Vegan ice cream shop fills a hunger
An ice cream treat doesn’t generally draw tears, but that is just what happened at the Hug Life ice cream shop in Garden Grove recently.
A mother started to cry as her young daughter began eating the dessert, Hug Life’s owners said.
“She said this was the first time her daughter could ever eat ice cream because she had so many allergies,” said co-owner Don Phan, referring to his shop’s vegan ice cream. “To be able to touch somebody with just ice cream was pretty fulfilling.”
Hug Life, an all-vegan establishment that serves house-made, dairy-free ice cream and meatless tacos, began soft openings last month and expects to be open fully by the end of this month.
Vegetarians do not eat meat, while vegans also do not consume animal byproducts, like milk and eggs.
Phan, who was a vegetarian for a decade before converting to veganism earlier this year, said co-owner Johny Tran’s and his goal was to open a spot where vegans could indulge without fear.
While the business partners were originally thinking vegan burgers and tacos, not ice cream, opportunity struck when the owner of the Confection ice cream shop offered his location to them.
“Our thought was, if we serve ice cream, we can help cut the consumption of milk, which will harm fewer cows,” said the 29-year-old Garden Grove resident, who has “Hug Life” tattooed across his stomach. “We see this as a stepping stone to a much bigger picture.”
Thus, Hug Life — a play on the phrase “Thug Life,” made popular by the late rapper Tupac Shakur — was born.
Phan and Tran decided to step away from their jobs as hairstylist and dental hygienist, respectively, to open the shop.
It serves about a half dozen ice cream flavors, including rocky road, cookie butter, matcha green tea, vanilla bean and taro. A single scoop is $3, a double scoop is $5 and a triple scoop is $6.
Toppings include sweet cereal, nuts and condensed coconut milk.
While some shops in Orange County have select vegan ice cream options, Phan and Tran believe theirs is the only one where all the flavors are vegan.
Meatless beef, chicken and fish tacos are $2 to $2.50 each. So far, the partners haven’t added the burgers and other foods they envisioned.
But don’t tell Phan and Tran that ice cream and tacos are odd menu companions. They offer a vegan ice cream taco, a play on the popular Choco Taco dessert, made with a flat waffle cone and three flavors of ice cream. No taco “meat” is included; the $5 dessert is simply wrapped up to look like a taco.
Instead of cow’s milk, the ice cream base is coconut milk, soy milk and almond milk, while the “meat” is made out of ingredients like soy. The textures and flavors, however, accurately mimic their “real” counterparts.
Tran said he hopes people have an open mind when eating the vegan food.
“Vegan or not, we want people to think our ice cream is good,” said the 28-year-old Fountain Valley resident who was a longtime vegetarian before recently converting to veganism. “We don’t want them thinking vegan food is weird. Of course, there are going to be people like that, but our goal is to have the good taste and quality. We hope people come in with an open mind and we can spark their mind or change their mind once they try our food.”
Liz Stocks, who has been a vegan for about a year, said she appreciated having a vegan ice cream shop in Orange County.
“Whenever I’m in the mood for vegan ice cream, I have to get boring non-dairy ice cream from a grocery store,” said the 28-year-old Buena Park resident. “It’s so great to finally have a spot where I can actually get ice cream in a cone and mix in toppings.”
Tran said one of his goals is for Hug Life to become a staple brand for vegans.
“When people think of vegan food, we want them to think of Hug Life,” he said.
Hug Life is at 14241 Euclid St. in Garden Grove. It is open six days a week, from noon to 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays and from 3 to 11 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Visit hug-life.weebly.com for more information.
Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey
