Vía Lactea Is Serving Puerto Rico Artisan Vegan Ice Cream
How chef Lorivie Alicea and her vegan business partner Reinaldo Sanchez craft locally-influenced flavors that lead to lines down the street
The parcha, or passion fruit, has just arrived at Café Regina from Frutos del Guacabo. This farm serves as a hub on the island of Puerto Rico to bring local fruits and vegetables to restaurants, but this box will be turned into sorbet in the Ocean Park neighborhood coffee shop’s teeny-tiny kitchen by Vía Lactea, an ice-cream-maker serving up scoops and pints alongside the cafés espressos and toasts. What sets Vía Lactea apart from any other local ice creams is their focus on creating a vegan product. Their offerings always include more coconut-milk-based flavors than dairy, because that’s what the customer base has demanded
Vía Lactea, or Milky Way, is the brainchild of artist and pastry chef Lorivie Alicea, who co-owns the project with business partner Reinaldo Sanchez. Through a chance meeting with Café Regina’s owner Kali Jean Solack, they have been working out of this kitchen. On weekends, they’re serving scoops to lines that reach to the street in their house-made activated charcoal cones — which are vegan and gluten free, because it’s their goal to make their ice creams as accessible as…
