Billy Van Creamy

The Verdict

Billy van Creamy has an origin story to rival Wolverine. It started with brothers Alex and Mitch Wells, making ice-cream by hand in the kitchen of the Thornbury Bowls Club, slinging cups from a self-fitted food truck at Rucker’s Hill in Northcote.

It was a bit of a gamble—sort of the modern-day equivalent of the Mr. Whippy van. But the business took off, and a year later they opened a pop-up shop in Fitzroy north, just near Edinburgh Gardens. That pop-up is still going strong in 2018, and shows no signs of slowing down.

The Van Creamy concept is still the same: “really really good ice-cream, made from scratch, daily.” Usually this takes the form of tried-and-tested classics like hazelnut, lemon, pistachio or salted caramel. But the brothers have become ice-cream mavericks over the years—teaming up with the Flour Market to launch Christmas Pudding ice-cream with Panettone, or joining forces with Butterbing to create (seriously addictive) ice-cream cookie sandwiches.

Our favourite collab? Probably the infamous Dessert Burger—a fried Cobb Lane doughnut stuffed with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, drizzled in choc sauce and dusted with dark chocolate flakes. Your week’s calories right there, but who the hell cares. The boys are also dishing up a new range of vegan ice-cream treats—blended from housemade cashew milk and organic coconut milk.

You’ll usually find Alex or Mitch behind the counter in Fitzroy North, with the other manning the food truck, rocking Welcome to Thornbury, or working the Billy van Creamy stall at St Kilda Fest and Splendour in the Grass.

Check the Billy van Creamy Insta feed for the latest flavour combos. And if you single scoop, you’re doing it wrong. 

Image credit: Billy van Creamy