Artist Profile: Ben Van Leeuwen on the Good Ice Cream

In the summer of his senior year in high school in 2002, Ben Van Leeuwen, while perusing through a magazine, noticed an advertisement seeking an ice cream truck driver for $500 per week. Intrigued, Van Leeuwen applied for the position and spent the next two summers driving through the city in a Good Humor Ice Cream truck. Years later, in 2008, Van Leeuwen, along with his brother Pete Van Leeuwen and close friend Laura O’Neill, started selling ice cream out of a 1988 Chevrolet. It was in that retrofitted yellow truck that Van Leeuwen Ice Cream was born.

Van Leeuwen’s passion for food and hospitality culminated in his second summer of driving the ice cream truck. With the $40,000 he accumulated from the gig, Van Leeuwen spent a year traveling around the world through Europe and Southeast Asia and was amazed by the accessibility of delectable foods. After returning to college and, by chance, seeing a Mr. Softy truck in his senior year, everything clicked in the moment: He would go into the ice cream business.

From the very origins of the brand, Van Leeuwen’s most pertinent focus has been on the product. Raised in a family who valued homemade cooking from scratch, Van Leeuwen has always been interested in quality ingredients. As the trio set off into the ice cream business, without much funding, they developed a formula with only the simplest of ingredients.

“Nothing complicated, nothing fancy, no secrets, and no brilliance,” said Van Leeuwen, in an interview with The Crimson. “Just use the ingredients.”

Starting in 2007 with only $60,000, Van Leeuwen knew that the product was the principal factor for the brand’s survival and success, and everything else came after. With two Chevy trucks, a 1972 paint book, and freelance designers, Van Leeuwen and his partners scrutinized every minute detail. When the business opened its first physical store, it cost only $30,000, and even though the location and designs were still not ideal, “the product was always world class.”

For Van Leeuwen’s ice cream, the base starts with the best vanilla ice cream — in the early days of the business, they spent the most time on this simple flavor. With 18 percent butterfat, 6 percent egg yolks, and some sea salt, Van Leeuwen emphasizes the natural, simple ingredients of every flavor. The wide variety of flavors is crafted with exquisite add-ins, such as pistachios from Sicily, sun-ripened strawberries from Oregon, and Tahitian vanilla beans. Van Leeuwen develops every unique flavor in his Research & Development kitchen, and their focus on the product never wavers.

“That's the only reason we’re here, because of that focus on product,” said Van Leeuwen.

In 2024, the prices of cream and eggs skyrocketed in the United States, raising production costs by up to 9 percent. While many people proposed alternatives, such as reducing the amount of cream and eggs in the product, Van Leeuwen refused to touch the formula and continued delivering the same products, remaining true to the brand’s principle of focusing on the product. To him, staying true to the formula, despite the financial costs, was the best decision for the business.

“The end of the story is: We didn’t touch the formula. We ate the cost, and we had a really tough financial year, but we continued to deliver this same product,” said Van Leeuwen. “But we actually did the best thing for the business.”

For the company, their target audience is simply everyone who enjoys ice cream, and the brand often renovates their products to fit the palate of the guests. They pay close attention to the customers’ feedback, pondering over questions such as the ideal sugar levels or flavor profiles, and adjusting the products accordingly. For example, the current formula has 2 percent more sugar than the original after receiving complaints from customers, reflecting the audience’s tastes. As the brand seeks to expand internationally, the team is analyzing the preferences of various nations and cultures to create formulations that will suit customers’ varying tastes.

Van Leeuwen’s emphasis on quality products extends to vegan options too, with a uniquely high percentage of vegan options on the menu. One of the co-founders, O’Neill, grew up in a half-vegan household, and the brand truly attends to the broad range of customers, offering a variety of options of the same quality. Replacing dairy products with cacao butter, the brand adheres to the same principle of simple ingredients for all of its clients.

“We want anyone who wants to eat vegan ice cream to feel really looked after and considered,” said Van Leeuwen. “To us, that is hospitality.”

Van Leeuwen cites much of his inspiration for the products and business from his experiences inside the scoop shops themselves. As the business expands and opens new locations, Van Leeuwen seeks to learn from every experience, and he learns the most from spending time in the physical locations with the team members and guests. While reviewing data may provide critical information on sales, being in the stores offers invaluable insight into the “core of the business.” Even for the development of new flavors, Van Leeuwen attributes the innovations’ success to being at the store and observing the guests’ responses.

Only a few days ago, Van Leeuwen spent his whole day on a bike, visiting 18 of the stores in New York City from noon to 1 a.m., and he emphasized how much he was able to learn from being in the stores that he could not from his office.

“I can’t successfully be the CEO of Van Leeuwen Ice Cream from an office,” said Van Leeuwen. “It has to be from a store.”

From the second-hand yellow Chevrolet truck in 2008 to the more than 50 stunning pastel parlors today, Van Leeuwen remains steadfast in his sincere dedication to quality products. As the newest Van Leeuwen Ice Cream opens its doors in Harvard Square in the upcoming weeks, it brings not only the sweet, delectable cold treats but also a genuine love of ice cream — and “a lot of the good stuff.”

—Staff writer Leshui (Jade) Xiao can be reached at [email protected].