Since its inception, Van Leeuwen has gone from a distinctive Brooklyn ice cream shop to a company that’s collaborated on flavors with the likes of Maren Morris and Ed Sheeran. They’ve also taken on an increasingly national profile, both through a mail order business and via opening shops in a growing number of states across the country. And with the ice cream company’s latest expansion — this time to Chicago — it’s paying homage to a regional speciality.
As Time Out‘s Lauren Brocato reports, Van Leeuwen will bring a Malört-flavored ice cream with it when opens its first Chicago location next week. That location will be one of two Van Leeuwen shops opening in Chicago this year; the Wicker Park ice cream shop will open on Sept. 12.
Van Leeuwen’s Malört ice cream is a collaboration with the company behind the liquor in question. “We’re honored to bring our two brands together to give Van Leeuwen a true Chicago welcome in ice cream form,” CH Distillery CEO Tremaine Atkinson told Time Out. “It’s a bold treat, and we can’t wait for Chicagoans to try a scoop.”
Malört in a dessert-ready form isn’t the first permutation the noted spirit has taken this year. A zero-proof version of the famously bracing drink began showing up on bar menus earlier this year.
The Latest Frontier in Non-Alcoholic Spirits Is a Zero-Proof Malört
Chicago’s Void has created No-LörtBoozy ice cream has become a summertime staple in many cities; other ice cream makers have sought to incorporate the flavors of different spirits, beers and wines without an alcoholic kick to it. One of those companies is Van Leeuwen itself, who collaborated with Guinness on a flavor earlier this year. In theory, this means that someone could try a beer and shot combination in ice cream form, which sounds hard to resist.
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