The ice cream parlor, Valdís, opned its doors 1. July 2013. The owners are Gylfi Thor Valdimarsson and Anna Svava Knútsdóttir.
The orginal idea was to open an ice cream parlor where: Customers would be able to see the process of: Ice cream making. A lot of thought was put into where the ice cream parlor should be. Gylfi and Anna drove all around Reykjavík in search of the perfect place for the idea that their bellies had. After many times driving around Reykjavík, they finally found Grandagarð 21 where the business now resides. Due to its history, the premises has a lot of charm. The row of houses Valdís resides in was originally built around 1950 as housing for fishermen. The row is listed as historic buildings so igniting new life in it is a perfect way to keep its charm.
When the parlor finally opened, Gylfi and Anna Svava thought it very optimistic to open with 5 employees but quickly realized they needed more people to keep up with demand. A month later they had 36 employees!
Originally, Valdís started out having very basic flavours but they quickly realised that Icelanders are very adventurous when it comes to ice cream flavours. Valdís starting asking customers what flavours customers would like to see. The most popular flavours are ones that where suggestions from customers, for example Tyrkisk Peber and salted peanut and caramel. The last five years Valdís has tried making over 400 flavours and there are still new flavours coming out. Some of the more adventurous flavours we have tried out are: Beer ice-cream, rye bread ice-cream, lavender ice-cream, bacon ice-cream and curry ice-cream with coconut and chilli. It is worth mentioning that these flavours are not available every day but it is possible to order 5 liters of any flavour.
Usually we have a selection of sorbets that are vegan. Mostly we have fruit sorbets, because that is what the customers want. Every now and then we change things up a bit and try flavours with coconut- or almond milk. Then we will for example make Oreo, coconut or chocolate vegan ice-cream.
July 1 2013 Valdís opens its doors in Grandagarður 21
January of 2015 Valdís accepted the challenge of catering a party with an ice cream cart. Gylfi borrowed one for the event and later ended up buying one - now Valdís has 3 carts!
At the end of 2015 they bought small deep freezers that could be used as loaner freezers for smaller events. It is possible to rent freezers for 45 or 65 people, included is everything needed to have ice cream - apart from an employee.
August 11 2017 Valdís entered a collaboration with Emmessís who now produces Valdís ice cream on a large scale which is then distributed and sold in shops all round the country.
In July of 2018 the aim is to open another branch of Valdís at Laugarvegur 42 - a little walk up Frakkarstígur.
A brief history of Valdís can be found under “ History “. Pictures can be found on the web page, Facebook page and the Instagram account of Valdís, the use of them is allowed with good faith that they will not be used in any way against the company, owners or their employees.
www.facebook.com/Valdisehf
www.instagram.com/isbudinvaldis
For more information, email us atvaldis@valdis.is
