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Salt & Straw
Salt & Straw was founded by cousins Kim and Tyler Malek in Portland, Oregon in 2011, built around an unusually experimental approach to flavor development, frequently incorporating savory, local, and seasonal ingredients like pear and blue cheese or arbequina olive oil directly into its ice cream. The company's collaborations with local farmers, breweries, and other regional food producers for limited-run flavors became a defining part of its identity, reflecting the broader Pacific Northwest farm-to-table food culture from which the brand emerged. Salt & Straw's expansion beyond Portland into other major American cities, including Los Angeles and New York, while maintaining its city-specific flavor collaborations at each new location, let the brand scale nationally while still preserving a strong sense of local specificity at each individual shop. Salt & Straw's combination of its experimental, often savory flavor philosophy and its city-specific local collaborations has made it one of the most distinctive artisanal ice cream brands in the country.
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Van Leeuwen
Van Leeuwen began in 2008 as a single yellow ice cream truck in New York City, founded by siblings Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen alongside Ben's wife Laura O'Neill, built around a French-style custard base and a commitment to high-quality, simple ingredient lists at a time when many ice cream brands leaned heavily on artificial additives. The company's expansion from its original truck into physical scoop shops across New York City and eventually into national grocery distribution reflected the broader premiumization of the ice cream category during the 2010s, as consumers increasingly sought out ingredient-transparent, chef-driven brands. Van Leeuwen's collaborations with other food and entertainment brands for limited-edition flavors, including notable partnerships tied to major television and film releases, helped maintain ongoing media attention and cultural relevance well beyond its original food-truck origins. Van Leeuwen's combination of its French-style custard base and its growth from a single New York ice cream truck into a nationally distributed brand has made it one of the most notable modern premium ice cream brands in the country.
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