Take A Sneak Peek At Van Leeuwen Ice Cream's New Darien Scoop Shop

DARIEN, CT — Ahead of their official opening on April 27, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream held a sneak peek on Tuesday night at their new scoop shop in Darien, located at 114 Heights Road.

Founded in 2008, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream started out of a yellow scoop truck on the streets of New York City by Ben Van Leeuwen, his brother Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O'Neill.

Their French-style ice cream, which is made with more than double the amount of egg yolks as standard ice cream, quickly gained a loyal following.

There are now over 30 scoop shops across the country, and ice cream is available for purchase at grocery stores and through nationwide shipping.

The Darien shop marks the brand's second Connecticut location. A shop opened in Greenwich last fall.

"We're super excited," Ben Van Leeuwen told Patch Tuesday night. The company had been eyeing Darien for a few years. "We've always wanted to come to Darien. We're really happy to be here."

The expansive menu features more than 30 signature flavors and about 10 toppings, all made with simple but real ingredients.

Flavors include Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb; Black Cherry Chip; Brown Sugar Cookie Dough Brownie; Mint Chip; Pistachio; Marionberry Cheesecake; Praline Butter Cake; Earl Grey Tea, and classics like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.

Customers can also get sundaes, house-made waffle cones, ice cream sandwiches, root beer floats and milkshakes.

Spring special flavors are:

• Very Berry Sorbet: Vegan sorbet with strawberries, raspberries, redcurrant.
• Malted Milkshake & Fries: Malted base, house-made, slightly crunchy potato cookies.
• All The Cookies: sweet cream base with several varieties of cookies.
• Vegan Planet Earth: Vegan custard blended with spirulina and almond extract, with chunks of house-made matcha green tea cake.

Dairy ice cream has just milk, cream, eggs and cane sugar.

"Our ice cream is 18 percent butter fat, 8 percent egg yolks, and we use ingredients like pistachios from Sicily; chocolate from small farms in Ecuador; vanilla that's ground from the whole bean grown in Papua New Guinea; strawberries ripened in the sun in the volcanic soils of Oregon," Ben said. "Lots of cream, lots of eggs, good ingredients, no unnecessary stuff."

There is also an array of vegan flavors as well, which are made with a blend of cashews, oats, coconut and cocoa butter.

A limited edition doughnut ice cream sandwich will be offered exclusively at the new Darien scoop shop through a collaboration with local bakery Flour Water Salt Bread.

The sandwich is a "bombolini" — an Italian classic made with soft, buttery fried brioche dough. Guests can choose any scoop to complete their sandwich.

"If you go to Italy, ice cream shops have brioches," Ben noted. "This was the easiest, coolest, most natural collaboration."

Opening day hours on April 27 will be 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. In celebration of the opening, the shop will offer $1 scoops on opening day from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The shop will be open daily. Guests can enjoy their sweet treats at the shop, or order pints for takeout or delivery.

Ben said there are plans to open more scoop shops in Connecticut, but nothing is finalized yet.