It has been nearly ten years since Vancouver’s favourite ice cream shop opened a new scoop shop.
Earnest Ice Cream is ending that streak with a fifth location, coming to the Chain & Forge building on Granville Island this fall.
For a brand this deliberate, that is a genuine event.
Earnest shared the news on its own Instagram on July 13, and fans did not stay calm.
The post, built around a banner reading “Great ice cream takes Earnest,” drew hundreds of likes within the hour.
The comments piled up fast, from a simple “Best news” to one follower writing “CRYING SCREAMING THROWING UP,” while another said it was reason enough for “another trip up from Seattle.”
Even neighbouring Granville Island businesses dropped in to welcome them.
Earnest started as two friends, Erica Bernardi and Ben Ernst, selling scoops off an ice cream tricycle at Vancouver farmers markets back in 2012.
A Fraser Street shop followed in 2013, and the brand grew into a Vancouver staple over four scoop shops and a retail lineup across Metro Vancouver.
The brand is now a local favourite, with lines out the door during the hotter seasons.
What it has not done in years is open somewhere new, which is what makes this one land.
The team is not framing it as a land grab either.
“We try to make each shop unique,” says co-founder Erica Bernardi, “this could be our last location, so we knew we wanted it to feel really special.”
The founders have been open about keeping growth slow on purpose, wary of stretching the team and culture too thin.
Their stated mission has not shifted since the tricycle days, to make seriously good ice cream and take care of their people and the community.
Co-founder Ben Ernst put the appeal of the island plainly.
“When you have a cone in your hand, you slow down,” he says. “You wander. You notice things.”
Granville Island fits that idea about as well as any corner of the city.
The new shop will sit inside the Chain & Forge building, with a design by Studio Roslyn that pulls from the island’s maritime history and weaves in work from local artists.
The new Chain & Forge building is part of Granville Island’s revitalization efforts and will house a total of seven new additional unique businesses – Earnest now being one of them.
The jar-return program comes along too, the one where you bring back pint jars to be washed and reused.
That program is not a small gesture, keeping more than 250,000 glass jars out of the landfill every year.
Earnest teased that new flavours will be made only for the Granville Island shop.
The opening is set for this fall, with no firm date attached yet.
Earnest Ice Cream on Granville Island joins a run of upcoming Vancouver openings like % Arabica at Oakridge Park, Straight Outta Brooklyn on Kingsway, and Chef Hyve Commercial Drive.
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Address: 1431 Anderson St. Chain & Forge building, Granville Island, Vancouver, BC