Neill — sold scoops out of a little yellow truck. The company now has more than 30 stores nationwide. The Fort Worth location is the fifth shop in Texas, behind three stores in Houston and one in Dallas’ West Village.
The company calls its ice cream “French-style,” which, in Van Leeuwen’s case, means unapologetically rich, with lots of cream and lots of egg yolks. Some of its more imaginative flavors include Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Marionbutter Cheesecake, Honeycomb, Praline Buttercake, Bourbon Cherries Jubilee, and Hazelnut Fudge Cookie.
Impressively, it offers several rotating vegan flavors, such as Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll, Cookies and Cream Caramel Swirl and Churros & Fudge, made with oat and cashew milk.
The shop also offers milkshakes, floats, ice cream sandwiches, and sundaes, made with your choice of ice cream.
Many of the store’s flavors are also available in pints at local grocery stores, and the company also ships its ice creams worldwide.
1653 River Run, Ste 141, vanleeuwenicecream.com
