Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://specialtyfoodmagazine.epubxp.com/i/139333
store snapshots strange way." Expansion plans include the family farm, where they're currently working to clear land to grow more vegetables and possibly begin raising pigs. As for the existing stores, Castellani shares that each location's big hits will get bigger—for Brooklyn, that means an expanded juice bar; for Manhattan's kitchen-averse, more prepared foods. The business also plans to move into more house-branded items, in hopes of offering more affordable options without sacrificing quality. "Price is always something we're working on. You can sell good stuff at a good price," Castellani says. "We'd like to have the whole store be like that. We never wanted to be a boutique shop." –E.M. VAN LEEUWEN ARTISAN ICE CREAM rom its beginnings in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, these industrious entrepreneurs now have a production facility, three retail stores, six food trucks, one Balinese restaurant, 80 employees and thousands of pints of ice cream being sold throughout the Tri-State area. F Summer Fancy Food Show Booth 4462 Summer Fancy Food Show Booth 4632 114 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com The backstory… In 2008, 24-year-old Ben Van Leeuwen and his wife Laura O'Neill and brother Pete Van Leeuwen decided to launch an ice cream business. With no previous experience except Ben's stint driving a Good Humor truck, the gang dived into learning how to make premium ice cream. Within a matter of months, they had manufacturing facilities set up in Brooklyn's northernmost neighborhood, Greenpoint, were sourcing organic bourbon and Tahitian vanilla beans from Papua New Guinea, and had three trucks roving the streets of New York. In 2010, the owners opened a tiny, 180-square-foot store in Greenpoint. "It's more difficult to start in Brooklyn with storefronts because you don't get as much exposure as in Manhattan," says Ben Van Leeuwen. "But that's okay. We opened our first store here because we live here. It feels more neighborhoody here." The company's next store, also in Brooklyn, was launched in February 2011 in the busier neighborhood of Boerum Hill. At 400 square feet, it is more than twice the size of their first one. "It has an awesome location next to two subways, ten feet away, so there is plenty of foot traffic. It's a VAN LEEUWEN beautiful store, really bright, ARTISAN ICE and we sell lots of ice cream," CREAM Van Leeuwen says. 48 ½ E. Seventh St. New York, NY During this time the com718.701.1630 pany was also expanding into vanleeuwenicecream pint sales at specialty groceries, .com including Whole Foods, as well as foodservice clients.