Warmer days are on the way. So is Little Spoon Ice Cream. The Sunshine Coast–born project is preparing to open a small shop this spring, bringing its inventive approach to ice cream into a permanent Vancouver home at 2967 West Broadway.

Little Spoon began years ago as a seasonal trailer in Davis Bay, building its audience scoop by scoop before expanding into select retail stores across BC. The concept was originally developed in partnership between Mira Hunter and Ashley Watson, who previously founded Brown Paper Wrapper Ice Cream in Vancouver. While Watson now works more in the background, the line continues to evolve, with business development lead Fadi Eid (previously JamJar) joining the team. This Broadway location marks Little Spoon’s shift from mobile and seasonal to a year-round brick-and-mortar.

The shop is small, but the footprint suits how Little Spoon likes to work: close to the product, close to the process, close to the people at the counter. When I stopped by last week to meet Hunter and Eid, the room was already stripped back to drywall. Like many small storefronts in Vancouver, the space has had a few lives. Most recently, it housed a Mexican restaurant. Before that, another ice cream shop. At this stage, the only evidence of either is in the layered remnants of old paint colours on the walls.

The shop measures roughly 514 square feet, with seating mainly along the front window facing Broadway, plus a few additional spots planned for colder months. Design is being led by Adrienne Kavanagh in close collaboration with Hunter. Despite the full transformation ahead, the work will be mostly cosmetic, which is nice, because with no major structural changes needed, the turnaround is expected to be relatively quick.

From what I have seen, the space will be bright and direct. There will be some fun tile work and confident colour, but no decorative clutter. No theatrical minimalism either. The aesthetic aims more toward that middle ground where things feel considered without feeling staged. That aligns with what I understand of the business thinking behind the project.

Though it is always risky to draw conclusions from an initial encounter, first impressions still matter. This was my first time meeting Mira Hunter, and she comes across as both playful and precise. She works with botanicals, foraged elements, and natural colour. Though the combinations are often improvisational (sometimes even eccentric), she treats ingredients as part of the architecture of the flavour rather than a gimmick  , and she reads as someone who will keep adjusting a flavour until it sits exactly where she wants it.

That attention shows up quickly in conversation.

When I ask what she wants people to experience at Little Spoon, her answer summed up the energy I felt in the space:

“I want people to feel happiness. I struggle to see ice cream solving the world’s problems, but I think it holds the power to make every problem a little better. I want to comfort, nurture, spoil and surprise. I want to use flavour and aroma and texture to capture a physical place in the work, or a moment in time. I am always looking for inspiration from my environment, politics, art, the greater world. I love utilizing botanicals. I have used foraged salt, toasted Sunshine Coast cedar shavings, Hawkin’s cheezies, pure mycelium, foraged chanterelles, spring spruce tips, powdered hibiscus petal, hazelnut chili crisp, hand pulled sesame saffron pashmak, house crafted Dubai chocolate, bright blue spirulina. I often think in terms of a painter. I love colour, and I love using my ingenuity to bring natural colour to the ice creams. I want our space to hold all that colour and curiosity. I want it to be a place everyone is welcome. We have always donated revenue to causes we think need championing. In the past it has included community services and fighting deforestation.”

You can taste that thinking in the ice cream.

During my recent visit, I tried an espresso mycelium flavour. It was genuinely impressive. The coffee read clearly, while the umami depth of the mycelium came through without taking over. Balanced, deliberate, unshowy. The Hawkins Cheezies ice cream was another surprise. Slightly absurd on paper. Actually good in practice. Not a novelty for the sake of it. It worked.

Alongside ice cream, Little Spoon will offer rotating sorbets. A hibiscus ginger I tried was sharp, fresh, almost explosive in its clarity: two flavours, fully present. No muddle. Build-your-own ice cream sandwiches will be a draw, and there will be a strong selection of vegan options that easily appeal to omnivores (the peanut butter fudge and Thai tea I sampled both delivered).

Vancouver has no shortage of good ice cream, but I’d bet Little Spoon won’t be fighting for attention. Their menu reads less like a checklist of obvious flavours and more like a point of view: curious enough to experiment, disciplined enough to edit, confident enough to stand behind the results. And a small mid-block storefront, average would not last long. Little Spoon feels like it has the potential to be the kind of place you will recognize by the line outside. Not because it is chasing attention, but because it has earned it.

As whimsical and easy-going as Hunter appears, she pairs that ease with focus and ambition. Broadway is the first stop outside of the Sunshine Coast. In Hunter’s words, “This is just the beginning.”

Little Spoon expects to open doors this spring. Keep an eye on their Instagram profile (here) for updates along the way.

Little Spoon Ice Cream

Neighbourhood: West Side

Little Spoon Ice Cream | 2967 West Broadway

604-565-0595

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